Radford's Amber Thompson Signs with Mt. Olive

Cody Dalton

Mar 29, 2010

RADFORD – While Amber Thompson started running track as a seventh grader and wasn’t sure if she would stick with it, the decision to do so paid off on Friday when she signed an official track scholarship with Mt. Olive College in North Carolina.

Both of Amber’s coaches—indoor/outdoor track coach Ken Keister and cross country coach Mike Carrow—were at the signing and were extremely proud of her accomplishment.

“Amber is an extremely dedicated runner,” said Keister. “I have had the pleasure of coaching her since eighth grade. She never complains. She is always there. She is always on time and ready to work. She wants to do better. It shows that colleges are seeing this and now she gets an opportunity to run in college.”

“I have had Amber for three years on the cross country team,” said Carrow. “Last year, she had a good season where she made All-Region. She barely missed out on making All-State. This year, our goal was to make All-State team and winning the district. She became the first girl from Radford High School to win the district. She finished third in the region and made All-State team. So it was a really good year and a good career for her.”

During her junior year in track and field, Thompson finished first in the 1600-meter relay and 1600-meter run. She also finished second in the Region C meet with her 1600-meter relay team.

Amber explained the many reasons for choosing Mt. Olive, which included many different aspects of the college:

“The coach showed a lot of interest in me,” Amber said. “It is close to the beach, so that was a plus. I met some of the runners from down there. They were really nice. I just liked the people down there.”

While at Mt. Olive, Amber plans to major in exercise science and ultimately wants to work in physical therapy.

Amber’s parents, Jim and Tabitha, displayed their pride for their daughter after the press conference was over.

“We are very proud of her,” Tabitha said. She has accomplished a lot. She has enjoyed being with her teammates. She looks like she will have a good coach in college too and hopefully will work with her to improve her times.”

“She is a very hard worker,” Jim said. “We think she will work hard in college because she has worked extremely hard in high school too.”