Mo’ne Davis is about to start her college softball career and she’s still cool as hell

Mo’ne Davis was world famous before she even got to high school. Now the former Little League World Series star is about to start her first college softball season, and still finding ways to inspire.

It seems like only yesterday Davis was shutting people out in the Little League World Series for her team from Philadelphia, a feat that garnered national attention and landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated. But that was way back in 2014, and while we can lament the passage of time, we can also be inspired anew by Davis in her new endeavor.

Hampton University opens its softball schedule on Saturday with a doubleheader against North Carolina A&T, with the freshman Davis now playing in the infield.

After her Little League exploits Davis continued to pitch in baseball for a while, including for the junior baseball Phillies at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in the RBI World Series in 2017. Davis also played soccer and basketball throughout high school, then, in 10th grade, added softball to the mix. Rather than pitch there, she opted for the infield instead.

Davis enjoys the ups and downs of softball, she told Diverse Education in September:

“I just wasn’t enjoying basketball,’’ she says. “I just had a natural talent for it and didn’t work out as much as some others did, but I was still holding my own. Basketball wasn’t a challenge for me and it wasn’t fun. I knew that with softball, you’re going to fail no matter what. I like to fail and see how I can bounce back from it, see how mentally tough I am. I know that you can never be too good at this sport. There are always going to be ups and downs. Which I think makes you the best person you can be.”

It was easy to root for Davis while she was a 12-year-old on the mound in Williamsport. It would have been completely understandable had she been swallowed up by the national attention she received for her pitching exploits, but from the looks of things she has been able to carve out a relatively normal childhood.

In multiple interviews, Davis has downplayed her fame, instead focusing on the joy she got from being a part of a tight-knit team. It’s that which led her to Hampton University.

“From second grade all the way through graduation I’ve been at a predominantly white school. Just to be able to go to an HBCU and to get that experience, just to follow the path that a lot of African-Americans went through, I think it would be pretty cool,” Davis told ESPN’s Outside The Lines in August. “I feel like a lot of black athletes should look into HBCU’s, and it’s one of those decisions I’ll be able to say I won’t regret and I made the right decision.”

Her bio at Hampton doesn’t mention baseball or the Little League World Series, which is, in many ways, perfect. That experience over five years ago may have put her on the map, but it doesn’t define who Davis is.

“When I hold a conversation with her, I can see she’s not going to skip any rungs on that ladder. She wants to grow,” Scripps-Howard school of journalism dean B. Davida Plummer told Diverse Education. “That makes me think she will have sustainability.”