LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — This week’s Beyond the Jersey honored Savannah White, a softball player who made a comeback as a Ragin Cajun’s softball catcher.

“Every fall I would be injured and then I’d come back every spring and have to play.” White said. “So I just kind of felt like, you know, my body was kind of telling me to hang it up. And I had already finished my bachelor’s, I was ahead in that. And so I was like, ‘You know what? Maybe it’s just time for me to start the next step.’ I felt good about, you know, my last year. I felt good about my journey. I was ready to move on.”

Ahead of the 2024-2025 season, Savannah White had her gear packed up and her heart set on walking away from the game of softball. White played at Campbell for three seasons, reaching NCAA tournament regionals in 2022 and 2023. Multiple injuries throughout her collegiate career including a bone spur in her right elbow during her senior year, shifted her focus from playing to coaching.

Meanwhile here in Lafayette, head coach Alyson Habetz entered her first season with at the helm of her alma matter, looking to fill a roster that was depleted after the departure of Gerry Glasco. Coach Habetz needed a catcher behind home plate and even prayed for one to come to her.

Habetz would have those prayers answered after Savannah White had a quiet conversation with her old travel ball coach.

“I wasn’t even in the portal.” White said. “And people, you know, contacted him about me. So I got the portal and coach (Alyson Habetz) gave me a call. And what really brought me here, what opened that up for me was her belief that she had prayed about me and I was the person that was like, I was her prayer answered, you know, and so that belief in me is kind of what brought me here.”

White continued to explain not only did the Cajuns renewed her interest in the sport but so did her faith.

“And, you know, just an opportunity like this at this kind of school, this kind of program, these kind of girls, the talent and the coaches and things like that, that made me reopen that door.” White said. “But I think mostly it was God. I think he led me here and he made it really clear when I came down here on my visit, especially that this is where I needed to be.”

Although the road to the conference tournament this season has not been easy, neither was White’s journey to get to Lafayette. The Arkansas native understands how close this Cajuns team is and knows they can spark a run to get this program back on the top of the Sun Belt.

“We’ve talked a lot about how the harder the struggle, the sweeter the prize kind of like that kind of some of our season.” White continued. “You know, when we do it, when it does click and we put it together and we we start making that run. And I think that’s very true. Like, this has been horror. We fought through a lot. You know, making a run like that would really. I think it would show a lot like to ourselves that we didn’t quit and that it was worth it.”

White plans on returning next season as a graduate assistant under Coach Habetz.

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