ORANGE PARK, Fla. – In what is becoming a tradition at Oakleaf High School, the highly-decorated girls softball team celebrated their signing day in front of family and fellow students on Friday afternoon.
Head Coach Christina Thompson has led the Lady Knights since the opening of the school nine years ago and says the five seniors that are signing letters of intent to play softball at the next level deserve their own day.
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"National signing day is a special day, especially for football, so we like to have football have their opportunity to shine. So, we just kind of quietly do our thing a few days later so our girls can have their own signing day."
Thank you Matt Kingston @WJXTBJackson and @wjxt4 for the awesome coverage at today’s signing. What a great memory for our girls, families, and friends. We thank you! pic.twitter.com/YJxhNoWoup
— OHS Knights Softball (@knights_ohs) February 9, 2019
Those seniors who put pen to paper on Friday were Baylee Goddard going to Florida, Madisyn Davis to UCF, Cambria Arturo to JU, and twin sisters Jazmine and Caitlynne Lamug both going to Northwest Florida. All five have been dreaming about this day for years and say now that the dream is a reality, they are very happy to share it with their teammates.
"I am excited that all the girls that I have been playing with these past four years are also getting the opportunity," said Cambria Arturo. "We have worked so hard to earn the opportunity to go play softball in college."
Third baseman Baylee Goddard says there was no doubt where she saw herself playing in college.
"Florida is my dream school, my family loved it there and I've wanted to be a Gator my whole life," said Goddard.
Pitcher Madisyn Davis thanked her parents for driving more than two hours each way to Orlando for additional coaching. It is that extra effort that Davis says makes the difference.
"We work so hard, we just want to get our work in when we can," said Davis, who will pitch for UCF in the fall. "We work in the rain and the snow if it ever snowed, I'm sure we would be out there. In fact, today is just another day of practice after we sign."
Twin sisters Jazmine and Caitlynne Lamug have never not played on the same team. Continuing that in college was a big deal to them both.
"We literally do everything together," said Jazmine. "So, this right here is just amazing. I am so happy for us both."
"We have always been together like she said," said Caitlynne. "We have always have had that chemistry and it was just a goal of ours that we had to accomplish."