Emily Church was feeling a little left out.

Having congratulated many of her teammates who had already made commitments to play college sports, the three-sport senior athlete at Ragland High School began to give up hope of getting her own offer.  That’s why she jumped at the chance to play softball for the University of Mobile.

“I’ve played travel ball since I was eight years old, and all my friends started committing last year,” the all-star catcher said.  “I thought, ‘I’m not going to get anywhere.’  When Mobile offered, I took it right off the bat.”

Church signed with the NAIA school early last month, citing its similarity to Ragland as a major drawing card.

“I went down there two Fridays before school started,” she said.  “The campus is a one-way, only one way in and only one way out. They have 170-something athletes and no more than 40 in a class, and it reminded me so much of Ragland.”

Church said the prospect of leaving Ragland and being separated from her longtime friends and teammates is the least-appealing aspect of going off to college.  “I’m not too excited about that.  The closest I’ll be is to Sommar (Wright) at Southern Union.  That’s going to be tough.”

Still, she’s “really excited” about playing softball for Mobile’s program, which is ranked among the NAIA’s top 25 and consistently advances to the national tournament.  The daughter of April St. John and Curtis Church, she is a member of the Birmingham Bandits 18U team and will begin her sixth varsity season at Ragland in the spring.

Expectations are high for her and the Lady Purple Devils, who will seek their third straight Class 1A state title.  “I think we can do it,” she said.  “We lost Paige (Gann) as an infielder and Paige and Brittany (Johns) as hitters, but we have six seniors, and five of us will start.  I think we’ll all step up, and everybody will know what it means to the seniors for us to go out with a bang.”

In the meantime, Church is wrapping up volleyball season with the Lady Devils – she was the team’s representative on this year’s All-County Tournament Team – and looks forward to basketball season.

“If Mobile had offered me basketball and softball, I’d have said, ‘Give me the scholarship right now.’  I would have signed it on the spot.  Basketball is really fun, and being in the Final Four last year was one of the best experiences I’ve had.  I’m looking forward to being back down in Birmingham.”