The Beach's Best

Photos by Lori Douglas / Story by Steve Hanf

ATHLETIC DIRECTORS LEAD NOTORIOUSLY BUSY LIVES running sports programs at high schools across the country. Yet every director looks forward to being especially busy on the first Wednesday of November for national signing day.

That’s when high school athletes across the country sign their National Letter of Intent to compete for college teams. Most years at most schools, those days come and go with little fanfare – only about two percent of high school athletes earn college scholarships, after all. But at the November 2020 signing day, First Flight High School (FFHS) Athletic Director Chad Williams watched with pride as not one, not two, but three Nighthawks signed National Collegiate Athletic Association BEST THE BEACH’S Division I scholarship offers.

“For a school our size to have three Division I athletes in one year is a very cool These student athletes look to accomplishment, and the fact that they come from three different sports speaks to the success of all the athletic programs we have at First Flight,” Chad says, counting only a handful of other change the game after signing on Division I signees in the ranks since FFHS opened in 2004. “It’s inspiring for the athletes in our to Division I college programs. other sports, and their teammates, too.”

Lauren Montgomery heads farthest from home to join the Ole Miss soccer team. Tyler Sylvia paints things purple as he joins the East Carolina University (ECU) track and crosscountry squads. And Katherine Schuster looks to continue her celebrated amateur career with the Clemson University golf team.

The recent socially distanced signing events with masked teammates, coaches and family members – at FFHS for Lauren and Tyler and on a golf course for Katherine – were each a celebration of years of endless workouts, practices and travel to special events.

From left to right: Lauren Montgomery, Tyler Sylvia and Katherine Schuster will be representing FFHS’s Nighthawks in their respectivesports after signing on to Division I college programs starting thisfall.

And in an irony not lost on the trio, all the hard work “then” is paying major dividends now.

“All my friends are like, ‘You’re so lucky, you decided sophomore year where you’re going, and you don’t have to worry about it,’” Lauren says. “It does take that pressure off your shoulders a little bit.”

“Freshman year, my fellow students were focused on their hobbies while I was focusing on a college, and now the roles have switched,” Katherine adds. “Now they’re filling out applications, and I’m just enjoying the ride. But I can’t wait to see where everybody else goes, and where our paths kind of split.”

Tyler Sylvia

NO STRANGER TO THE AWARDS PODIUM, Tyler Sylvia made his mark as part of the decorated FFHS cross-country and track and field teams. Now, he follows in the footsteps of recent college-bound runners such as Zach Hughes, Joseph Davidson and Alex Rodman.

Tyler starred on cross-country teams that finished second in the state his first three years. In December, the Nighthawks placed fourth, but Tyler recorded an all-state time of 16 minutes, 17 seconds in the 3.1-mile race, for fifth place overall.

As a sophomore, Tyler earned a pair of state championships during the indoor and outdoor track seasons as part of 4x800-meter relay teams with Zach, Joseph, Warner Campbell and Aidan May.

“That was probably the biggest highlight,” Tyler says. “It was like all the hard work paid off, because we got second at cross-country as a team three years in a row. So winning the relay was definitely very rewarding.”

The hard work continues, of course – runners don’t get many days off, after all. When he’s not in season, Tyler runs 50 miles a week over the course of six days, allowing himself one recovery day. During college, he estimates that figure will be anywhere from 50 to 90 miles a week.

Tyler considered the programs at University of N.C. Wilmington and N.C. State, but grabbed a spot on the ECU team after developing a strong bond with Pirates coach Josey Weaver. Tyler plans to study exercise physiology or nutrition, hoping to plot a career path that lets him work with athletes.

After all, he’s been an athlete himself for a long time now.

“I definitely thank my parents for getting me into running when I was really young. I think I ran my first 5K when I was 11 with Go Far,” Tyler says. “I stopped playing soccer and basketball to focus on it, and I’m very glad that I did.”

Lauren Montgomery

THE BIGGEST QUESTION LAUREN MONTGOMERY HAS GOTTEN over the past three years is, “Ole Miss?”

“A lot of people were surprised because Mississippi is like 14 hours away, and they think that’s kind of random,” she says with a laugh. “But I knew I wanted to be kind of far away from the Outer Banks, and I just tell them about the campus, the coaching staff and how Oxford’s really pretty.”

Her path to the University of Mississippi – more commonly known as Ole Miss – can be traced to her club soccer days. Lauren has been a rising star in youth soccer for years, including time in the N.C. Olympic Development Program. One of her friends from the program, Shea O’Malley, committed to the Rebels as a freshman and encouraged Lauren to check it out.

“January of my sophomore year I went to an ID camp there with her,” Lauren says of the showcase events for potential recruits. “After doing that, they showed some interest in me, so I started talking back and forth with the coaches, and that’s how I got my connections.”

Lauren was part of the Nighthawks’ state championship team her freshman year and saw last spring’s major contender lose its title shot thanks toCovid-19. She now plays soccer for a club team in Virginia, traveling there three days a week for practices. And at her house, she’s also ever-present in the yard practicing kicking against the wall her dad built for her.

Beyond the field, Lauren’s interested in pursuing both journalism classes and forensic psychology, hoping to have a career that lets her focus on writing. And, of course, she’s looking forward to four more years of the sport she started playing as a four-year-old at Parks and Rec.

“I knew that I wanted to keep playing in front of big crowds of people cheering,” she says. “It’s just so much fun. The environment’s something you really want to be in.”

Katherine Schuster

KATHERINE SCHUSTER HAS BEEN A HOUSEHOLD NAME on the Outer Banks for years. She won the Drive, Chip & Putt national title at the famed Augusta National Golf Club her freshman year. She’s captured three straight N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A/2A state championships. Top tournament victories include the 2019 Women’s Dixie Amateur against an all-ages field and the 2019 Arizona Silver Belle against top prep and collegiate players.

Just about every college golf program wanted her rising talent, but after narrowing the field to Clemson and Duke, Katherine verbally committed to the Tigers during her sophomore year and made it official this past November.

“Clemson was the first team to reach out to me,” she recalls. “Everyone who I ever talked to about college said, ‘You’ll get a feeling, you’ll know when it’s right.’ And I was like, ‘You’re crazy, there’s no such thing’ – but when I stepped foot on the campus it just felt like home.”

Katherine likes the coaches, the facilities and the alumni she’s met during other tournaments. She also likes the academic side of things, and despite wryly admitting to flip-flopping on majors “every week” so far, she’s been accepted into the business school and is likely to start there.

No matter what, her competitive fire will be on full display during the next four years at Clemson – especially since golf is one of those unique team sports that’s made up of individuals. The Tigers have about 10 women on the team, five of whom travel and four whose scores count in tournaments.

“Five girls are going to stay home, so it’s going to be a good competition to try to get on the travel team,” Katherine says. “It’ll be cool because we’re all going to be butting heads [for a travel spot], but we’re also going to be a family.”

The ultimate goal for Katherine remains earning a spot on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour following her college career. And after trying a variety of sports as a small child, she’s glad her dad put a golf club in her hands when she was 10.

“I would go to Duck Woods Country Club with my dad, and I was determined to get that golf ball off the ground,” she says. “So I just kept hitting and hitting and hitting… and, well, here we are.”