BOONEVILLE, Miss. - Two newcomers to the Northeast Mississippi Community College campus are being recognized for the early impacts they have made on their respective teams.

Qua Middlebrooks and Eliza Whitenton are the Northeast athletes of the month presented by Booneville's Guaranty Bank for September 2025.

Middlebrooks has been an offensive catalyst for the football team. He leads the Tigers at the midway point of their regular season with 125.2 all-purpose yards per game.

He is also Northeast's leader in each major receiving and rushing statistical category. The Tigers' every day starter at running back has 78 carries, which is fifth most in the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC).

The Tupelo native currently has 315 yards with four touchdowns on the ground. He also has 22 catches out of the backfield for 212 total yards along with a pair of scores.

Both of his touchdowns through the air came during Northeast's most recent contest against rival Northwest Mississippi Community College. He recorded his first 100-plus yard receiving game that same night.

Middlebrooks has reached the end zone in four of the Tigers' five outings so far this fall. He had a season-best 164 all-purpose yards in Northeast's first division road game at Holmes Community College.

"Things have been going pretty good so far," said Middlebrooks. "First off, I just want to thank God and coach (Greg) Davis. I know what I can do and they just gave me an opportunity. We're a good team so all we've got to do is execute."

Whitenton has already broken the volleyball program record for most kills in a match with 24 versus Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College inside legendary Bonner Arnold Coliseum.

She is approaching the Lady Tigers' single season kills mark as well. Whitenton enters the back half of the conference schedule with the second most kills in the Magnolia State with 275.

The East Union High School alumnus has three matches with 20-plus kills so far during her freshman campaign. Her latest was a 22-kill effort at East Central Community College in mid-September.

She has eight double-doubles, including two-in-a-row during Northeast's sweep of Meridian Community College. She had a season-high 27 digs against Pearl River Community College.

"This is probably the most family like team I've been on. They constantly lift me up. It truly is special," Whitenton said. "I'm starting to understand this sport is much faster at this level. It's just been a learning process for everybody, especially for me."