TANNER KEITH CAPS A GREAT HIGH SCHOOL CAREER

The Charlotte Latin Hawks may have come up short in the state soccer finals, but Tanner Keith can walk away from the game and her career with a winning attitude.  Tanner, 18, recently graduated from Charlotte Latin, capping a successful athletic and academic career.  The daughter of Greg and India Keith will head to Wake Forest University in August and leave behind competitive soccer.

Looking back on her high school days, Tanner was a key member of the Latin Soccer and Volleyball teams.  In soccer, Tanner played on the varsity team all four years for Coach Lee Horton.  Each year the Hawks improved and came within one win of a state championship this spring.  Tanner scored both goals in the semifinal win over Durham Academy. 

Earlier in the season, the Hawks were a team in trouble.  With seven freshmen on the team, the Hawks were struggling to develop team chemistry.  The senior’s didn’t want to accept the young and talented freshman and the freshman didn’t seem to want to work with the seniors.   A team road trip to the beach allowed the young ladies to all spend time together away from school and soccer.  Seniors became friends with freshmen and freshmen began to enjoy being around the seniors.  From that point forward the season turned around and the Hawks went on a tear.  Teamwork became the team motto and the wins began to pile up.  According to Coach Horton, Tanner played a key role in the team building process.

“Tanner is a very special young lady.  She was a big part of our success the last four years.  She will continue to be very successful as she moves on to Wake Forest.”

Tanner credits Coach Horton for being a super coach and leading the team to so many victories.

“Coach Horton is an awesome coach.  He cares about every player on the team and how they are doing in class, out of class and on the soccer field.  It has been a pleasure to play for him the last four years.

Tanner’s athletic success also included volleyball for Latin Coach Suzie Pignetti.  Tanner was a member of three consecutive state championship volleyball teams.  Playing the position of Libero, Tanner and her teammates cruised to another state title this season.

Barring a broken back in the ninth grade, Tanner would have also spent four years on the Latin basketball team.  She suffered a hairline fracture of the L7 vertebrae during volleyball season. The injury forced her to miss basketball season and led her to focus on volleyball and soccer at Latin.

This is a young lady that loves sports and loves to compete.  It should come as no surprise.  Tanner inherited her love of sports from her father, Greg.  He was a high school All-American basketball player at McCallie in Chattanooga, TN.  Greg went on to play basketball at Wake Forest before an ACL knee injury ended his career.  He was recently honored as McCallie's Distinguished Alumnus for 2006.  Tanner attended the awards dinner and walked away with an appreciation for what her father accomplished and for how she should live her life.

“At the dinner, they showed film of my Dad in high school and I got to see how much he loved basketball and how good he was.  Then the injury ended all of that.  It taught me to always do my best, because it can end at any time.  I believe this helped me get through the soccer season and will help me as I go on to Wake Forest.”

Tanner has the talent to play both volleyball and soccer in college, but has elected to focus on academics and a possible pre-med degree.  With the athletic and academic lessons learned during her high school career, we have no doubt that Tanner will have a successful college experience at Wake Forest.  She may not play for the Demon Deacons Varsity squads, but rest assured, she will be quite a force in the intramural games at Wake!   Good Luck Tanner!