Area hoops standouts make collegiate decisions, as former area star, beset by injuries, announces retirement

High School Basketball NCAA

The last few weeks have been busy ones in the local student-athlete scene of north Missouri, starting with the commitment of two-time Class 1 all-state forward Brooke Littrell of Green City High School to attend and play basketball nearby at Truman State University in Kirksville.  The Green City junior has two years of eligibility remaining with the Lady Gophers, and will begin her Lady Bulldog career in November 2020.

Early in the calendar year, Trenton High School senior guard Ainsley Tolson had verbally committed to the basketball program at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri.  However, KTTN Sports has learned, through a variety of sources, that Tolson de-committed from the Lady Cougars program over the summer, reopening her commitment process.  A potential basketball and softball standout at the next level, it is believed that Tolson’s full concentration this fall will be with her softball and basketball seasons, leaving the collegiate decision on the “back burner” for awhile.

Meanwhile, while two careers of girls basketball players continue to blossom, the football career of former Penney High School all-state running back Kellen Overstreet has come to an end.  Less than two weeks before Overstreet’s anticipated “Homecoming” game at the University of Missouri (September 8th), Overstreet, a junior running back at the University of Wyoming, announced on his Instagram account his retirement from football on Monday night.

A three-star recruit coming out of Hamilton, Overstreet had trouble avoiding the injury bug in Laramie, including an injury to his ACL in 2016.  Overstreet was in the running to be the Cowboys #1 running back in 2018, but a hamstring injury kept him out of last week’s season opener at New Mexico State.  He was not expected to play in UW’s second game this weekend.  Overstreet, in his senior year at Hamilton, ran for over 4,000 yards and had 69 touchdowns, one shy of the national record.  His father is Trenton High School assistant volleyball coach Lysander Overstreet.