VALDOSTA — Augusta Guthrie, Georgia Christian’s All-State guard, has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala.

“I’m pretty excited,” Guthrie said. “I’ve been looking forward to it since the day I picked up a basketball.”

Guthrie recently completed an impressive athletic career at Georgia Christian. She was a two-time All-State basketball player and a three-time All-Region player. She was a four-year starter for the girls basketball team, and scored her 1,000th career point her junior year. She was also a two-time All-State soccer player and an All-State softball player, and was All-Region in all three sports.

Last year, she averaged around 19 points a game for the Lady Generals’ basketball team, and was the team’s leading scorer. Her coach estimated she averaged about 17 points per game in her career. She was a post player, a shooting guard and a point guard at different times in her high school career.

“She’s been around the game, and she understands it,” Georgia Christian head coach Kent Copeland said. “This year, as a senior, she drew box-and-one (defenses) multiple times. That told us (opposing teams) knew they had to stop her.

“This year’s offense ran through Augusta. We had to have Augusta on the floor. When she was in the game, we always felt like we could win. ... She was an invaluable asset to our team (and) an overall team leader.”

Guthrie also excelled in the classroom. She was Georgia Christian’s salutatorian this year. She was chosen Miss GCS, and received the Senior Bible Award at graduation.

“All of her (on-court and off-court accomplishments) are very attractive to us,” Faulkner head coach Reed Sutton said. “She’s an exciting addition, because she’s just a great fit in every facet. (Augusta is) an ideal student-athlete at a Christian college.

“We feel like we’re getting a very well-rounded young lady.”

A few weeks ago, Guthrie thought she would be going to Valdosta State in the fall. She had already enrolled in classes at VSU. She was not planning to play basketball in college. But then things changed.

“(GCS assistant coach) John Sykes had been talking to the coach (at Faulkner),” Guthrie said. “They had a camp down there a couple of weeks ago, and they had an opening on their JV team. I was planning on going just to visit and look around at the campus. And Mr. John Sykes said, ‘You’re going to participate in this camp, and it’s going to kind of be a tryout.’ I went through the camp, and on Sunday afternoon, (Coach Sutton) talked to me at lunch, and said that he wanted me to play for him.”

Now she’ll head to Faulkner in the fall, and play for the Lady Eagles.

Guthrie is a fourth-generation Georgia Christian graduate. Many members of her extended family have attended the school.

Guthrie grew up following Georgia Christian basketball. Her father was the Lady Generals’ basketball coach for several years, and she was the team’s manager for a few of those years. When she was in middle school, her dad often used her when he needed another player in practice. She spent many afternoons and evenings at Elrod Gymnasium. Georgia Christian star Kelly McMullen was one of her role models growing up.

“(Basketball) has been a huge part of my life,” she said. “Dad coached a while back with the varsity program, and I was the manager. I was always in the gym with them at practices.”

“Kelly was kind of a role model to Augusta,” said Philip Guthrie, Augusta’s father and McMullen’s coach. “(Kelly) was a great role model in that she showed you how to practice. I think Augusta learned a lot from that. (She learned) how you have to practice to be good.”

When she reached high school, Guthrie chose to wear McMullen’s No. 21, and like McMullen, she was an All-State player.

Faulkner’s girls basketball team is only entering its third season, but Sutton has quickly built the Lady Eagles into a winning team. Last year, they went 20-10.

Guthrie will begin her collegiate career on Faulkner’s junior varsity, but will have the opportunity to work her way onto the varsity team.

“What sticks out to me about Augusta is her work ethic,” Copeland said. “She has a very good work ethic. ... I think her knowledge of the game and her work ethic is going to help her at the next level.”

Copeland also said Guthrie is a fundamentally-sound player.

Faulkner is a private Christian university with 2,212 undergraduate students and 3,574 students overall. Like Georgia Christian School, it is affiliated with the Church of Christ. Many Georgia Christian graduates have gone to Faulkner.

“It’s a lot like Georgia Christian. It’s so much like the environment I’ve been in, and I wasn’t ready to go to a big public college,” Guthrie said. “It’s so much more of an environment that I want to be in. Being in a Christian environment is important to me.”