With all the hype around the Tiffin Dragons lately, it's been pretty easy for me to forget that the Radford Highlanders have been doing some pretty great things as well. If you are familiar with the old Highlander movie(s) and TV show, you probably can see what I did there with the title of this post.
Although my niece isn't yet attending Radford, she plans on going there in the fall and she has committed to play softball for them on their team. It has been fun following along with their progress through the season even though we don't technically have any skin the game yet.
The biggest difference between Radford and Tiffin is that Tiffin is a D2 school. That puts them one level below the big name schools that you are probably familiar with. Radford on the other hand is technically in the same league as those major universities, but it's not in one of the power conferences that many of us who follow college sports have come to know and love.
Radford is part of the Big South conference, and while it may sound impressive, you would likely struggle to find any big name schools in said conference. That doesn't mean they aren't worth keeping an eye on though.
In fact, the head coach of the Radford Highlanders was just named coach of the year in the Big South conference. That's pretty impressive given it is his first year with the Highlanders. My niece had already committed to playing for Radford when the school decided to part ways with their old coach. She was a bit nervous about who they might pick as a replacement. After all, it had been the previous coach that recruited her.
What if the new coach didn't want her? What if she didn't like the new coach as much as she liked the old coach? There were a hundred different possibilities when the firing was announced. Thankfully, she stuck it out, and after meeting some of the new staff, her fears were tossed away. If anything, it sounds like she might have a better experience with this new coach than she would have with the old one.
Radford finished their regular season with a three game sweep of Presbyterian University 7-2, 10-0 in five innings, and 3-2 in Clinton South Carolina.
Tomorrow they start their journey through the Big South conference tournament before they see if they are going to make it to the NCAA Women's College World Series. I think they need to win the tournament championship to make it there, but I am not exactly sure. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
I'm thinking I might need to sign up for ESPN+ just so I can watch the games.
Whether I do or not, you know I will be following along with the stats and I wish the Highlanders the best of luck in the post season!
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