On Sunday, Extra Inning Softball broke the story nationally that power-hitting infielder Layla Lamar of the Lady Dukes 14U team committed to Florida seemingly right before the new NCAA no-recruiting contact rules begin on Wednesday.
There were two things that made this story especially interesting: 1) Layla became just the second 6th grader to commit, not coincidentally both to the University of Florida and 2) her mother, Marissa Young, is the head coach of Duke University and many thought Layla would end up playing at the ACC school.
The athlete’s father, James Lamar, who’s also her head coach on the Lady Dukes and a former football and baseball player himself at Indiana University, called us this afternoon to give us the scoop on how Layla’s recruiting went down and what led to her committing to the Gators.
Check out his comments which are surprising in some areas…
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On when Layla committed…
It wasn’t this past weekend as it may have seemed… the photos of Layla with the Florida coaching staff weren’t taken over the past few days—the Lady Dukes were actually playing in a tournament. The photos were taken the weekend of Saturday, April 14 when Layla and James visited the Gainesville school to watch Florida sweep a pair of games from South Carolina, 7-0 and 3-0.
“We had a great visit that weekend,” James began. “That was when we fell in love with the coaching staff and we knew it was the right place for her. There was a change in Layla’s personality after that, there was a sparkle in her eyes.”
“We came home on that Saturday night and Layla went to a birthday party where she spent the night. Sunday morning we got a text from the mom hosting the party saying Layla got up at 6 am to run sprints in the park. The visit made such a different in her, she wanted to do what it would take to sacrifice and be like the Gator players to do whatever she could to improve.”
On how she committed…
As fired up as Layla was after her impressionable Saturday with the Gator coaches and players, she didn’t commit on campus. It was a few days later that the deal was closed and, as far as exciting commits go, this one was rather business-like according to James.
“We loved our trip but didn’t commit there,” the coach reveals. “We talked about it after the trip for a couple days and when it was apparent that it was what Layla wanted and we felt it was the best opportunity for her as her parents, I called Florida Assistant Coach (Aric) Thomas and said, ‘We are all in.’”
