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Bellwood-Antis has had major success with athletes continuing their careers in college.  There have been had football, baseball, basketball, wrestling and track stars, but now there are softball stars, too.  Head softball coach Jim Payne’s main goal wasn’t to develop college softball players.

Coach Payne said, “First of all the goal was to teach the game of softball to kids who were motivated to learn the game!  The fact that kids are playing in college is a real tribute to their motivation with the game of softball!  Having Bellwood represented by such great kids is a blessing!”

Taylor Payne graduated in 2013.  She went on to continue her softball career at Edinboro University.   In her high school career Payne made a school record with a total of 601 strikeouts, in four years she only allowed 48 walks.  Taylor had 85 hits, 65 RBI’s, 25 doubles, and six homeruns.  Taylor won 55 games and lost 10.

Taylor’s first year playing college ball she played in 14 games, and started 13 of them.  Taylor didn’t play the rest of the season due to an injury.  In those 14 games she batted .344 with two doubles, two home runs, 10 RBI’s, and had a 1.000 fielding percentage.  In 2015 Taylor’s record in the circle was 6-3 with 53 strikeouts and a team-leading 2.05 ERA.  This year, she batted a .240.

Emily Nagle was the next softball player to continue her career.  She went on to play at Slippery Rock University after graduating in 2014.  Emily only played three years due to an injury her freshman year, but that didn’t stop her.  She ended her high school career with, 116 hits, 14 doubles, 12 home runs, and 40 stolen bases, and currently has multiple records for the school.  She was the first player in Bellwood history to reach 100 hits, she hit a record seven home runs in a season, and she holds the home run record for a career.

At Slippery Rock Nagle is tearing it up. In her first season at the Rock in 2015, she had 20 hits, and a fielding percentage of .952.   Then this year her team played in the PSAC playoffs and she batted a .333, and 20 hits.  She also had a .952 fielding percentage.

B-A’s third college softball player is Jacqueline Finn, who is now playing at New York University.  Jacqueline graduated in 2015 and ended her high school career with impressive stats.  She ended with 143 hits, 114 RBI’s, 27 doubles, 10 home runs.  Jacqueline was a four year letterman for Bellwood, and left Bellwood with two softball District 6 titles.  Currently at NYU Jacqueline has a batting average of .375, with nine hits.

While it would appear the move to college for these ladies has been seamless, everyone takes the transition differently.

According to Taylor, “College ball transition isn’t too hard if you understand that you’re playing at a higher level than high school, so you need to adjust your work ethic.”

Taylor said that playing college ball is definitely a job that can be rewarding but unrewarding too.

“Its fun to play with new players every year and play the games, but the best part for her is competing,” she said. “When you succeed as a college player, you know you are where you’re supposed to be because everyone that you’re competing against was successful in high school and summer ball.”

The hardest part for Emily was changing her style of play.

Emily said, “For me, transitioning from high school to college softball was hard because I had to change my entire swing. My whole life I tried to perfect my swing to be a power hitter. But as soon as I started college softball, my coach turned me into a slap hitter because I was very fast and she thought I would be able to get more singles being a slap hitter in college. So it took me months to become a decent slap hitter.”

College softball is very intense because they play double headers, making it more physically and mentally demanding than high school ball.  Someone is always there to take your spot, because there are twenty five girls on Emily’s team.  If a girl messes up too many times then another girl will take their spot.  You miss a lot of class and it’s harder to keep up with your school work.

However, Emily said she wouldn’t change anything.

“It’s all worth it because you become a part of a family with the other girls on your team! If you love the game then nothing else matters,” said Nagle.

Jacqueline said that there’s a major competition difference and its much bigger time commitment.  To her college has been an amazing experience because she is playing with girls all over the country.

All of the girls agreed that Bellwood softball absolutely prepared them for college ball.

“High school ball did prepare me for college softball. Jim Payne was a tough coach. He allowed me to grow a thick skin,” Emily said.  “I am able to handle my college coach yelling at me because of Jim Payne. He was such an amazing coach. Also, being the only softball player from my class my senior year allowed me to learn how to become a leader. And I am still a leader now at the collegiate level.”

To Taylor, it taught her to be competitive and she is grateful for Bellwood softball because it made her a better teammate, a better competitor, and all around great player. She said it also taught her to push her teammates to their limits and let them be successful as well.

Jacqueline and her team played in many big games against great teams and those definitely help when preparing to play in college, she said.

“Knowing that I played in those games in high school helped me feel confident in myself that I can compete and succeed at the college level as well,” said Jaqueline.

Coach Payne mentioned that the goal for the coaching staff at Bellwood was to leave it better than they had found it!  The staff takes great pride in knowing that they have coached and had the honor of teaching amazing kids the game!

Finally all of the players said they will definitely miss high school ball.

This year the class of 2016 will be producing three more college softball players.  Taylor Shildt will be playing at University of Pittsburgh Johnstown, Laycee Clark will be playing at Penn Tech, and Caroline Showalter will be playing at Mount Aloysius College.

“We wish the best for all of the Bellwood representatives at that college level,” said the Bellwood-Antis softball coaching staff.