Brooklyn Trammell had her eye on playing college softball from the start.
“I started playing softball when I was about 9 or 10 years old and I just fell in love with it,” she said. “From the start, everyone else was playing softball just for fun but I made it into something that I wanted to make a lifestyle out of it. From the start, when I was 10, I saw the College World Series on TV and just said, ‘I want to be like them.’
She held onto that dream through a lot of ups and downs and, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, Brooklyn Trammell, the daughter of David and Amy Trammell, it came true when she signed an official letter of intent to continue her softball career and her education at Lyon College in Batesville next fall.
“It’s been a climb to get here,” acknowledged Trammell’s coach for the Bryant Lady Hornets, Lisa Dreher. “I know it starts way back but we started looking around and I know she visited a bunch of colleges and went through the whole process.”
“I looked at Bozzier Parish Community College in Louisiana,” Trammell related. “I went down to the University of Arkansas in Monticello. I had D-I dreams and went to Arkansas. But when I went to Lyon, it was perfect. It was home. I’m excited to go there and continue my career and I’m hoping for good results.
“The town is literally the size of Bryant and the school was perfect,” she explained. “It was Bryant all over again. The college coach made it all feel like home. He took me in under his wing. It was perfect.”
And the education she’s pursuing fit as well.
“I want to go into Childhood Education and they have one of the biggest Education majors in the state of Arkansas,” Trammell noted.
“And she has fought to get here,” Dreher said. “That’s the thing I like about Brooklyn. She doesn’t quit. She sets her mind about what she wants and goes for it.”
Of the struggles to get here, Trammell said, “Whenever I was in the eighth grade, I ran cross country for Bethel and I ended up messing up my meniscus. That was a really big bump in the road. Then, when I got to ninth and 10th grade, that’s when I was struggling the most. Nothing was going my way. I was about to give up because I couldn’t — I felt like everything that I did wasn’t enough. Then, recently, it looked like I’d have to choose between Lyon and Mississippi Delta Community College if I didn’t get my ACT score up enough to pursue my dreams at Lyon. All of that, I had to overcome.”
“The best way I can describe her is as a worker,” Dreher stated. “And it’s not just on the field, it’s whatever we need to win and whatever we need to make things happen around the facility and as a team. That’s something you can’t coach. Lyon’s getting a very quality player.”
Trammell will be the starting first baseman for the Lady Hornets when they begin the season on Thursday with a benefit scrimmage against Sylvan Hills. They officially begin the 2018 campaign on March 1 against Lake Hamilton.
Bryant has a slew of players coming back from a team that went 28-5 overall, won the 7A-Central Conference championship with a 14-0 mark but got tripped up by a red-hot North Little Rock team in the State semifinals.
“I just love being with the girls,” Trammell said. “It’s like I’ve told them time and time again. They’re my family and they’re even going to be my family when I go off to college. I’m only going to be two hours away but I’m just a call or text away. I love the memories on the bus, singing, and all that.
“I just love how we can trust each other when we’re all on the field,” she added. “We all know that, every play, we’re going to be there for each other. The outfield’s going to back up the infield and the catchers are going to back up the corners, first and third. It’s just all within trust. I love how much we can trust each other on the field.”
