Scholar Athlete of the Week: Brookwood’s Maddie Duncan

The Brookwood girls basketball team is 13 and 3 on the year as the look to close out the final few weeks of the regular season. Leading the way? Senior Maddie Duncan, who’s put in the time on and off the court to make sure her final season finishes the way she hopes.

They say experience is the best teacher, and Duncan, has a world of it.

”Mentally, being on the varsity team since eighth grade has helped me a lot,” she said. “I’ve had tons of growth.”

Four years and part of a state championship team later, Duncan is using that growth to her advantage.

”She’s a good example by the way she works, she’s not real vocal, she just leads by example by working hard in practice,” said head coach Jerry Ridley.

”I’m not perfect by all means, but I try to look out for everybody, be equal to everyone.”

She is pretty perfect when it comes to stats, averaging ten points and six rebounds a game, and also when it comes to the books. Duncan has a 3.65 GPA at Brookwood, and a perfect 4.0 in her dual enrollment classes.

”I’m honestly pretty impressed with myself,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t have seen myself doing it in ninth grade for sure, because I struggled coming into high school. It was a hard first year being a freshman.”

”It’s really tough as a coach coaching everyone that’s smarter than you are, but she’s a great person, great student and the folks around here are going to miss her,” added Ridley.

But before she hangs it up, Duncan’s got work to do.

”I try every game, because I know when senior night comes it’s going to be very hard for sure.”

”I know it’s crazy to say, but she can be a lot better,” said Ridley. “I think she’s willing to work towards being a lot better and I think her best basketball is ahead of her.”

And that’s something the Warriors wouldn’t mind at all.

Duncan said she was on the fence about playing at the next level. She is going to Georgia College and State and playing just for fun, she said she’ll study accounting.

https://www.wctv.tv/2024/01/25/scholar-athlete-week-brookwoods-maddie-duncan/