East Laurens’ Holt, Lowther sign to pursue ‘golden’ opportunities at next level

Two longtime East Laurens teammates, and recent graduates this past spring, signed last week to continue playing different sports at the next level. And both will be able to carry over a good bit of their existing athletic wardrobe to the new schools who share gold with their high school as a signature color. 

Each will trade the black for a differing shade of blue, the Falcons’ Abigail Holt the navy of the Golden Eagles representing Georgia Southern’s new East Georgia campus, and for her softball teammate Deanna Lowther, the royal of the Albany State Golden Rams. 

There was plenty of all the above to be seen at signing ceremonies last Wednesday and Thursday afternoons as the pair of players celebrated with family, teammates coaches and friends while looking ahead to their chance to put on the new colors, and also back at some high school playing careers over which both wore the old set with a great deal of pride. 

Holt, an infielder, is headed to Swainsboro to continue playing softball, while Lowther goes to Albany with sure plans of playing basketball, and a potential opportunity to pick up softball as a second sport in the spring that, for now, remains TBD. 

A comeback story… 

A freak injury suffered early last fall claimed the senior season of Abigail Holt before it could even get going. 

She’d fracture her ankle on a slide into second base during a matchup with Dublin at Southern Pines, only a handful of games into the schedule, in an unfortunate break that had her looking at the distinct possibility of never getting to play softball again. 

Thankfully, that wasn’t the end of the story, as a chance to continue arose just a ways down U.S. 80 at the former East Georgia State. 

“I’ve been coaching Abigail since she was 7-8 years old, and she’s never been injured before,” said East Laurens softball and girls basketball head coach Danielle Lowther. “Her injury happening her senior year was kind of ironic, and kind of devastating, to me, too. Her being able to push through and still say, ‘Hey I’m still going to go play softball somewhere.’ We were praying, hoping that she would get that opportunity again. And she did. That’s a good thing, it’s joyful.”

EGSC, following a recent merger, has transitioned from independent junior college to a satellite campus of Georgia Southern. For its athletic teams, which will be moving up to compete as a member of the NAIA, the shift has brought on a new mascot, the Golden Eagles, and a new set of colors that combine their familiar gold with the flagship navy and white worn by sister teams in Statesboro. 

The door for Holt to join them swung open thanks to some relationships formed on the travel ball circuit with some of the program’s other incoming recruits who helped get her in touch with head coach Matt Gillespie. 

“He was like, as soon as you are ready to play, you can come and I can see you play,” Holt said. “I went, he talked to me, we kept talking I reached out. It just played out well.” 

Holt carried a .259 career batting average with 61 runs driven in, and a fielding percentage of 85, over her four years with East Laurens coinciding with what has been easily the school’s best run of success since launching into fastpitch softball, including nearly 90 wins, two region championships and a first-ever appearance at the state tournament in Columbus back in 2024. 

Looking back, she’s proud to have been a part of those teams who helped build a tradition of excellence for the program that seems like it’ll have some staying power in the years ahead. 

“It means a lot, it’s special, because I know how hard it is for everybody including myself,” Holt said. “Everyone worked together, the coaches are great. We just have really good staff, it’ll definitely leave us a good memory to look back on.” 

Decisions, decisions… 

For most mutli-sport high school athletes, recruiting provides a pretty clear-cut indication of which one offers them the most collegiate potential. 

But there wasn’t nearly as obvious a direction as Deanna Lowther – an all-region caliber performer on four different East Laurens athletic teams – tried to figure out which athletic discipline suited her best at the next level. 

There was little question that basketball and softball were her best two sports, but the potential of offers to play either one at her chosen destination led to some indecision as she mulled options over the past year. 

“I’m glad she’s able to do what she really wants to do, and to see what she accomplishes in college,” her mother, Coach Lowther said. “Like I told her, I think she was a little hesitant about telling us what she wants to do… I told her, look, I coach both sports, so it doesn’t matter. I love both of them.” 

Deanna had, from the beginning of her senior year, locked in on Albany State as the place she wanted to go to school. 

“I went down there a couple of times, and it just felt like home,” she said. 

But pulling the trigger on a commitment to play softball – originally the only sport in which the Golden Rams were recruiting her – just didn’t quite feel right as she also held out hope that an opportunity to pursue basketball might emerge later in the season. 

Turns out, it would, following the Lady Falcons’ run at the state hoops championship, and Lowther’s MVP performance at the Coliseum. 

“We went down there on a couple of different visits for softball, and she never could make up her mind. She never would say,” Coach Lowther said. “I kind of figured she wanted to do something different, and she went down there and got an opportunity to try out for their basketball team, and (Albany State head coach Todd Triplett) liked her too.” 

Deanna would jump at the offer almost as soon as it came in earlier this summer, making clear that basketball was the sport she really wanted to play in college. 

Doubling up in softball may still be a possibility, although an arrangement to potentially play both is something that she’s working on hammering out, and not a guarantee. 

But Deanna said she is eager to get started on the new journey, and meet the new folks she’ll have as classmates and teammates, this fall. 

The end of her East Laurens career closes a high school scrapbook filled with accolades across the many sports, but some clippings of history in the two main ones that included multiple trophies, most notably the Falcons’ first-ever team state title on the hardwood this past March when she closed out her career as the school’s all-time career rebounds leader, with over 1,100, and only about 13 shy of the 1,000 point club as well. 

In the end, she won’t treasure the championships nearly as much as the camaraderie shared with her family and teammates over those four years. 

“Really, the bond I connected and made with everybody here, that’s what I will miss the most,” Deanna said.