Friday Features: VSU's Courtney Albritton rewriting record books
By Mike Perrin
You could write a story – a long story – about
Valdosta State softball star
Courtney Albritton by merely listing the accolades she’s earned in her three years on the team. The World Wide Web is a good place to write it, too, since there’s no way to fill up the Internet.
Here’s the really short list: Courtney Albritton was named Gulf South Conference Player of the Year as a freshman, sophomore and last year as a junior. She was named All-American all three years. She was GSC All-Academic the past two years and made the Academic Honor Roll with a 4.0 grade point average as a freshman when she wasn’t eligible to make the All-Academic team.
Albritton, who graduated in December with a degree in Middle Grades Education, set the GSC single-season record with 200 total bases, 83 runs and a Division II-best 27 home runs last year. She holds the league’s career records for slugging percentage (.830) and total bases (538). With a pair of homers on Wednesday, her career total is now 68 round-trippers, 12 shy of the Division II all-time record, with at least 45 games left in her time on the diamond.
With Albritton leading the way last season, the Blazers won their sixth straight GSC championship and finished second in the national tournament to West Texas A&M by a 3-2 score. In her debut season, Valdosta State captured its first softball national title with a 4-1 win over UC San Diego.
So far this year, VSU is 9-1 and Albritton is batting .543 with five home runs, 13 runs batted in and a 1.029 slugging percentage.
“This season,” she said, “I’m just focusing on enjoying it – both the game of softball and my teammates. This is the last opportunity I will ever have with such a great group of teammates, who are also my best friends. I will be working harder than ever with a national championship in mind. I’m focusing on being that senior leader on and off the field. There are so many young players on the team and I really want to make an impact in their lives each day.”
There’s not much doubt for VSU fans that Albritton has already left a legacy on the south Georgia school. She came to D2 Valdosta State despite some serious recruiting pushes from Mississippi State and the University of Georgia as she came out of Tiftarea Academy near her home in Sycamore, Ga. Her home state Bulldogs rolled out their red carpet for a recruiting visit, treating the state’s Georgia Independent School Association AAA player of the year, four-time All-State softball player (and three-time All-State basketball player) “like royalty,” she said. “I was even on the field during warmups for a football game.”
Albritton’s two-year relationship with Valdosta head coach Thomas Macera was just one reason she chose to join the Blazers – just an hour or so away. “I am such a small-town family girl that it just did not feel right (to choose Georgia),” Albritton said. “I did want to be close to home and I was already comfortable with Coach Macera at Valdosta State. I began going to hitting lessons with him my junior year of high school. He made many changes to my swing but I bought in and it really paid off. I felt like it took forever for him to finally offer me to play. When he did, it just felt so right.”
Albritton’s school choice was also affected by her desire to play right away. Always the competitor, she didn’t hesitate when Macera asked what her “second-best” position was since he already had a standout catcher with two years left to play. “From watching the team play, I also knew they had a whole infield who were seniors, which would normally have been my ‘second-best position,’” she said. “I also knew their center fielder had just graduated. That is where my mind first went. Even though I had played outfield maybe five innings my whole life, I immediately told Coach that outfield was my second-best position. Again, I wanted to do whatever possible to have the greatest chance to play my freshmen year and I knew that was my greatest chance. So here I am now, center field and have never been happier.”
Entrenched in center field, Albritton is nonetheless listed as a utility player on the Blazers’ roster. As a sophomore, she played center field, shortstop and second base. In 195 games, Albritton has started all but one and the Blazers have recorded a 161-34 record.
“Not many people can say they have been to national three years in a row,” Albritton said. “I think it makes it harder because we won the very first year. We knew how great victory felt. These past two years when we came up short, it was so bad because we knew what we were missing out on. We knew it was possible and we just did not make it. However, it does make the ones who were here want to work even harder. We never want to feel that defeat at the end again.”
The dynasty that is Valdosta softball didn’t come easy, she said. “At Valdosta State, we work so hard,” said Albritton, who plans to work as a graduate assistant next season. “We have an extraordinary coaching staff. Coach Macera knows his stuff. Many coaches get set on their old ways. Some are outdated and they never want to change. That is not the case with him. He is always looking for new drills, new techniques and new ideas to incorporate to help us in every way possible.”
Personally, Albritton credits her family (dad Michael, mom Connie and sister Caitlyn), coaches and a higher power for her success. “I know God has given me the desire to get better every single day,” she said. “It is a game – a game I fell in love with when I was 3. It is, and should be, fun. There is no way I would be where I am today without my family. They have done so much and made so many sacrifices for me through the years. They bought me the newest, best equipment, researched drills to do, hit me balls for hours, canceled vacations, traveled across the country, had extremely long days and short night and so much more.
“The most important things they have done for me do not relate directly to softball. My family has taught me how to love others and how to be loved. They introduced me to God when I was young and helped me to grow and establish my own relationship with Him. … They instilled in me the drive to be the best I can possibly be and not accept anything less than my best.”
Her best won’t soon be forgotten – or erased from the record books.
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