As senior Jessie Wheelock walked into the Grill anyone could sense the excitement she was feeling. The Milligan softball team had just beaten Union College in the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament on Wednesday, meaning that she got at least one more game to play before her college softball career ends.

 

With eye black on, she told me how they were able to come from behind in the last inning to beat Union 6-3 and proceed to the next game in the tournament. Being a senior, this is Wheelock’s last AAC tournament and possibly her last tournament ever.

 

“I never realized how much was on the line when tournament time came,” Wheelock said. “You have a new perspective when you are a senior and each game you play could be your last. Now I wish I would have played harder when I was an underclassman.”

 

Wheelock, a business major, knew she wanted to go to Milligan since she was in high school. From Gray, Tennessee, she grew up around Milligan alumni, and went to many of the softball games. But she knew that softball was a means to an education.

 

“Education will always come before softball,” she said. “Softball was a way for me to get through college, which was actually a huge positive because obviously I love it.”

 

When Wheelock graduates next week she wants to be able to coach even though that’s not what her degree is in. When she began to talk about what coaching means to her, her face lit up, exclaiming that she already had two job offers.

 

“I want to be able to watch those girls succeed,” she said with a smile. “I want to be the kind of coach that has a great team on the field, but even more so off the field.”

 

Wheelock says that Milligan has fostered her passion for being a coach, noting that

the community she has known over the past four years has been amazing. Someday, she wants to have a team that reflects the ideals that Milligan athletes pursue during their time here, like community and constant learning.

 

“I knew from the moment I saw Milligan that it was some place I wanted to be,” she said. “I look forward to taking a little piece of here with me as I graduate.”