Worth The Wait

STARKVILLE – For many National Signing Day is a dream come true, but for a handful, it's a stressful day of waiting or a painful reminder of an offer that didn't come. While the majority of college-bound softball players select their next destination in November, every year there are some who secure that offer a little later.

For Salen Hawkins and Jadyn Burney the wait paid off.

Hawkins still has the first text message she got from Mississippi State. The date was June 30, and associate head coach Tyler Bratton was playing golf.

"You know, he's a jokester," Hawkins recalled. "He had golfed near our place in California, and I could've seen him if I was there, but I think I'd actually been at the beach. He was like, 'I'm right by you! I'll wave over at you!' but it was just a little bit too late."

The previous summer, her recruitment had taken a step backwards when she was injured at a major tournament. While diving back to a base, she landed awkwardly and fractured a bone in her wrist. The rest of her junior summer was spent on the bench recovering, and she missed out on the chance to show coaches what she could do.

One of the biggest hurdles she faced in the recruiting process was finding a coach who would understand why her path had been a little unconventional.

"I've had like a tough life before, so I needed someone that would be understanding and would really want me to be there and understand what I've been through," Hawkins said. "[Head] Coach [Samantha] Ricketts was very understanding and didn't judge me. She knew my softball skills, but she was also very understanding of what happened in the past. That's all I needed really, from a coach."

Burney, on the other hand, had taken the junior college route out of high school. She had been coming to camps in Starkville since she was a kid, and playing in the SEC had always been a dream.

"Going into junior college, I had a mindset of wanting to play juco for my own sake,
Burney said. "Going there let me get mentally stronger and tougher. That was a me thing. Coming out of there, I knew I wanted to play, and I knew I was capable of playing bigger ball."

She went to one last camp at Mississippi State, and she had a message for Ricketts and the staff.

"I just told her if you give me a chance, I'll go from there," Burney said. "I had a few schools looking at me, and I told her this is something that I want to do, even if that's just helping the team by pushing girls. It was very scary to me, but I put my trust in Ricketts. I knew she had a choice, but she knew that I was coming here to compete."

Adding to the hurdles they faced, both Hawkins and Burney were being extremely selective throughout the recruiting process. For Burney, playing in Mississippi was a must. Meanwhile, Hawkins knew that the west coast and any northern climate were going to be out of the question.

"I have always been very picky about which school I wanted to go to," Hawkins said. "One of my teammates had told me, 'When you know, you know,' so I'd been waiting for that homey feeling. I never got that with the other schools that would interest me or have interest in me."

That moment came as soon as she reached Starkville. Hawkins visited in July, and by the end of the visit an offer was on the table.

"I pulled [my dad] aside and said, 'I think I want to go here,' and he said, 'I think it's good for you too,'" Hawkins said. "Obviously, I was a late add, but right away when I committed, Megan Davidson texted me congrats and added me to the big group chat with everyone else. She did a really good job of talking to me before I came, and I really appreciated that."

After signing with State, Burney had a chance to reflect on her journey when the Bulldogs hosted her former teammates in a fall exhibition.

"When we played the juco teams, there's nothing I can do but smile because I was there last year," she said. "I know how it feels to go from fangirling over these girls to being a part of them. I know from watching from the outside to signing to play ball, and you just have to take it all in. This is not impossible. Junior college is not the end of the road. You put in hard work, and you'll get it."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jadyn Burney

Megan Davidson

Salen Hawkins

Related Videos