Vikettes’ Griffin looks forward to future at GSW

Published 4:26 pm Wednesday, April 18, 2018

VALDOSTA — Haley Griffin has spent the past four years as an integral part of a Lowndes softball powerhouse.

She’ll spend her next four working to lift the softball program at Georgia Southwestern to the same level after signing a letter-of-intent with the Hurricanes on Wednesday in the Lowndes High School auxiliary gym.

With Griffin patrolling the outfield, the Vikettes went 97-34 over the past four seasons, punctuated by a pair of Elite 8 appearances and three Region 1-7A championships.

In her final two seasons, Griffin hit seven home runs and 12 doubles while driving in 45 runs — earning All-Region 1-7A honors as both a junior and senior.

Griffin felt her production warranted an offer from a Division I program, but by the end of the process, she was just thankful to play college softball.

“It was stressful at first, because I really didn’t know if I was going to find anywhere to go,” Griffin said. “I really wanted to go D1, but I knew that after a certain point I wasn’t going to…

“I went to a camp, and (GSW head coach Nicki Levering) was talking to me, and she finally told me she was going to be able to bring me on and give me a scholarship and all that, and it was just so much. It was kind of like a weight lifted off.”

Coming from one of the premiere high school softball programs in the state, Griffin’s could face a culture shock in her transition to playing at Georgia Southwestern.

Since leaving the NAIA to join the NCAA in 2007, the Hurricanes have had just one winning season, finishing 29-26 in 2013. Over the past four seasons, GSW is 80-127 overall and 25-67 in the Peach Belt Conference.

But Griffin is excited for the future of the program under the direction of first-year coach Levering, and she’s looking forward to acting as a catalyst in the turnaround.

“It’s all going to be a new process,” Griffin said. “I feel that she’s going to bring in stronger athletes, and whatnot, and try to build the program.

“I feel that my class can be the start of that.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.