Commitment Day 2023: Joyce Edwards
November 15, 2023 is a day that the Edwards family will remember for a long time. Joyce Edwards the #2 ranked player in the ESPN National Rankings was set to make her college decision. Early in the day she attended the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association Media Day to kick off the 2023 - 2024 season. The event was held at Brookland-Cayce High School in Columbia, SC. Joyce is a star everywhere she goes, especially in her home state where she is the most recognized female scholastic athlete. Joyce led Camden High School to a 29 - 2 record in the 2022 - 2023 season including the AAA SCHSL State Championship. Joyce is the three time reigning AAA Player of the year. Joyce has been named All State in three sports ( Basketball, Soccer and Volleyball) during her tenure at Camden. She helped her team reach the 2023 SCHSL AAA State Championship game in Volleyball falling to Wren High School. Camden defeated Wren in the 2023 SCHSL AAA Basketball State Championship. The Commitment was scheduled for 6:15 PM that afternoon in the Camden High School gymnasium, giving Joyce some time to relax before making her decision live on ESPN. The doors opened at Camden High School at 5:45 pm and the facility quickly filled up with hundreds of fans and supporters of the teen superstar, eager to see where she will be spending her next few years playing college basketball. Joyce had one of the best years of any Girls Basketball player in 2023. She won her first State Championship, Joyce won her 1st gold Medal with team USA’s U-19 team in Spain. She was the leading scorer on the team with a 12.6 points per game average, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks helped to land her on the FIBA All Star Five. During the 2022 - 2023 High School season at Camden Joyce averaged 28.6 Points, 13.6 Rebounds, 3.5 Steals, 2.9 Assists and 2.6 Blocks per game. Joyce scored an amazing 882 points in 1 season which included making 364 field goals and having 15 - 30 point games. Joyce added the USA Today High School Sports National Girls Athlete of the Year and 2022 - 2023 Maxpreps National Athlete of the Year to this year of accomplishments.
The final three schools that were in contention for her academic and athletic career were Clemson, Louisiana State University and University of South Carolina. Dawn Staley offered Joyce a full scholarship as an eighth grader and has been in attendance at numerous games over the years. The other two head coaches have been very diligent about keeping up with Joyce over the years and have earned their seat at this table. In the end Joyce Edwards chose the University of South Carolina and Hall Of Fame Head Coach Dawn Staley as her next destination. The gym erupted when Joyce grabbed the Gamecocks hat that was in the center of all three hats, there was a deep exhale across the state of South Carolina as one of their own will be joining the Gamecocks Women Basketball team. Edwards will join 2023 Keenan High School graduate MiLaysia Fulwiley and 2022 Cardinal Newman School graduate Ashlyn Watkins as Palmetto State products on the roster next year. Joyce mentioned “That it is going to be a problem for people going against us'’ when asked what it is going to be like playing with Fulwiley and Watkins after going against them the last 3 years. Congratulations to Joyce and her family on this decision.