PORTLAND, Maine — Portland High School's Sadie Armstrong said she "thrives under pressure."
That's a good motto to have as a softball pitcher involved in every play during a game and can be the reason why a team wins or loses.
Those intense moments on the mound are what she lives for and what she's prepared for. The senior has worked on her craft for years on travel teams and at camps and clinics, all with a goal of playing Division 1 softball in college.
The goal became a reality last fall when she committed to play softball at Longwood University in Virginia.
Armstrong said she picked Longwood because it "checked all the boxes" and offered opportunities outside the softball diamond.
She plans to study kinesiology in the fall, with a goal of working with sports teams and athletes after graduation.
“I’ve gone through a lot of physical therapy, so I’ve seen the ups and downs of all of it," Armstrong said after a team practice in Portland. "I found that staying in with the athletic world, like (with)kinesiology, would open that door for me, and physical therapy will allow me to stay connected to athletes and the whole sports realm."
Before moving down to Virginia, Armstrong said she's excited to share her last high school softball season with her best friends. Like in many communities around Maine, Armstrong said she's grown up playing the game she loves with her current teammates and can't wait to make new memories with them this spring.
Maine's softball family is close-knit, Armstrong said, and everyone knows everyone.
Armstrong shared the challenges she faced as a young athlete and as someone trying to get on the radar of college coaches. Paying for flights to attend national tournaments, showcase clinics, and camps can be expensive and some players may not be able to afford them. She recalled there weren't a lot of opportunities for her during her own recruitment journey.
So she created a nonprofit scholarship fund called Diamond in the Rough to help younger athletes pursue their dreams. Armstrong also signed an NIL deal with Pliable Marketing and has used that brand to help advocate for women in the sports field. She was part of "Women in Sports Day" at a Portland Sea Dogs game last summer.
"I really wanted to make a change and give the girls a chance and make [the college recruitment process] easier for them when it was so hard," she said. “It just makes me feel so good. They’re all just sweet, sweet girls, and we all want the same thing, doesn't matter the age, everyone just wants to be the best and play at the highest level they can.”
The Portland Bulldog said she was raised to be a good person first, and an athlete second. She hopes that when she steps off the mound for the last time and walks across the graduation stage this spring, people remember her more for her character and not what she accomplished on the field.
That being said, Armstrong is still planning to "throw as hard as [she can], and hit the ball as hard as [she] can" this season.
NEWS CENTER Maine will be highlighting one student-athlete each month for the rest of the school year. To nominate your favorite student-athlete for Varsity Club, please click here.