Southern Miss Basketball Team Inks Illinois Product

Rachael Manuel

– Southern Miss Head Women’s Basketball Coach Joye Lee-McNelis has announced the signing of Illinois standout, Rachael Manuel from Grayslake High School in Grays Lake, Ill., to a national letter of intent and grant-in-aid for the 2005-06 academic year.  This is the first signee of the day.

Manuel, a 6-4 center, averaged 7.4 points and 4.3 rebounds as a junior for Coach Mike Hirsch.  She has been rated as one of the top 100 post players in the country by The Adidas All-Star Girls Report.  She was a member of the Illinois Pacesetters AAU organization this past summer for Coach John Waring and averaged 12 points and seven rebounds.  She led her high school team to its first-ever state championship game.  She was named to the Elite Eight team in the state tournament.  She has a 4.0 GPA.

“Rachael knew nothing about Southern Miss, but Coach (Kirk) Crawford convinced her to come down and visit,” said McNelis.  “She had no intentions of becoming a Lady Eagle until she visited.

“Rachael is a 6-4 player who runs the floor well.  She can catch and has a great touch around the basket.  She is a player where her future years will be her best years.  We expect Rachael to mature offensively.  I believe that if you get a post player who can catch and has a good touch, you can teach them a lot of things.”

“Rachael is a good athlete,” Hirsch said.  “She’s just kind of coming into her own now.  She is one of those players whose better years are ahead of her.”

Manuel chose Southern Miss over Northern Illinois, Southwest Missouri State, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Illinois and Southern Illinois.

“Rachael made dramatic improvements this summer,” Waring said.  “It was her first year of national competition.  She really came on at the end of the season.  She will get better and better as time goes on. She hasn’t even really scratched the surface.”