Julia McCarty, left, and Zackery Presnall, right, stand on Northwood Country Club’s tennis courts Monday afternoon. McCarty and Presnall have committed to play tennis at Meridian Community College. 

Julia McCarty and Zackery Presnall will attend Meridian Community College as full-time students next year, but it won’t be the first time the two step foot on campus as students.

McCarty and Presnall, who are homeschooled, are also dual-enrollment students at the college. Next fall, the two will assume roles as college athletes, as both recently committed to play for Meridian Community College’s tennis program.

“Last semester I did take a dual-enrollment class at MCC, so that was my first time in class and I really enjoyed it,” McCarty said. “I really liked having a teacher talk to me because (before) it’s been online classes and stuff like that.”

Presnall will carry 38 credit hours into his first year as a college athlete. He began taking classes at MCC as a sophomore and skipped a year of high school. 

“I’m really excited since it’ll be the first time I’ve played on a team with a group of people, so I think that’ll be fun,” Presnall said. “The practices will be intense, and I’ll have to balance practice with my school work and stuff like that, so that will probably be the biggest thing.”

While McCarty and Presnall will have to adjust to the learning curve of being college athletes, both said the tutelage of Northwood tennis pro Kevin Gillette has prepared them. McCarty began training with Gillette at 14, while Presnall started training with him as a 12-year-old. The two have logged countless hours on Northwood’s tennis courts with their coach over the years.

“I think it’s been good practicing with Kevin,” Presnall said. “His practices are pretty intense, and he pressures you a lot, so that will prepare me well for the practices at MCC. And taking up the dual-enrollment classes at MCC have prepared me well for what I’ll have to do up there for those classes.”

McCarty said Gillette’s practices have given her an idea of what to expect from NJCAA hall of fame coach Wanda McPhail.

“Kevin is very intense, and he’s pushed me farther than I knew I could go,”McCarty said. “So I feel like Coach McPhail is probably going to do the same thing, too, so having some years of that have already prepared me. I’m excited to fight for my spot in the lineup and stuff like that.”

The fact that both were already familiar with MCC as dual-enrollment students went a ways in helping them make their decisions as to where they would play collegiate tennis,  but Presnall said MCC’s tennis program’s standing nationally didn’t hurt, either.

“It’s the top junior college tennis team in Mississippi,” he said. “It’s 15 minutes from our house, and the coach is great — I’ve known Ms. Wanda for four or five years.”

McCarty’s path to MCC wasn’t as solid initially, as she wanted to explore options outside of Meridian, but the relationship she cultivated with McPhail was enough to persuade her to stay around.

“Coach would see me out on the court since I was a sophomore in high school, and she would always introduce herself and say, ‘I’m Coach McPhail, you should come to MCC,'” she said. “But then it started to become my junior year, and I really started thinking about where I wanted to go with tennis. The reason I’m staying in Meridian is because I want to play for Coach McPhail. I feel like I can get better, and then go on and play DII somewhere. We’ll see.”