Softball Super Mom

It takes a village to raise a child, especially when you are a Division I student-athlete competing in one of the toughest softball leagues in the nation.

Balancing motherhood, sport and school is no easy task and can’t be done alone. 

For left-handed pitcher Madison Preston, her village came together in Aggieland where she reconnected with her former head coach after two years away from the game to close things out on her terms.

Madison started her college career at Alabama in 2018, where she pitched two seasons before transferring to Arizona State to play under now-Texas A&M head coach Trisha Ford. She planned to finish college and softball there.

However, the plans were cut short and life as she knew it changed after finding out she was pregnant with her daughter, Kendri, a couple of days before practice started for the 2021 season. 

“I cried on opening day because I was so sad,” Madison said. “I wasn’t expecting to be as sad as I was when I left softball. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m done with it. That’s it. Time to move on.’”

During the pregnancy, Madison moved back to her hometown of Centralia, Missouri, to finish out her liberal studies degree online at Arizona State. Following graduation and the birth of Kendri, Madison got a job selling insurance and working in a surgical center. Her post-college and softball life had begun and she was content for awhile.

Until she realized she missed the sport more than anything and wanted to finish what she started.

“When you go to college, you expect to do four years, finish, and be proud of what you did,” Madison said. “It’s not that I wasn't proud of what I had done, it's just that it was unfinished. I felt like I didn't finish it the right way. I did obviously miss softball and I just wanted to do things the right way and finish it the right way. I didn't want to have any regrets about, ‘Oh, I could have done this, I could have done that.’ So, I decided to come back.”

It was at the start of the 2022 season when she felt compelled to reach out to Ford and inquire about coming back to the game. Ford transformed the sport for Madison during her time at Arizona State, and they grew close in a way that a lot of players do with the 13-year head coach because of her open, friendly personality. Their natural connection is why Madison feels like she has another mother in Ford.

“My relationship with Coach Ford is really special,” Madison said. ”I’ve never had a player-coach relationship like it. Obviously, it started out at ASU. Heading to ASU, I was struggling a lot with softball, and I feel like she really made me gain my confidence back and made me fall in love with the game again. So, when I was thinking about coming back, I knew that I wanted her to be my coach because we did have that relationship and I trusted her a lot.”

The call that Ford got from Madison while still coaching at Arizona State was something that left her speechless- which is not something that happens very often. Madison wanted to come back and pitch. 

“When asking her, I knew she was going to shoot me straight if it was possible or not,” Madison said with a laugh. “I knew because we had that relationship, she would be willing to work with me and she would understand. It ended up turning out perfectly.”

Ford had a lot of questions though. How does she see this working out? What is she envisioning? Has she been working out? Is she in shape? Has she been throwing? Is she strong enough?

The truth to those answers were that she had not touched a ball, but that she was going to start. After spending a full day of working, Madison would go to the neighborhood park with Morgan, her sister, and Morgan’s boyfriend would catch her for hours before heading back to the house to attend to mom duties. Weeks and months went by before Ford checked back in with Madison’s father Jeff for an update and he assured that she was not only as good as she was when she left, but she was even better. 

So, when Texas A&M hired Ford to be the new head coach of the softball program, conversations with Madison shifted from “Can you still do this?” to, “Where are we at scholarship-wise?” Preston would be a fit for Texas A&M, as they needed a pitcher like her, who was a left-handed “downballer.” 

“She knows me,” Ford said. “She knows my system. She’s played in the SEC before. It ended up being a really good fit.”

When Madison entered the transfer portal after the 2022 season, she was shocked at how quickly her phone blew up with offers. After all, she hadn’t pitched in two seasons. Ford reassured her that her talents before the hiatus did not go unnoticed to schools, as pitching, especially when you are left-handed, is heavily sought out in the game.

Despite the enticing offers from multiple different programs, Madison only had one wish: to pitch under Ford.

“I felt really honored and humbled because she told me she wasn’t going to come back for anyone else but me,” Ford said. “I was very taken aback by it, and at a loss for words. It means a lot to me because I know what she’s gone through. I know what she’s capable of doing.”

Once she made the decision to come back to softball and attend Texas A&M, she had five weeks to mentally and physically prepare herself for the rigorous responsibility it would take to be a part of a D1 program again, but now as a mother. She continued the daily grind of working her 7-5 job, practice pitching after work, put Kendri to bed and then finish the night with run.

“It was hard, but I was more prepared than I thought. I was tired a lot,” Madison said with a laugh. “It was terrible. I never want to do that again. My days were so long.”

“I don’t know how she found the time to eat with her days like that,” her mother, Missie Preston, chimed in.

Juggling softball, school and motherhood would not be an easier task. Finding that routine was tricky at first, but eventually she got the hang of it. The time away from Kendri was the hard part. 

“In softball, we have times where we travel, and times where my mom has to take her home to Missouri with her… it’s hard,” Madison said. “It was hard to spend time away from her. But, once we found a routine, and obviously with my mom’s help, it was a lot easier. Also, once I got myself physically and mentally back into softball and school mode, I thought that it was not that bad, and that I could do it.”

Missie is the piece that allows her daughter to finish her dreams. After Madison committed, Missie moved down to College Station to help out with Kendri and ease the pressure off of her daughter from juggling all of her responsibilities. 

“She has helped me tremendously because honestly, without her, I wouldn’t have been able to do it with our schedule. Kendri wouldn’t have been able to go to daycare, so she helps me so much,” Madison said. “I feel like it is special to have a mom like her, especially being a mom myself. If I'm half the mom that she is and make half the sacrifices that she has, then I'm doing a pretty good job, especially after this year.”

How Missie has witnessed Madison grow into the woman and mom she is today by helping take care of Kendri in College Station is something that is very valuable to her. She admires the decision Madison made in coming back to softball. Despite the hustle and bustle of all that Madison is dealing with, she never fails to be there and provide for Kendri, whether that be forgoing team dinners to spend time with her or having to move a workout around to be able to drop her mom and daughter off at the airport.

“She has put Kendri first above everything else,” Missie said. “Even softball, even though softball was the commitment here. She’s always made Kendri come first, and I love that about her. She has been a magnificent mom. She’s been a good teammate to her team. She’s done her part, she’s filled her role as a player. Mostly, I’m so proud of her for her dedication to Kendri and being able to put her first. She thinks of her needs and wants first.”

Everything that Missie does off the field allows Madison to do what she has done on the field for Texas A&M this season. It has been the best season of her career, highlighted by pitching a no-hitter to open the year and tossing 6.0 innings to defeat No. 3 Tennessee. She has been tough for hitters to handle, amassing a career-high 61 strikeouts on the season. 

None of that matters to Madison, though, as her favorite part of playing softball again is having Kendri in the stands to support her. It is what makes her happy, and when she is pitching, to be able to look over and see her daughter is her “reset.” Something that calms her down if things get crazy in a game and helps her enjoy the moment.

Madison’s story is one of strength, resilience, and perseverance. It’s one of “choosing the hard,” as Ford puts it. It would have been easy for Preston to live the life that she was living after having her daughter, but she wanted to finish what she had started. She wanted to be someone Kendri looked up to and to show her to never give up, no matter how tough things get. That she can achieve anything she wants with hard work and dedication if she puts her mind to it.

“It really doesn't matter who is for you or who is against you,” Madison said. “The most important person is yourself. So, as long as you believe in yourself and whatever you're doing--whether that's athletics, academics, anything--you're going to get it done.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way. Just keep going and always remember to believe in yourself.”

If there’s one thing that’s certain, it is that Kendri has the best mother and role model to look up to.