LAKELAND STAR PUTS UP POWERFUL STATS, CREATES LASTING LEGACY WITHOUT GARNERING MUCH MAJOR COLLEGE INTEREST 

It is a mass injustice that Lakeland senior softball stud, Carlee Meek, will not be playing on the DI LEVEL next year. On a scale of 1 through 10 in terms of sheer craziness and inexplicability, the situation surrounding Meek's recruitment (or lack there of for that matter) ranks in at a solid 22.

In all my years of watching prep sports, I've witnessed very few competitors with the mental-toughness, natural instinct for the moment and big-game moxie of Carlee Meek. This girl is an outright bulldog on the field of competition, whether it be tossing heat from the circle, captaining the infield from shortstop, or pounding away at the plate. How the area's mid-majors missed the boat on Meek, especially Oakland U and UofD-Mercy, is beyond my comprehension and will, in my estimation end up being to their collective great detriment in the near future. She has the definition of "The X-Factor" that any program and any coach in any sport should want to have on their squads.

Instead, Meek will suit up for D3 Madonna in 2011. Burney thinks she's going to tear it up for "The Material Girls" next season and has a real fine shot at getting offered to move up to D1 after either her freshman or sophomore campaigns. In case you were wondering, there is a truckload of evidence to back up my stance on my main HURLING HOMEGIRL, Carlee.

THE NUMBERS TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT "MEEK THE MARVELOUS"

Her leadership and clutch-play has been a primary reason the Eagles have won more than 130 games in her tenure in the program, not to mention three league, district and regional crowns apiece.

All in all, Meek has won 30-plus games from the circle the past two seasons, over 80 in total and accumulated a career batting average around the .300 mark. This season she is 13-1 with an era of 1.01.

On Monday, she hurled another beauty…er….a 4-hit, complete-game shutout……in propelling Lakeland to a 5-0 victory over arch-nemesis Howell. The Eagles are now 28-2 overall and Meek and the rest of the ladies on blue, black, and white, are hungry for the chance to finally make it over the hump next month and claim that ever-elusive state title. Meek was a freshman on the Eagles team that lost in the state final game with a 44-0 record in 2007.

No disrespect to Jordan Wheatley of Troy headed to Penn State or Taylor Hasselbach of Clarkston, scholarship bound to UofM - who are each outstanding ballplayers in their own right- but Meek is just as good as both them. In fact in head-to-head competition, Meek has fared overwhelmingly-successful against Wheatley-led Colts teams and Hasselbach-led Wolfpack rosters.

Well, Carlee, now that the recruiting process is all but over all you can do is go out there, grab that state championship ring, and stick it in all of their FACES!!! Burney thinks you and the team can and WILL do it!

GO EAGLES!!!!