EDWARDSVILLLE - Edwardsville High senior point guard Macy Silvey cast her lot with the home team and signed a letter of intent to play basketball for SIU-Edwardsville for the 2022-23 college basketball season in a ceremony held Wednesday night at the high school.
Silvey will be playing for new head coach Samantha Quigley Smith and her coaching staff next season, and is very excited to be staying home to play next season.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
"It's very exciting," Silvey said during an interview that followed the signing, "especially because my family can come and watch me, and like hometown fans, I think that'll be really exciting."
Silvey cited Quigley Smith and her coaching staff as a major factor in staying home to play for the Cougars and in the Ohio Valley Conference next season.
"I think, like, the coaching staff really made me want to stay," Silvey said, "meeting them and everything, and seeing how they run their program, especially like they're new. I think that's like really exciting, and I really wanted to be part of that."
Silvey also considered a school in Kansas while talking to other schools, but in the end, didn't show much interest in her. She's still undecided about a major, but is currently leaning towards business.
Silvey is a good player who can make an immediate contribution to the Cougars.
"She will," said Tigers head coach Caty Happe. "It's an awesome opportunity for Macy. Edwardsville's a great place to be, I think the coach there is going to do a great job, and she can make an immediate impact. She can shoot."
That Silvey can do, averaging 11.4 points-per-game in the abbreviated COVID-19 season last year, helping the Tigers to a 16-1 record and the Southwestern Conference championship in a 57-44 win at O'Fallon in the tournament final that served as the postseason, as the IHSA state series was cancelled.
The Cougars competition in the Ohio Valley Conference is very good, indeed, with the I-55 corridor rivalry between the Cougars, Eastern Illinois, Southeast Missouri State and Murray State, along with schools such as Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee State, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech. Playing their final year in the league will be Austin Peay State and Belmont University. Happe thinks the competition will be good.
"The great part is she comes from a winning program," Happe said. "She knows how to win, so I think that's a good thing bringing in that team and helping with that mindset, that she knows every day how to compete and what it looks like."
Silvey is equally looking forward to the competition in the OVC as well.
"Yeah, I'm really excited," Silvey said. "And I know, like, some of my teammates from Blue Star (her club team) are actually going to be in the Ohio Valley Conference too. So that's really exciting that I can play them at the next level, too."
Silvey is also looking forward to the corridor rivalry with Eastern, SEMO and MSU, and as far as the high school season ahead, is hoping for a long run in the IHSA Class 4A playoffs, which will end in March back at its traditional home of State Farm Center, formerly Assembly Hall, at the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana.
"I really hope that we make it far in the postseason," Silvey said. "I think we really have a good chance this year, especially like me, Elle (Evans) and Syd (Harris), and we Ella (Cook) and Kate (Morningstar) coming back this year. So I think we have a really good chance of making it far, and just being like playing well as a team together."
Silvey and the rest of her teammates are raring to go, especially coming off the COVID season last year, and are anxious to get started.
"We're all really excited to play," Silvey said, "especially because last year, we really didn't have a real season, so we're all really excited to play together."
More like this:
