Madison Copeland, Missouri Heat 96 Softball Headed to MICDS

As much as she hates to admit it now, when things used to go wrong for O’Fallon native and girls softball standout Madison Copeland, she would turn into a big crybaby.

All her life, she’s been a talented student and an unbelievable softball player.

But whenever something negative happened to her on the field, Maddie, as her teammates call her, would always turn the waterworks loose.

“Oh, I was bad,” Copeland, who can laugh about it now, but even back then knew she had a problem controlling her emotions, said. “I was like a big baby. I couldn’t help it. If I messed up somehow, I would just cry about it all the way home. It was just bug me.”

But that was in the sophomore-to-be’s younger days.

More recently, Copeland has earned a reputation as one of the area’s top Class of 2014 softball players, which includes an academic all-conference selection last fall, as the No. 2 starting pitcher for Fort Zumwalt West High.

And this summer, Copeland has been one of the star players and the No. 1 pitcher for the Missouri Heat 96, a team of 14 and-under traveling players that have a 40-15 record, and has won five different tournaments in 2011, despite often competing against teams from the 16 and-under and 18 and-under divisions.

“We’ve had nine top 3 finishes out of 14 tournaments this summer,” Madison’s dad and MO Heat 96 coach Craig Copeland said. “It’s all about mindset. These girls, when they’re attitude is set, and their mind is set on winning, nine times out of ten, they’re going to get it.”

Madison credits her dad for helping her fix her mindset, so she could better handle when things don’t go well.

No longer is she the girl who needed a hug because she didn’t like how she played. Now she’s the girl everyone high-fives because she led the Heat to another win.

“It took a while,” Madison said. “Sometimes he’d talk to me all the way home after a game. I’ve learned that if you just turn it into a mean attitude that you wanna just crush the ball, it helps. I don’t cry after games too much anymore.”

“She used to get down,” Craig Copeland said. “But she’s kind of turn that into a little fight and anger, and now she handles it all much better.”

She certainly did a top-notch job as the second starter for Zumwalt West last fall, going 6-4 in 13 starts with a 3.90 ERA.

And she’s been just fantastic this summer, with 168 strikeouts in 138 innings pitched, and a 3.02 ERA, while pitching for a team that’s often the youngest team in every tournament the Heat play in.

“We’ve even got two eight-graders on the team,” Madison said. “But we still play to win.”

Fans of the Lady Jaguars softball team were looking forward to improving on last season’s 18-9 season with Madison Copeland and No. 1 starter Alyson Hahn leading their pitching staff.

But the Lady Jags are going to have to do it without Copeland this fall.

She’ll be attending MICDS, a school with a reputation as one of the top academic high schools in the entire state, which will give Copeland, who has a 4.2 grade-point average, a chance to challenge herself and hopefully reach all of her scholastic goals.  

Unfortunately for the area’s many softball fans, that step up in academics means Copeland won’t be able to play high school softball this fall.

MICDS has many girls sports teams, but it doesn’t have a softball team. And even though Madison would be eligible to play for another school if she chose to, the new academic load figures to more than enough to keep her occupied next semester.

“We’re actually hoping to start up a team at MICDS in a year or two,” Craig Copeland said. “I’ve talked to a couple people over there, and they seem interested, and I know Maddie would want to play, so we’re hopeful that we’ll get to do that.”

For now though, this week’s O’Fallon Patch Spotlight Athlete of the Week, Madison Copeland, is looking to enjoy the last days of her summer vacation and hoping all those long talks with Dad in the car after a game will help her handle the new challenges she’ll face in the classroom at a new school.

“I’ll miss my friends (at ),” Madison said. “But this is a great opportunity for my future.”

Related Topics: Craig Copeland, Fort Zumwalt School District, Fort Zumwalt West, Girls Softball, Heat 96, MICDS, Madison Copeland, Missouri Heat, O'Fallon sports, and USSSA softball