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It was a downer way to end the Judi Garman Classic on Saturday for the Tennessee Vols, who were scheduled to finish their three days of competition with high-profile games against Michigan and Oregon, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
Due to heavy rain on Saturday morning, Tennessee’s two final games in the Judi Garman Classic were canceled as were seven others impacting college teams from Auburn, UCLA, Florida, Loyola Marymount, Washington, UConn, Cal State Northridge, UTSA and the host Titans of Cal State Fullerton.
With the cancellation of the games on Saturday, refunds were offered by Cal State Fullerton’s Athletic Ticket Office to those who had bought tickets and passes.
However, the Tennessee softball family, including players and parents, came up with an inspiring way to contribute the money that had gone to pay for game tickets and passes: donate the refunded money to the GoFundMe page of Cal State Fullerton pitcher Taylor Dockins who continues to undergo treatment including radiation and chemo because of liver cancer which was diagnosed nearly three years ago.
In honor of @Fullerton_SB's Taylor Dockins, Tennessee parents who bought tickets for Saturday's Judi Garman Classic will be donating the refunds to her GoFundMe page in support of her fight against cancer.
Join us in supporting Taylor's battle.#TaylorStrong 💚 pic.twitter.com/SFunarjPDD
— Tennessee Softball (@Vol_Softball) March 2, 2019
Taylor, a personable and energetic sophomore, played for Norco (California) High and was the 2016-2017 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year. She also was a stellar pitcher and infielder in the So Cal Choppers organization led by Gary and Dean Fausett and capped her club career by playing in the 2017 PGF All-American Game.
Since being diagnosed with the cancer the summer before her senior year, Taylor has persevered and even pitched a no-hitter for the Titans in her freshman season when she went 7-4 with a 3.29 ERA. As a sophomore, she’s gone 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA early in the season and is averaged 4 ½ strikeouts per seven innings.
The idea was vetted by the Vols coaching staff and administration who got it approved by the SEC schools compliance department. Even Co-Head Coach Karen Weekly went on social media to endorse the creative idea:
It’s so much bigger than softball #TaylorStrong 💚 #LVSoftballParents 🧡 https://t.co/khDT2RFn13
— Karen Weekly (@KarenWeekly) March 2, 2019
One UT connection, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “That lovely girl is fighting for her life and we wanted to support her in any way we can. We just wanted to get the word out to the other teams that played this weekend at CSUF to see if they’d want to join us in doing this.”
Already, we’ve seen that the families of players such as Caylan Arnold, Ashley Rogers, Ally Shipman and Chelsea Seggern have made donations.
We at Extra Inning Softball have seen the softball community rally behind athletes before and encourage anyone—not just those who got refunds from the cancellation of the rained out games in Fullerton on Saturday!—but anyone who is in a position to give to extend this great idea and donate to the GoFundMe page.
Click HERE to go to the GoFundMe page where any size donation can be made to help offset Taylor’s medical expenses.
And continue to keep Taylor and her wonderful parents Rick and Debi Dockins in your thoughts and prayers also.
Finally, kudos to the Tennessee softball program for coming up with this unselfish way to take a rainy day and make it a sunny one!
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball