Meredith Headings - Attracting Top Athletes

Alumna Hopes New Amenities at SCF Help Attract Top Athletes

Meredith Headings has only missed one SCF alumni weekend in the past 14 years. She loves visiting old friends, former teammates, and the softball players she coached at the College. But when it comes to visiting the old facilities, it’s not only a wonderful walk down memory lane, it’s also like walking into a time capsule. She said it really hit her one alumni weekend when she was walking behind some baseball players from the 1960s and 70s, and as they walked into the gym, they were reminiscing and commenting on how “nothing had changed.” “While it was a little charming, at the same time it was embarrassing,” said Headings. It’s also unequal. The original gymnasium, built in 1959, was designed to accommodate men. There were no facilities for female athletes when it was built. Title IX wasn’t even adopted until 1972.

Headings is hoping to see the female athletes put on equal footing as the State College of Florida Foundation raises money for new batting cages, followed by a Health and Human Performance Center.

The batting cages are designed to protect players from the rain and Florida’s blazing sun, allowing them to practice in any weather. Raising money for batting cages for softball would follow. “The softball team deserves it,” Headings said. “It’s time for practice areas to be brought up to the standards of the fields,” she added. “Hitting is a skill you have to work on every day, and with the amount of heat and rain we have in Florida, having a covered area is important. The new cages will provide overdue, safer facilities.” She knows what she’s talking about. Headings, an on-air personality with 107.9 WSRZ, was inducted into the SCF Athletics Hall of Fame for her accomplishments as a studentathlete. She is credited with hitting the first home run in 2000 at what was then the new Manatees softball field and holds both the single season (13) and career (23) home run records for the program. She was the second fast-pitch softball player inducted into the Hall of Fame.

She later led the Manatees softball program as its coach for seven seasons, earning three Suncoast Conference championships, qualifying for the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA)/National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region VIII tournament seven times, and clinching the program's second NJCAA Region championship in 2012. Headings was a three-time Suncoast Conference Coach of the Year with an overall record of 243-139. Under her leadership, the SCF Manatees were named the 2013 FCSAA Female Academic Team of the Year with a team gradepoint average of 3.39. The team also was recognized as an NJCAA All-Academic team for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The 40,348-square-foot Health and Human Performance Center will replace the current, outdated gymnasium, accommodating athletes of both genders and housing training facilities, offices, classrooms and concession/vending areas. “I think the student body is going to love it. It will keep students on campus, and engaged students are more successful. From the faculty to the athletes, it will help everybody and enrich the campus.” Headings said the improvements will mean “more and more championships to come.”

“Years of blood, sweat and tears have gone into this program too. They need equal facilities to those of their opponents and to the other sports on campus.”