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Halley Randolph

Softball Chris Brannick

In Their Words: Halley Randolph

A Student-Athlete's Account of the Year Unlike Any Other

As a global pandemic, COVID-19 has affected the on-goings of everyday life in countries around the world, in the United States and even at Central. For many UCO student-athletes, their seasons came to an abrupt end much sooner than expected. This is the experience of softball player Halley Randolph – in her own words.
 
Prior to leaving we did bullpens and we hit a little. With the Thunder game being cancelled the night before, we all had an uneasy feeling. We get on the bus, another league had cancelled and the Ivy League had shut it down, so we get on the bus hoping for the best, but it was a super uneasy feeling.
 
We were all kind of sitting there talking, because nothing had really hit yet. We thought we could at least get through the weekend. Then Coach White comes back there with tears in his eyes and we just knew. And he told us all NCAA postseason has been cancelled. And, it broke us, the amount of emotion that ran through that bus was unreal.
 
Then he came back like 20 minutes later and said, guys, they just cancelled our whole season.
 
His voice was shaky. Him and Coach Hunter, seeing two grown men coaches that put their whole lives into coaching the way they did, we didn't know how to respond. People were bawling and crying. It was just gut wrenching. It was a feeling that I would never wish upon anybody. It's a feeling that I'll never forget for the rest of our lives, him saying, guys our season's just been cancelled.
 
I've lived in Stillwater my whole entire life. I actually played baseball competitively until I was 13. I played basketball, baseball, and soccer.
 
My heart was in basketball. The competitiveness in softball and baseball and the grit, the grind I felt like I was putting in for softball and baseball had my heart way more than it did in basketball and I absolutely fell in love with the game.
 
I played baseball till I was 13, then played softball around Stillwater when I was 14, then was I was 15, I started making the commute to Oklahoma City to play softball. So I've played since I was three years old.
 
I remember coming on campus, and the campus looked nothing like it did right now. We had the dirt field, we didn't have a locker room, we didn't have an indoor, we didn't have the SPC. It's nothing compared to what it is now. I remember sitting in the office and Coach White was showing me the plans. And we were overlooking the softball field, the dirt field, and they had won it the year before. They had won the national championship the year before. I knew it right then.
 
The way that Coach White and Coach Hunter were talking to me, it was a family atmosphere. It was genuine to me and they've proved that ever since I stepped on campus. It's been bigger than softball. It's about making us better people. It was the family atmosphere and I was drawn to the way the facilities were going to look and I wanted to be part of that change.
 
I tell the girls all the time they have no idea. It's because of people like Coach Pinkston and the girls that played before us is why we have what we do. Coach Pinkston does everything she can for this program. She's amazing. But it's because of the people that laid the foundation before us that we are able to have what we have now.
 
If you would have told me when I was a freshman that the place would look the way it does now, it doesn't look like the same place. But the family atmosphere is the same thing. I am beyond honored to have what we do. Nobody owes us anything, but it's because of the people that came before us that we are able to have what we have now.
 
When I woke up the next morning after the season was cancelled it felt like a dream. It was like, wake me up from this nightmare. I caught myself just sitting in my room thinking, is this real life? You don't hear about that stuff. We didn't have, for the seniors, we didn't have the year we wanted. We didn't have the start we wanted. But we had just come off of a sweep against Rogers State, who is a really good team and is ranked nationally really high. We came off that sweep and we felt like that was the momentum we needed and then, it was just over.
 
Our immediate feeling was, we'll never put on a softball uniform again. The game we've known for 18 years is totally ripped away from us in an instant. It didn't even seem real. We were trying to take it in and just be there for each other but there was nothing we could do. That was the worst part. We didn't get to end on our own terms.
 
I was already a fifth-year and I'll graduate in May. If we get that eligibility back, can my body go for a sixth year? I was sitting there and everything in me was telling me, this isn't how this was supposed to go. So in minutes, like seconds, I knew that I wanted to go back out there and give it another shot. It didn't end the way it was supposed to and you don't work your whole life for something just to let it end.
 
My Dad told me, Halley you have your whole life to do everything else, you're being given one more year to play, why would you not? And from then, I knew that I needed to end on my own terms.
 
The only thing that was concerning me was, can my body take it. I've had shoulder surgery, I've had the fifth-year, I've done the offseason, the grinds that every athlete understands. And that was the only thing that was stopping me. Then I was like, I have a chance to go back and play with one of the, this team that we have this year as a family, was the closest team that I've ever been a part of.

The family atmosphere that we had wasn't something that I was ready to give up. The underclassmen, they came in and bonded with me immediately and all the girls that have been there from the get-go, I've been there since they've been there. I feel like I owe it to myself to give it another shot with them. Because we didn't have the season we wanted. We have a chip on our shoulder now. We know what we're capable of and we didn't show it. For me, it's we have something to prove and I'm not ready to be done with that.
 
I think with the leadership roles that we have, we have a lot of leaders, and leaders that emerged as this year went on as we faced adversity. We saw leaders emerge as time went on. We finally got that momentum against Rogers State and saw what we were capable of and that was that fire we needed. We were like, if we can sweep the number whatever team in the country then why can't we win out the year.
 
The talent we have coming in is unreal. And we all have the opportunity to come back. So it's the same team we're just adding more people to make us even better. I'm super excited for next year and I wouldn't want it any other way now.
 
 
 
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Players Mentioned

Halley Randolph

#17 Halley Randolph

C
5' 9"
Senior
R/R

Players Mentioned

Halley Randolph

#17 Halley Randolph

5' 9"
Senior
R/R
C
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