Meadowview Christian senior Maggie Tipton said she’s been playing softball as long as she can remember. On Friday, she saw a childhood dream come true when she signed a letter of intent to play college softball at Faulkner University.

“When I was little I always dreamed about playing college softball,” Tipton said. “But that’s what every girl dreams of … Right now I feel pretty awesome.”

Tipton was surrounded by friends, family and coaches from Meadowview Christian and Faulkner when she signed.

After completing all the paperwork, she took photos and then even gave a speech thanking those in attendance for all of their support.

“It’s unbelievable for all of them to come from everywhere and to take off jobs, coming from different states just to be with me,” Tipton said.

“All of them played an important role in my life.”

Tipton has been a standout catcher for Meadowview during her time at the school, but she’s also played travel softball and worked with many different coaches.  All of them were there Friday, including Meadowview coach Cherie Grimes, who coached Tipton for the first time last season.

However, it didn’t take long for her to realize just how talented Tipton is.

“She’s a hard worker for one and she’s just got that God-given talent,” Grimes said. “Put those two together and that’s it.”

Faulkner head coach Hal Wynn said he first made contact with Tipton during a travel ball game during the summer and invited her to tryout with the Eagles.

Following the tryout, Wynn said they’d seen enough and knew he wanted Tipton to be a member of the Eagles.

“You can tell she had a passion for the game,” Wynn said.

“That’s something we want in all of our kids, no matter what the score is.”

If anything, Friday’s signing gave Tipton more reason to work even harder as she gets ready to play at the next level. She plans to work on fine-tuning every aspect of her game over the next year.

“I’m going to work even harder,” Tipton said. “Of course, hitting is a huge component and of course my catching skills, but [I’m going to work] on everything all around.