Former Lady Colonel Lindsey Shope living out her dream as softball player at UofC

When Lindsey Shope came onto the scene for the Whitley County High School softball program as a sophomore in 2018, she made an immediate impact from inside the pitching circle. The missing component in the Lady Colonels’ recipe for success, Shope helped lead the team to a 50th District title in 2019, as well as an appearance in the 13th Region championship tournament semifinals.

She followed that up with an impressive showing on the basketball court during the winter of her senior year, finishing a close second on the team leaderboard for total points scored during the season.

Then the unimaginable happened.

In the spring of 2020, Whitley County, the state of Kentucky, the United States of America and the entire world were changed forever by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Here at home, that meant a lot of things.

It meant losing loved ones. It meant businesses had to temporarily close their doors. It meant schools could not conduct in-person classes. And for so many athletes like Shope, it meant a gut-wrenching early end to their high school athletic careers.

To think back on those dark days is extremely difficult, but life did eventually return to some sense of normalcy. Businesses re-opened, schools went back into session, and athletic contests resumed.

In Shope’s case, the question of “what if” will always be there. No doubt, she would have loved to find out what her and her Lady Colonel teammates could have accomplished together during the spring of 2020, but these days she is more concerned with helping her new teammates as a Patriot at the University of the Cumberlands.

“Playing at the college level has always been my dream,” Shope said recently. “So I am thankful to now be living my dream as a college student-athlete.”

“Playing in college has been so different, but also so much fun. College is a lot different than high school, and there is always someone better than you in college sports. I miss high school, but playing at the college level has been my dream since I was six.”

Shope and the Patriots softball team went 35-16 this past season, with her and several of her teammates being named to the Mid-South Conference Academic All-Conference team for softball. In fact, Cumberlands led the entire conference this season with a total of 23 academic honorees.

On the field, the team compiled an overall record of 21 wins and five losses against conference opponents during the regular season. They came up short in the early stages of the 2022 MSC championship tournament, though, closing out their campaign with a pair of disappointing losses to visiting Georgetown College on April 28-29.

Obviously, grades are just as important to Shope as wins and losses. She says that her goal is twofold during her final two years at UC – maintaining her academic standing while also continuing to contribute on the softball field. After that, she is hoping to become an elementary school teacher, and also a coach.

To learn more about the University of the Cumberlands softball program, as well as all other Patriot athletics, visit them online at www.cumberlandspatriots.com.