Brookhaven Academy senior Reagen Fortenberry didn’t start playing soccer until her sophomore season for the Cougars. As the years progressed, so did her skills and abilities.

Earlier this week, Fortenberry showed how far she’s come in that short time by signing a letter-of-intent to continue her soccer career at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

In her final season at BA, Fortenberry scored a school record 37 goals for a 19-4-3 Cougar squad that won the first playoff match in program history.

“Reagan didn’t start playing soccer until the first week of her sophomore year,” said BA soccer coach Alex Brown who was in his first year at the school during that time. “I had her in my Spanish class and some of her classmates told me how athletic she was, so I talked her into giving soccer a try.”

Fortenberry has long been a basketball standout and was a starting wing last year for a BA girls’ basketball team that won the MAIS 5A State Championship.

Playing at Co-Lin has become a Fortenberry family tradition over the last few years. Her oldest brother Trey was a tight end on the CLCC football team in 2021. Her brothers Tyler and Trevor are both on the 2023 football team at Co-Lin as Tyler plays tight end and Trevor plays receiver.

Co-Lin went 4-8-5 last season for head coach Tom Cosgrave. The 2022 team was the best in school history as the Wolves and Cosgrave finished 10-3-3.

The hope is that Fortenberry will continue to hone her game and have her skills and abilities to continue what has been a fast rise.

As a sophomore, she scored two goals and as a junior she upped that to 24 goals while earning Daily Leader All-Area honors. Brown says her production as a junior drew the interest of several junior college programs and two four-year schools.

“I knew after she learned the game that her athleticism and speed was going to take over,” said Brown. “She out-athleted just about every defense she played against. She was very coachable and responded well to my assistant coach Brannon Dickerson and myself. He works a lot with the offense and attacking players and he did a great job teaching Reagan how her off the ball movement can affect the game and how to time her runs when we played balls in behind her. I think she’s going to do great at Co-Lin.”