Central Gwinnett Trio Ink Scholarships

It was standing room only at the "Castle" at as three Central Gwinnett athletes signed college scholarships on Thursday. and signed baseball scholarships while signed a golf scholarship. Cronic will go to Tennessee Temple. Fields will stay right here and play at Georgia Perimeter College while Powell will carry on a family tradition and play at Louisburg College in North Carolina, a school roughly seven hours away. Powell's grandmother is an alumnus of the school while her brother and sister also went to the college. "It played a little part in why I chose to go there," Powell said.

"We are beside ourselves," said Rosalynn Powell, Dillon's mom. "My grandmother lives next door to the campus so we can go visit her and see him and visit the family."

Cronic who played centerfield and pitched for the Black Knights was very excited to be going to the next level and praised his coach for helping him. "He (Coach David Lamberth) pushed me really hard," Cronic said. "He pushed me to get my scholarship and he stayed on me." Cronic said he liked the area and the atmosphere and did have a friend up there and that helped in his decision.

Fields, who led the county in strikeouts his junior year and second in the county his senior year says he will major in business and is glad he will be close to his family.

Powell will play at the oldest 2-year college in the nation and North Carolina's only 2-year residential college, Louisburg College. After playing one year of baseball his freshman year, Powell decided to try the links. And Coach Ron Jones was glad he did. Powell is the only senior to ink a scholarship for golf in Jones' five year tenure. "Hopefully I can go there and then go on to the next level," Powell said. "Just want to go up there and do my best and hopefully try to get it to the next level from there."

Athletic Director Brian Deberry was also very proud of the three. "We're proud of these guys," DeBerry said.

"Everybody knows what they mean to me," Lamberth said. "They are our two biggest players on the field. I've had both of them for four years and it's going to be tough to replace them."

"The biggest part for me was watching Dillon grow up," Jones said. "I've seen him change in the three years I've been coaching him. Golf and being on the golf team can be a very very frustrating sport. And I watched Dillon grow as a young man and learn how to control those situations. What I've seen him do these last three years personally is great."