ROCKINGHAM – In a world where playing collegiate-level sports is so competitive and not guaranteed, one of Richmond Senior High School’s rising freshman softball players is already committed to a major Division I program.
As first reported Tuesday by ROSports, rising ninth grader Allyiah Swiney has verbally committed to play for Duke University as the part of the recruiting class of 2022. This was Swiney’s first public announcement of her future plans, aside from telling friends and family.
Earlier this spring, on Thursday, March 8, Swiney and her family went on an unofficial visit to Duke and met with the Lady Blue Devils’ head coach Marissa Young. Dipsite growing up and rooting for the archrival University of North Carolina Tar Heels, Swiney made her verbal commitment a day later on Friday, March 9, telling Young in person.
“I went to Duke on an unofficial visit and toured the campus,” Swiney, 14, said. “I met with Coach Young and really liked everything about it. I’m glad to be able to be a part of the Blue Devils (program).
“It’s a first-year program, and it was good to see what they had for the players and the way they do things around campus,” she continued. “Coach Young explains things so well and demonstrates things to make them more physical. In camps, she really makes sure I focus on the little details and good techniques instead of just getting by.”
On April 18, the NCAA Division I Council passed an early recruiting legislation that bars Division I coaches and programs from making contact or recruiting trips prior to September 1 of a player’s junior year in high school. Because of her commitment a month earlier, Swiney was grandfathered in without penalty.
A standout player this past spring with the Rockingham Middle School Lady Rockets, Swiney has been involved with the Duke program, which wrapped up its inaugural season this past spring, since the summer before her seventh grade year in 2016.
Recruited as a middle infielder and outfielder, and explaining she most enjoys playing center field, Swiney also plays for the Durham Lady Dukes U14 travel ball team, which isn’t directly associated with Young’s program. However, Young’s husband, James Lamar, has been Swiney’s travel ball coach the past couple of seasons.
“We got started with the Lady Dukes because Allyiah played against them with the Lady Lightning Hyatt (travel team),” Lemuel Swiney, her father, explained. “He (Lamar) was impressed in how she performed against them, and invited her to an offseason workout.”
Swiney added that her switch to playing for the Lady Dukes allowed Young to have a better chance to “look at her” more frequently. Playing for Lamar also led to Swiney attending a camp with the Lady Blue Devils, which is when she really became interested in the program.
“It’s an honor to commit at such a young age to a Division I school,” Swiney commented. “Not a lot of kids get that opportunity, and it’s a good feeling. I’m really excited to be committed.
“Coach Young pushes her players hard, and they don’t take easy for and answer,” she added.
Swiney is currently in the middle of her Lady Dukes season, as the team is 18-3 and is ranked as the No. 62 team in the nation. Having left for Atlanta Wednesday for a tournament, the Lady Dukes have competed in tournaments in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. With players on the team ranging from Georgia, New York and Virginia, the Lady Dukes have also been invited to play in a tournament in Kentucky at the end of this month.
During her 2017 season with Lamar, Swiney batted .385 and stole 63 bases. To date this year, she’s batting a respectable .353 at the dish.
Another element for Lemuel, who attended UNC, that he and his daughter enjoy about Duke is the way the team acts as a family on and off the field.
“The atmosphere is family-oriented, and as a parent, I like that,” Lemuel explained. “At Duke, they treat every player like family and I feel good about letting her play there.
“And she (Young) pushes Allyiah way past her expectations,” he added. “You work the hardest in the offseason so that you have routine in the (regular) season. They drill the players so hard at Duke.”
Swiney has yet to play a single inning of high school softball, and has four full years before joining Duke, but is looking forward to joining the Lady Raiders’ program in the spring. It’s yet to be determined if she’ll make the varsity program in the coming year as a freshman under head coach Wendy Wallace, which only a handful of players have achieved during her 12-year coaching tenure. But she’s open to bringing on the challenge and playing for a team that has become a perennial powerhouse in the playoffs.
“I love the game itself, and I love getting to play the game I love,” Swiney said. “It’s what I’m most talented at, and I’ve always loved the teams I’ve played for. My current teammates (with Durham) and I play together so well, and we spend a lot of time with team bonding. There’s never a bad vibe and we have a good connection.”
Describing her personal playing style as “fast, with a lot of effort and efficiency,” Swiney also has something else to look forward to during her upcoming years at RSHS — playing alongside her older sister, and rising junior, Allexis.
Allexis, who is a three-sport athlete, plays volleyball, basketball and soccer for the Lady Raiders. She’ll be part of a growing volleyball program this fall as a right-side hitter, and was Richmond’s leading scorer on the basketball team a season ago. In her first season at the varsity level with the soccer team this past spring, Allexis earned All-Sandhills Athletic Conference honors and was named co-goalkeeper of the year.
Also a three-sport athlete in middle school, Swiney hopes to continue playing as her sister’s teammate in the same three sports. As a Lady Rocket, she won two volleyball conference championships, as well as one conference championship apiece with the basketball and softball programs.
“I’m looking forward to playing with my sister, Allexis, because I feel like we play well together,” Swiney said. “We’ve been playing together so long. And I’m excited to be getting to face some better competition and play against people with same competitiveness.
“I just want to thank everyone who has helped me out to get here,” she concluded. “All of my coaches like Coach Lamar, and Scott Frye, because he helped me with middle school ball. And I want to thank my parents (Talia and Lemuel Swiney).”
In its inaugural season, Duke went 29-27 overall, with a 13-11 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which was good enough to tie for a third-place finish with Georgia Tech in the Coastal Division. Three Lady Blue Devils players were named to the All-ACC team.
Young is a former Big Ten Conference “player of the year” (2003) with the University of Michigan, and led her current team to a first-round exit in the ACC tournament to Virginia Tech at the end of its first season. As a player, she racked up a Lady Wolverines-best 927 career strikeouts, and finished second in wins (88).
