Bound for Greatness: Junior Paige Stanfield committed to play Division 1 softball at the University of Alabama only seven days after NCAA D1 coaches could start talking to her

Junior Paige Stanfield brushed back the sides of her brown hair in front of her mirror, twisting a rubber band around it to form a tight ponytail. Meticulously, she wound elastics along the length of her ponytail, “bubbling’ the sections as they were tied off. To finish off her lucky softball hairstyle she added a crimson bow.

The bow was more than Stanfield’s “lucky color” or the only ribbon she could find at Target. It represents her lifelong dream of committing to a Division 1 school.

“It’s kind of weird, but I always do bubbles in my hair and then I put a ribbon in my hair,” Stanfield said. “It was always a white ribbon, but now it’s going to be a crimson ribbon for Alabama.”

Stanfield committed to play softball at the University of Alabama on Sept. 8 — just eight days after NCAA Division 1 schools were allowed to start talking to her. Throughout her 12-year-long softball career, her desire to play Division 1 has never wavered. 

The morning of Sept. 1, her inboxes were filled with various calls, emails and letters from Power Four and mid-major schools. The Alabama coach, however, called her right at midnight on Sept. 1. 

“They called and said that [they were] so excited that they get to talk to her now and really wanted her at [Alabama],” Stanfield’s mother Christy Rose said. “That’s when they invited her for the official visit.”

Two days later, Stanfield and Rose were on a plane to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The campus was familiar to them, as Rose’s grandparents attended the university. But seeing the school as a potential student-athlete was a whole different ballgame for Stanfield. 

“It was amazing, obviously, just picturing yourself being in the buildings where they said, ‘Oh, this is where your classes would be,’” Stanfield said. “When you finally commit you’re like, ‘Holy cow’ I’m actually gonna be there.”

Stanfield admired the “SEC vibe” of the school through the repetitive masonry and southern atmosphere of the campus. She has always wanted to return to the South after living in Tennessee for 14 years.

“Softball is really big in the south, in the area that we moved from it’s a known thing,” Rose said. “It’s kind of like how soccer here is really big.”

Her life in Tennessee was filled with stolen bases and strikeouts since she started playing softball at four years old. In 10 years, she went from her hometown Little League to playing third bases in national tournaments on a traveling team.

The softball showcases she has been playing at for nearly five years got the attention of Alabama’s head softball coach, Patrick Murphy. 

“We had seen him at the games and he talked to [Stanfield’s] coaches, but you know, they’re not allowed to tell us anything until Sept. 1,” Rose said.

Paige received her official verbal offer from Murphy on Sept. 7 while on her campus visit. While she can finally cross being committed to a D1 school off her lifelong bucket list, she still needs to remain in top shape. 

“I feel like some of the pressure is taken off of me, but then again, I feel like more pressure is added on,” Stanfield said. “I just feel like I have to perform so much better now.”