When you play for a program like Lady Tigers softball, it can be hard to crack the starting lineup. Just ask Marlee Scroggins, who didn’t start on the varsity team until she was a senior, and is now headed to the college ranks as a player for North Arkansas Community College.
“Sometimes it was hard,” Scroggins says of her limited playing time as an underclassman. “Even though I didn’t play a whole lot of varsity, I did get a lot of spotlight on the JV team, and I did get to pitch some on varsity in tournaments. But Dishman just told me, keep working hard, you’ll have your chance. It’s going to come. And my senior year, it did come.”
Dishman says Scroggins was an important part of last fall’s record-breaking Lady Tiger season both on and off the field.
“You never had to question Marlee on her commitment. She would be there every day, no matter where you needed her. It didn’t matter if you called her ten minutes ahead of time. She’d hurry up and get up here,” Dishman says. “She’d round the girls up, and if we had to change plans real quick, she was our communicator and our vocal leader this year.”
Scroggins carried that commitment over to her desire to play softball in college, where she initially had to seek out potential matches. That eventually changed.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of offers at first. I had to go out and contact coaches on my own, which was a big key,” she says. “Once I started contacting coaches, it was one after another after another. I wanted to make a decision one week, then I had another coach call me and say ‘Hey, could you come and see what we have to offer?'”
Dishman says now that Scroggins has settled on NorthArk, he expects to see her do well.
“She’s going to be very successful in school and in life for the quality she carries,” Dishman says.