CCA grad helps Co-Lin win 1st national sports championship

By Danny C. Davis

Maddie Weeks played softball for Clinton Christian Academy before signing with Co-Lin Community College.

Maddie Weeks of Clinton grew up from an early age playing on a girls softball team in the Clinton recreational youth leagues. Little did she know that someday she would have the chance to play for a national championship in college softball and help a school that had never won a national championship in any sport to a championship.

Weeks began playing for the Clinton Christian Academy (CCA) varsity high school softball team as early as the sixth grade. She helped CCA to win the MAIS Class 2A girls state championships in her tenth-, eleventh- and twelfth-grade years under head coach Josh Zeitz.

Upon high school graduation at CCA in 2021, she had several options.

“I had a lot of offers, but I really liked the softball coaches at Copiah-Lincoln Community College at Wesson the best, and I knew they had a very good reputation for winning in girls softball,” said Maddie.

Maddie started for the Lady Wolves at second base and hit in the third position in the batting line up for two seasons.

“My freshman year, we had a very good team and a good season, but we got put out in the playoffs,” said Weeks. “We felt going into this past season that this could be our year to go all the way.”

But when the state playoffs started, Co-Lin got beat by rival Jones College from Ellisville, Mississippi, in the Region 23 finals. However, the top two teams earned a trip to the community college softball national championship in Spartanburg, South Carolina. So, both Jones and Co-Lin made the nine-hour bus trip to South Carolina and entered the 32-team national bracket.

Co-Lin played five tournament games at the nationals, but fell into the loser’s bracket, falling to rival Jones once again.

Weeks just helped Co-Lin win the girls national championship in softball.

In the end, it all came down to the two Mississippi teams, Jones and Co-Lin, for the girls softball national championship – but Co-Lin was in the loser’s bracket after losing once to Jones, meaning they would have to beat the Bobcats from Ellisville twice to earn the national softball title.

“The first game was pretty close, and we beat Jones by two runs,” said Weeks. “After that, we had all the momentum; and we had played them so many times, we felt like we could make it. The Lady Wolves won the second game 7-0 to win the national championship.”

“We really hit the ball good in the second game,” said Weeks.

“It was just an unreal feeling,” said Weeks.

It was Co-Lin Community College’s first national championship in any sport in the long history of the college.

Weeks recently accepted a scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi to play for the Lady Eagles softball team that competes in the Sunbelt Conference.

“I am very excited about going to Hattiesburg and a chance to play for Southern Miss,” she said.

After being a part of a national championship team at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Weeks says she hopes to help lead the Lady Eagles to a championship in Hattiesburg.

Weeks has signed to continue her softball career at the University of Southern Mississippi this fall.