Four years ago then Bryan County softball coach Jason Roundtree had just watched his team wrap up what was for the Redskins a disappointing 15-7 season but he was already looking forward to the following year.

Roundtree would have Bekah Johnson and Hayden Joyner returning for their senior year—as sophomores they had carried Bryan County to a 31-6 season and a third-place finish in the state tournament—and a strong supporting cast.

In talking about his returnees Roundtree noted there was a kid coming up from the middle school who everyone said was going to be the Redskins’ next big star.

That kid was Elizabeth Harvey and she has been as advertised. In softball. In basketball. In soccer.

Harvey hit .293 as a freshman as a slick fielding shortstop on a team which went 20-8-1 and won a region championship. She started every game for four years playing her position flawlessly and was a hard out as the leadoff hitter.

Last fall, after a year’s absence, the Redskins made the playoffs advancing to the second round as the only No. 4 seed to do so behind the hitting of Harvey, Cam Parker and Emily Johnson.

One of the defining moments of the season came against Claxton in their final region game. Needing to advance the game was well in hand when fittingly it was Harvey who hit a two-run homer that ended it on the mercy rule, the Redskins winning, 13-1.

“It was amazing because we’ve come so far as a team,” Harvey said when asked her thoughts rounding the bases. “It’s just amazing to go to the playoffs because we didn’t go last year.”

It was Harvey’s 10th homer of the season enabling her to tie Parker for the team lead.

Harvey is the best all-around girl athlete at Bryan County and one of the best to come out of the school in the last several years.

“Liz was a different kid this year,” second-year softball coach Jessica Schroeder-Cooper said. “She just embraced her senior year. There was something about the aura she put off.

“She was just so much fun to be around. It was just something special and different. She never let up.”

In basketball she became one of Coach Mario Mincey’s key reserves as a freshman and has been a mainstay since, making all-region the last two years. She’s had her moments as a scorer but defense is her calling card. Mincey routinely assigns her to guard the opponent’s leading scorer.

Ditto for soccer where she has helped Coach Kristen Barnhill, both as a scorer and defender, make a dormant program relevant. It had been nearly two decades since the girls soccer team had made the state playoffs but the last three years have seen the Redskins make the postseason.

As in softball and basketball Harvey has been an all-region pick for three years and as a sophomore, she was a key player in Bryan County finishing in a tie for the region championship with Metter who got the No. 1 seed on a tie-breaker.  

Barnhill remembers vividly when she first became aware of Harvey and what she would be getting.

“It was my first year at  Bryan County,” Barnhill said. “Liz was in the eighth grade and we only had like 12 kids and only seven or eight would come to practice. So, I asked her mom, Misty who was the middle school coach at the time, if we could scrimmage them. Bad idea.

“Not only was Liz on that team but so was Addie (Longino) and Kolbie (English),” Barnhill said. “After about 20 minutes we were behind 8-1. Liz was one of the most competitive kids on the field and that’s what makes her great.

“She is willing to do whatever she needs to do to help the team be successful. I know she didn’t want to be in goal last season but she did it. She knew that’s where she would make the most difference for the team.”

While she’s a standout in three sports it is softball that captured Harvey’s heart. She will be taking her talents to East Georgia State College next fall as that school, to be known as Georgia Southern East, transitions from a two-year to a four-year program.

“I started playing softball at Hendrix Park when I was four,” said Harvey, whose mother Misty also played softball at Bryan County High School where she now teaches. “I fell in love with it. If I got any offers in the other sports I would turn them down.

“The East Georgia coach is amazing. I’ve talked to him a lot about the program and it was a great feeling. They’re going four-year and that was a big factor. I feel very comfortable with it.”

Harvey is a mainstay for Mincey, too, and in her first three years on the varsity the Redskins were 71-6, 32-4 in region play. Going into a Tuesday night Region 3A-DII game with McIntosh County Academy the team was off a 3-1 start.

During that run the Redskins have won a region championship and advanced to the Elite Eight while reaching the playoffs each year.

“I’ve enjoyed watching Liz grow as a player and person since middle school,” Mincey said. “Liz is someone who loves to compete at a high level and wants to do what is best for the team.

“For our basketball team her defense and leadership are what we love about her. We expect her to be a main piece to the puzzle as we try to compete for another region title.”