Many athletes who play for both school and club teams come to a decision throughout their career that they want to further their athletic career and continue to play their sport into college. This is a very rigorous and difficult process but once you make the decision and commit to the college of your dreams, all of that hard work will pay off and the feeling is extremely rewarding. This was the case for Mendham High School senior Jamie Carfagna. I sat down with Jamie to talk about her process of committing to a D3 school for softball. 

Jamie has been playing softball since she was in Kindergarten, playing rec from 2nd-7th grade, and started competitively playing in 6th grade. She continued to play on her club teams as she entered high school and freshman year was placed on the varsity team and has been on that team ever since. Jamie is an outfielder and has played on many club teams including her current team the EC Bullets which has girls from all over the East Coast and NJ Venom. Both of these teams “knew what they were doing and helped her learn the skills needed for college-level softball”. 

When asked how the decision was made to play in college, there was no

hesitation. Jamie has always known from a young age that she would be continuing to play softball in college. It was around 7th grade that it truly hit her that this is what her dream was and that she needed to get even more serious if she wanted to accomplish her goals. Describing the process Jamie went through all of the steps for me. She said how “it was a truly difficult process to go through, having to email coaches every single day and having a lot of patience was really hard”. She recommends really putting yourself out there, inviting coaches to your games, going to camps, and also making sure that you know what type of school you are looking for to make the process easier. On July 6th, 2020, Jamie got the offer from Muhlenberg College and officially

committed to play softball there for the next four years. All of her hard work, dedication, and patience had finally paid off for her. 

Now that she is finally committed to playing softball in college, she is most excited about “being able to meet new people and learn new things about the sport I love”. Being able to play the sport that you love in college is a truly rewarding feeling and when talking about softball you could really see the passion behind it for Jamie. She says how she loves “how it’s a team sport that everyone depends on you for so if you make a mistake it’s on you, and that’s really changed my mindset on everyday life to push myself to be the best I can be ”. With this challenging process, Jamie’s advice for handling it is to be patient and to make sure you get your emails out to the coaches. She reminds everyone that “I know it’s a hard process but as time goes on you will get there, I never thought I would see the end but you will find your place”.