Jordyn Reese is going to the city of Miami. Reese, a senior at Perryville High School, recently signed a letter of intent to further her education and continue her softball career at Florida International University. FIU is an NCAA Division I school located in Greater Miami and is a member of Conference USA. Reese originally planned to sign with UMBC before FIU made an offer after Retrievers coach Heather Gelbard moved from Catonsville to South Beach.
It was not a difficult decision. The location and climate played a role. "Miami is a great place to be," Reese said. "The campus is beautiful and the school is honestly what I always wanted in a school since I first started looking at schools when I was nine years old and started travel [softball]. It had everything I wanted in a school to begin with." FIU is also a better fit academically. "They had my major which UMBC didn't," said Reese. "They had something which I could do to work as my major but it wasn't my actual major. I want to major in biomedical engineering. UMBC had mechanical engineering and I could minor in biological sciences but it didn't have the specific major that I wanted." Reese visited the FIU and instantly fell in love with the campus. "It's pretty big," said Reese. "There's like 60,000 students but some of them are online so it's not that bad. The buildings are very modern which is really cool. Palm trees which are nice. The stadium for softball beautiful. All the facilities are really nice." Gelbard initially envisioned Reese as a third baseman but Reese has shown her versatility during her high school and travel ball careers and is capable of playing an infield position. "I guess we'll just see what happens when I get there," Reese said. "Jordyn is a wonderful young lady," Gelbard said. "The first time I saw Jordyn was at a camp, and her skills certainly stood out. However, what really impressed me was seeing her play live in a real game. She made two diving plays and hit the cover off the ball. What stood out to me was her toughness. I expect her to bring a big bat to our team, but also toughness. At the Division 1 level, I expect her to hit for a solid average and be a consistent hitter, but also have good power. When you talk to her, you quickly learn how committed she is and how much she loves the game of softball. I know Jordyn will be putting in the work necessary to challenge for playing time right away as a freshman." Reese flourished under the leadership of Perryville coach Dave Ruark after honing her skills with the Maryland Legends travel program operated by Ed and Renie Lynch. "They, honestly, mean everything," Reese said of the Legends. "I wouldn't be where I am now or going as far as I am without Ed Lynch and his wife, Renie. They pretty much taught me everything I know about softball. They kept the love of the game alive for me. Playing Little League is fun, but it doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. With playing travel and the competitiveness, because I'm extremly competitive, it really set a spark in me and made me love the game even more, showing me what the competitive spirit could be." Reese says travel softball and the Legends in particular provide players with an opportunity to earn college scholarships if they are willing to invest the time and effort. "More recently, softball has become a bigger sport, especially in our county," said Reese. "And I think that with the new travel community up and coming, it's really helping people. We travel a lot. I know, Molly Dill [of Rising Sun] and Jessica Choplinsky [of North East], they travel a good bit, too. We just went to Myrtle Beach. Being able to be seen by coaches, and especially being from such a small area, you don't get that up here. You don't get to be seen by coaches from Florida or Texas or [places] like that. Being able to travel and having these travel teams go so far and make connections with coaches really sets out people who work hard, people like Jess, UMBC, being able to be seen is a big thing. I think people up here are finally getting the opportunity." Reese is leaning toward not playing her senior season for the Panthers. "I'm going to work out with my travel coach and go to the gym," she said. "I'm going to the gym as much as I can. I was going six days a week in the summer. I'm going to try to get back to that." A key contributor from the beginning of her freshman season, Reese will be remembered most for the crucial role she played in undefeated Perryville's 2016 state title 10-9 triumph over Boonsboro. Reese doubled in the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth and scored the championship-clinching run on an Ashley Meekins sacrifice fly. "That was a great run," Reese said. "That team was very cohesive. We all got along even me coming as a freshman, they were very welcoming. We just had good communication, especially on the field. We were very superstitious. I wore the same socks the entire season. My socks had holes. It was not even socks anymore. Coming into that [championship] game, we were very nervous. When we went to extra innings and the international tiebreaker, everybody was kind of like rundown. You could tell everybody was tired but we really relied on each other, trusted each other, and that's what really helped. As far as that impacting me to go to FIU, it showed me what a good team looked like. UMBC is a decent program but FIU is impeccable. I met some of the girls there and they just seemed to have that same chemistry, whereas UMBC, you could feel the tension sometimes. So that was another influence." Comments are closed.
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