Former Southside softball standout finishes college career at South Dakota State

Madi Conklin is ready to turn the page on the next phase of her life after finishing her career as a college softball player. At the same time, Conklin admits it is a difficult phase leaving the sport she grew up loving and playing.

“I will miss everything about the sport,” said Conklin, a Southside High School graduate who originally signed with the University of Arkansas before transferring to South Dakota State. “I will miss the people I met, the competitiveness, and everything in between. I played softball for 18 years, now that it’s come to an end, I can say that I miss everything about it.”

Conklin, who primarily played catcher through her high school and college days, had high hopes after leaving Southside. Especially getting the chance to play an hour up the road for the home-state Razorbacks.

But an injury Conklin sustained once upon her arrival in Fayetteville gradually changed the course of her college career. It eventually led to her transferring to South Dakota State prior to her junior season.

“My college career was not what I had ever expected, a lot of things made it difficult,” Conklin said. “Coming into my freshman year, I found out that I had a pretty severe back injury, and I think that made me appreciate every moment I got to play at SDSU.

“You never really know when it could be your last time putting on your cleats, and knowing that was the case for me, made me enjoy my time at SDSU so much more.”

Of course, there was also the expected adjustment going from a school not far from home to a place several more hours away, a place that was going to be much colder and have more snow during the winter.

“Being far from home was definitely an adjustment, but also the programs were drastically different, and going from a Power 4 school to a mid-major was an adjustment,” Conklin said. “You don’t realize the amount of money that is poured into Power 4’s.

“At SDSU, we not only had to work hard on the field, but we also had to work hard off the field to earn the money we needed to actually play our season. It just made everything we got to do and everything we achieved even more special.”

But once Conklin arrived at the school located in Brookings, about an hour north of Sioux Falls in eastern South Dakota, she was greeted by a familiar face – the Jackrabbits’ coach, Kristina McSweeney. That helped somewhat ease Conklin’s culture shock.

“Coach McSweeney had originally recruited me when I was in high school; she was coaching at Arkansas Tech then, and she was actually the first collegiate coach to recruit me,” Conklin said. “So when she reached out to me, I immediately felt comfortable.”

And with each day she spent with the Jackrabbits, Conklin felt more at home.

“SDSU, despite being 10 hours away, was my second home,” she said. “It wasn’t the place, but the people, that made it feel right.”

And there were several highlights for Conklin during her time with the Jackrabbits. One was a full-circle moment when she returned to Fayetteville as a junior – this time as the visitor when SDSU played at Arkansas, and ended up beating the Razorbacks. But there was one moment more special for Conklin.

“I think one of my favorite moments would have to be my first career home run; it was a two-run walk-off home run against North Dakota,” she said. “It was so special to finally see all of the hard work and the tough times pay off in the biggest way possible.”

Conklin recently graduated from SDSU with a major in political science and minors in legal studies and history. She is back home in Fort Smith, spending time with her family – which also includes her two cats, Stubby and Arlo – while contemplating her next move.

Might softball remain in her future, perhaps coaching or something else softball-related?

“I would like to still stay involved in the game, it is hard to be away from it,” she said. “I have never planned on coaching, but if an opportunity were to come up to be more directly involved in softball, I would love to take it. It is important to me to give back to the game that gave me so much.

“My softball career was a challenging but rewarding experience. This sport brought me the worst and best times of my life and made me into the person I am. I would not trade it for the world.”