Soaring to new heights

Shiner St. Paul senior inks letter of intent, will pursue aviation

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SHINER — State championships, no-hitters, all-district and all-state awards, Shiner St. Paul senior Sadie Morgan has achieved it all in high school softball. Now she sets her sights on a goal higher.

Much higher. Like somewhere around 35,000 feet in the air.

Last Wednesday, Morgan officially signed her letter of intent to continue her softball career at LeTourneau University, a private university in Longview, Texas, as well as study aviation management.

When potential student-athletes try to find a university to attend, the instinct is to figure out which athletic program fits best, plus some other intangibles such as class size, distance from home, etc.

Morgan focused more on the education side, before landing on LeTourneau.

“What I was focused on was my academics first and I ended up finding the only four-year degree program in the state of Texas that has an aviation program now since TLU dropped it three years ago,” Morgan said. “I found them, fell in love with the campus and reached out to their head coach and he was like, ‘we’ll take a look at you over Christmas break.’ My dad and I drove up there and I had a tryout over there and he ended up liking me.”

Morgan has been St. Paul’s starting pitcher for four years now. She also plays first base. She expects to pitch as well as play some outfield for the Yellowjackets.

As for setting those goals 35,000 feet high, Morgan said she wants to be an airline pilot, but her degree has various paths she can take.

“I will be getting my degree with a professional fight concentration, which means I can go in as an airline pilot. That’s what I hope to do,” she said. “But also, aviation management degree recipients also can manage airports like larger airports, some do aircraft mechanics and stuff along the lines of that.”

The aviation program fits Morgan in that she would be able to graduate with all of her licenses that are required to become a commercial airline pilot without having to spend time after school at a flight school.

“It’s all incorporated in my degree, which is what I wanted.”

Speaking of high altitude, when asked who Morgan looks up to as an athlete, the Lady Cardinal senior spoke highly of Rylee Trlicek of Hallettsville as well as professional softball player Lauren Chamberlain, who played for the Oklahoma Sooners in college.

“[Chamberlain’s] the queen of home runs in the NCAA and I think she’s a great role model, especially for girls in general,” Morgan said.

The demands for student-athletes are quite heavy, but Morgan believes her current schedule at St. Paul will prepare her for college.

“The life of a college athlete is definitely going to be tough,” she admitted, “especially because I’ll probably be on the flight team as well, so I’ll be a full-time student, a college athlete and everything in between. I’m used to being busy over here all the time, so it’s not much of a change.”

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