TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Florida High softball team admittingly didn't like their premature exit from the postseason last year. Led by a talented group of seniors, the Seminoles are doing their part to make this year one to remember, and Maddie Mayo is making sure of it.
"She's going to take rep after rep," said Florida High head softball coach Brittany Gilliam, who described Mayo as a perfectionist. "If she doesn't get it right, she wants that same exact ball."
It's something that's made her who she is today.
"I think it's actually bad how much of a perfectionist I am," she laughed. "I know in school, 99's are the worst thing ever, and it's the same on the softball field. I always want to come out here and five 100%."
Perfection pays off. Mayo has a 4.55 GPA, and on the softball field? She earned herself a scholarship to play at Florida Atlantic.
"It makes me a better coach that somebody is willing to pout in the work that she puts in and it makes you proud that there is somebody on the field willing to lay it all out," said Gilliam.
"Time management is the biggest thing, just keeping softball and school in check," said Mayo. "Everything I've done in the process is paying off and I get to go play in paradise."
But paradise will wait, as Mayo has big goals to finish off her time in Tallahassee.
"Obviously losing in regionals was terrible, nobody wanted to do that," she said. "I think it's helped us see what we have to do for this year to get back there and get past this point and hopefully win a state championship."
A state title is what this team has circled.
"They're throwing BP, they're taking ground ball work, and they're doing everything in their power," said Gilliam. "We're so talented. We have a target on their back. They just want to dominate."
The extra things to get where they want to be.
"She wants to do it, and she rises to the occasion, and it makes her teammates around her better," said Gilliam.
"I think it will pay off at the end of the season," added Mayo.
Perfect practice to make sure this season ends perfectly. Mayo said she's though about majoring in civil engineering, but is now leaning towards actuarial science.
