Leah Potter of MHS puts the tag on a sliding base runner during a 2019 game. The Marysville senior is looking for another collegiate softball option as Urbana University is closing its doors. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
It’s difficult to imagine the “double-whammy” Marysville High School senior Leah Potter has experienced the past couple of days.
She learned on Monday the 2020 softball season has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Potter and many others saw their high school athletic careers end before they even got to play a contest this spring.
The following day, she found out her college of choice, nearby Urbana University, is closing its doors at the end of the spring 2020 semester due to low enrollment figures.
Potter said she learned about Urbana’s closure Tuesday morning during a phone call from UU head coach Brooke McCartney.
“I was surprised when I heard the news,” said Potter. “The largest department at Urbana, which was elementary education, is my major.
“I had also chosen Urbana because it was close to home and had small class sizes.”
Potter said her family had already put down financial deposits for items such as housing.
She said Tuesday afternoon her family was looking into refunds.
The news of Urbana’s closure threw salt on the wound after Potter learned her final high school season was being taken away.
“It’s pretty rough not to be able to play my final season in high school,” she admitted. “We all felt we were going to go pretty far in the (Division I) tournament.
“This just stinks.”
Potter would have been one of the reasons for whatever success the Lady Monarchs might have experienced this spring.
As a junior third baseman in 2019, she helped lead Marysville to a 20-7 record and the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division championship.
Potter finished the season with a .392 batting average and drove in 17 runs.
One might think it is very late in a senior’s academic year to try and get into another college.
Potter, however, is fortunate.
Although the prospect of playing softball at Urbana has ended, the MHS senior does have other options.
“I had a couple of coaches text me this morning about joining their programs,” she said. “I’ve heard from Otterbein, Muskingum and Wilmington.
“We’re also trying to get in contact with Ohio Dominican University.”
Potter said her choice of a new school may come down to which one can supply her with softball scholarship money, something that Urbana had already offered.
Wilmington just might be the place where she lands.
“I had really looked at them before Urbana contacted me last year,” she said.
Potter said collegiate coaches had watched her play in the past.
“A lot of schools knew about me after having seen me play in summer travel ball tournaments,” she said. “Several of them told me they’d leave a roster spot open for me.”