Finding Their Way Home

Dreams do come true. It sounds like a tag line for a Disney movie, but it’s reality for three South Carolina softball players who dreamed of playing for the Gamecocks as youngsters, only to start their collegiate careers elsewhere and later find their way to Columbia via the transfer portal to wear the garnet and black this season. When Ashley Chastain Woodard left Charlotte to become South Carolina’s head coach at the end of last spring, Lexi Winters, Nealy Lamb, and Emily Vinson jumped into the portal, hoping to get a call to come back home, despite all of them having success at their other schools.

“I grew up 20 minutes away from here,” said junior catcher Lexi Winters, a native of Lexington, who transferred from Charlotte, following Chastain Woodard to Columbia. “I was a bat girl a few times here when I was around nine and 12 years old. I went to every single softball camp, the little kid camps, and all the prospect camps when my recruitment started. It was a dream of mine to play here. I would come to any game I could. My recruitment here didn’t line up initially because they already had catchers, so I had to look other places. Now it just feels so full-circle. I didn’t think I was ever going to end up here.”

“I grew up going to a lot of softball and football games here,” said sophomore pitcher Nealy Lamb who grew up in Cades, S.C., and transferred from Charleston Southern. “I always had a dream to play softball here, too. When I was a kid, I ran out on to the field here with my little team maybe three different times. I didn’t think I’d end up here when my recruitment led me in a different direction. When I found out that Coach Ash had accepted the job here, I thought, this is my chance!”

“I grew up in Columbia,” said Emily Vinson, a senior outfielder whose family is now in nearby Elgin. She transferred from Longwood and went into the portal for the sole reason of trying to get Chastain to have her come to South Carolina. “Like the others, I went to the camps and ran on to the field with the players when I was younger. I was a bat girl, too, when I was little. I went back and forth as to whether I should go in the portal or not because this is my last year of eligibility. Through my recruiting process, I really liked Coach Ash and her staff at Charlotte, but it just ended up not working out, but when I saw she was coming here, I felt like it was a big opportunity. I entered the portal on the last day you could do it. For me, it was Carolina or bust!”

Despite playing at three different schools, the trio knew each other well enough as they sometimes played on the same team as youngsters and played against each other as well, all the way up to the collegiate level. Now that they’re here and wearing the garnet and black, they are truly living the dream.

“Every day, I walk into the locker room and it’s great because it’s something I never thought I’d get to experience,” said Vinson, who is studying psychology. “To have those same dreams rekindled and be able to live it every day, it’s really special.”

“Every time I get on the field, the same feeling keeps happening,” said Lamb, who is a public health major. “I keep thinking, this isn’t real. I’m so grateful to be here.”

“I don’t think it will really hit me until we play our first real game at home,” said Winters, who is studying psychology.

Moving to a new school can be challenging, so far, it’s been a smooth transition.

“It was challenging at first, but they made it easy from the beginning,” Lamb said. “The friendships I’ve made just continue to grow.”

“The hard part for me is going through a lot of things for the last time,” Vinson said. “It’s my last year, but at the same time it is such a new experience. Some of it is bittersweet because it’s the last time, but since it’s in a new place, it’s pretty cool as well.”

“Just being able to create and build relationships, it has been really cool to see, even with a lot of new friendships, too,” Winters said.

Each has proven themselves at their previous stops, and now they hope to pick up where they left off while helping the team reach its goals.

“We’ve all received high awards at our previous schools, and I know for me, I want to uphold that and show that I can do it here,” Winters said. “I was defensive player of the year for the American Athletic Conference last year, and I want to build on that. I don’t feel like I necessarily have to prove myself again, but I want to use that as a foundation and build on that.”

“I just want to keep being competitive and not stay stagnant,” Lamb said. “I’m just going to keep pushing myself to be better.”

“I want to put a bow on my softball career,” Vinson said. “Whatever I can do to better the team in my last year playing softball, that’s what I want to do. It’s more about what the team can do, and what I can do for the team.”