They left Bryan County High School with their names etched in the record books and headed off to college with high hopes.

Now Hayden Joyner and Bekkah Johnson, the Redskins’ version of the Gold Dust Twins, are once again on the move with those same high hopes.

Joyner spent two years at Georgia Highlands College, a two-year school in Rome, Ga., where she excelled this spring on both the field and in the classroom. She has signed with the University of Cumberlands, an NAIA school located in picturesque Williamsburg, Ky.

Cumberlands, which has more than 20,000 students, is an athletic powerhouse. It fields 27 teams, 22 of which qualified for the NAIA World Series this past year while winning the Learfield Directors Cup as the top athletic program in NAIA for the second straight year.

Joyner set Bryan County school records with 61 career wins and the single season mark of 20 her sophomore year, breaking Brooke Barfield’s mark of 18.

Barfield went on to enjoy an outstanding career at Georgia Tech while the 5-foot-3 Joyner, overlooked by many because of her height, chose to go the juco route, a decision which she said she had no reason to regret.

“Going to Highlands was the best thing I could have done,” Joyner said. “It allowed me to grow and mature and I got to play right away.”

Joyner struggled her first year as the program was in a state of flux when the coach departed on short notice. There was a fill-in coach and no pitching coach.

This past season with a new head coach and a pitching coach Joyner flourished as she went 11-4 for a 37-16 team while hitting .327 as an outfielder. She also excelled in the classroom and was named a National Junior College Athletic Association All-America.

Johnson, who holds the Bryan County career home run record with 22 and hit .504 over four years, signed with DI Troy but unfortunately it proved to be a poor fit.

She sat as a freshman which she anticipated and then this past spring she was used as a pinch-hitter, getting six hits in 24 at bats. Johnson felt she had bided her time and her fortunes would change next year.

“You can’t go in as a freshman and be guaranteed a spot,” Johnson said. “I knew that going in. There were communication issues. Coach told us playing time would be based on performance in scrimmage games and practice.

“I worked really hard and feel I did well. There was a specific time this last year, for example, when I went 5-for-5 in a scrimmage and then didn’t play. That’s when I started thinking I needed to leave.”

Then when the Trojans brought in several players from the transfer portal the sweet swinging lefty—former coach Jason Roundtree said she was the best hitter he ever coached, male or female— it sealed her decision.

“I think the biggest thing for me was the communication and relationship I wanted with my coach wasn’t there,” Johnson said. “I really just wanted a better opportunity.

“I didn’t get as many opportunities as I wanted at Troy. I just think the change to West Georgia that I’m making now will get me more opportunity to play. You find out it’s really a business.”

Johnson will no doubt get all the opportunity she wants at West Georgia where coach Kristy Burton is rebuilding a program that went 12-40 last year in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Joyner is all about family and being a good teammate which adds to her excitement about joining the Cumberlands program.

“The thing they preach at Cumberlands which makes them different from everyone else I visited is the one big team concept,” Joyner said. “All the sports: they’re one big team. They have 27 sports and they all preach [that] they’re one big team as a school collectively. That’s so cool.”

Johnson said one of the reasons she elected to go to West Georgia was because she had a relationship with some of the players and coaches on the team and felt comfortable about being with people she knew.

Joyner was encouraged to look at Cumberlands by her Highlands pitching coach. She somewhat reluctantly agreed to a visit.

“It was an eight-hour drive up there,” Joyner said. “I wasn’t sure about it but once we got there and I saw the campus, which is beautiful, and met the people I knew this was the right place for me.”

Joyner’s goal, she said, is to get her degree in elementary education and return to Bryan County as a teacher and coach. Johnson is a psychology major with a goal of being a sports psychologist.

Mike Brown is a sports correspondent with the Bryan County News.