Cape Hatteras Secondary student-athlete Caroline Gray signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball for University of Mount Olive surrounded by family, school officials, neighbors and a bevy of student friends.

“I definitely would not be here without the help of my family and this school,” she said.

“We’re all proud of her,” said an emotional Cape Hatteras girls varsity basketball coach Earl Fountain.

This season, the Cape Hatteras varsity girls basketball team racked up a 25-1 record. The 14-member team was undefeated in regular season Atlantic 6 conference play, claimed the conference tournament championship and were sectional champions in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association basketball playoffs.

Gray posts solid high school basketball statistics. In four years of play, she amassed 1,402 points. She passed the 1,000-point mark in December 2017 in Ocracoke.

She averaged 15.4 points per game over four years, pulled down 848 rebounds (9.3 per game), made 254 steals (2.8 per game), stopped a score with 266 blocks (2.9 per game) and assisted a score 171 times (1.9 per game). She played 91 games for Cape Hatteras Secondary School.

“We’re very proud of you representing Cape Hatteras,” said Tim Spruill, the school’s athletic director. Gray’s signing is the first one for Spruill in his seven years at Cape Hatteras Secondary.

A National Letter of Intent is a binding agreement between one of the 650 Divisions I and II participating institutions and a prospective student-athlete entering a four-year member school for the first time as a full-time student. With the signing, other member institutions must cease recruiting Gray.

University of Mount Olive is a private, liberal arts school founded in 1951. In addition to its home campus in Mt. Olive, the university has seven other North Carolina locations, including Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, New Bern, Wilmington, Research Triangle Park, Washington, Smithfield Johnson Community College and Jacksonville. In the school year 2016-17, the college served 4,307 students, 91 percent from North Carolina.