Each quarter we will spotlight a current Student-Athlete for our S-Club Members. This quarter, we are spotlighting Softball's, Madison Couch. She is a Senior from Locust Grove, Georgia who has made a lasting impact on the Samford Softball Program. In her career, she has recieved numerous SoCon awards and played a key role in helping Samford win the 2016 SoCon Championship.
Talk a little about your Samford experience and what being a student-athlete here has meant to you.
My Samford experience has been the best 4 years of my life. Under Coach Mandy's wing, I developed into a professional, determined and competitive individual on and off the field. These were the most joyful but challenging years of my life and I believe my that experiences at Samford as a college athlete will prepare me to succeed in anything life will throw my way. With a lot of hard work and guidance from many individuals (teammates, coaches and professors), I will graduate in 4 years with a 3.5 GPA in Nutrition and Dietetics to pursue my gradate degree in Nutritional Sciences at Samford starting this August. Coach Mandy and my professors never allowed me to fail and pushed me every day to be the best I could.
Who are some people (besides your coaches) that have helped you become as successful of a student-athlete as you are? How have they helped and supported you?
Karin Neal, Samford Academic Counselor/Tutor Coordinator, by far helped contribute to my successes. She was not only there to schedule many tutoring sessions, check on grades and aid in class scheduling, she was also one of the best support systems I had during my experience. My mother, Melanie Durham, and my sister, Leah Couch, also helped me by proof reading the many papers and always picking up the phone to listen to all my problems. My teachers and classmates have been an amazing help in the classroom to keep me up to date with my crazy schedule. I also would not have made it through these four years without my grandparents. They never missed a game and always kept in touch to keep me sane with studying.
Talk about your most memorable moment as an athlete as Samford.
Most memorable moment as a Samford athlete would of course be winning conference my freshmen year.
Talk about your most memorable moment as a Samford student.
My most memorable moment as a student was my acceptance into the graduate program this past January. Samford's nutrition graduate school only accepts 20 students. My major is very competitive and not many athletes (or students) are able to stay in the undergraduate program with the time constraints and extremely rigorous class schedule. There are only 8 other students in my major graduating this year and we spent all of the fall applying for school. On the day of the interview, I received numerous texts from my teammates and family members giving me confidence and strength. The interview only took 20 minutes and I was notified of my acceptance after the interview. I immediately called my sister in tears of joy for all the hard work I had experienced on and off the field.
Any thoughts that you would like to share with the S-Club?
As you all know, being a D1 college student athlete is hard and takes a lot of work. You are constantly under pressure to succeed on and off the field. The Samford family I got to know and love, from my awesome coach, teammates, former student-athletes, classmates and very dedicated professors were always here to help me during the wins and losses and I am grateful I have been blessed enough to experience it all.
