By Roscoe Nance
The Florida A&M softball team is in a familiar place entering the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship.
The Lady Rattlers (13-2) are again one of the favorites in Ormond Beach, Fla. this week, along with rival – and Southern Division top seed – Bethune-Cookman. FAMU had a shot at the division’s top seed, but B-CU won the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of winning the regular-season series.
Florida A&M was in the same position last year when Bethune-Cookman came to Tallahassee, Fla., and swept a three-game series and then beat the Lady Rattlers twice in the MEAC Tournament to win the conference crown.
“I don’t hold on to what happened in the past,” legendary head coach Veronica Wiggins said. “I’m about playing in the moment. It just wasn’t our time then. This year is our time. That’s the way I’ve approached them and went at them. What happened last year is far from our vision of what we’re looking for this year.”
What Wiggins is looking for is an unprecedented 14th MEAC title – a staggering number considering this year’s conference tournament is just the 27th all-time. Florida A&M’s string of conference championships puts it in some exclusive company. Only Florida State with 16 ACC titles and Louisiana-Monroe with 14 Sun Belt crowns have won their conference championship more times than the Lady Rattlers.
Tennessee-Chattanooga has won the Southern Conference championship 13 times to match the Lady Rattlers, who are gunning for their 12th NCAA postseason appearance.
“I have my Almighty first and foremost,” Wiggins said, explaining how she has been able sustain the Lady Rattlers have been able to dominate the MEAC – her overall record is 790-881 but 283-95 against MEAC foes. “He’s the one who guides me and gives me the strength and the wisdom and the know how. The kids know that’s who I keep first.”
Wiggins had a rough go of it when she took over the helm in 1992 after serving as assistant coach on Sandy Pearsall’s staff. Florida A&M played as an independent in softball and was transitioning from slow pitch to fast pitch in her first season.
“When I started, I said wanted to build a program,” Wiggins said. “I didn’t worry about win and loss records. In building a program, you have to have a solid foundation, rules, regulations, something you could stand on. I wanted them to be proud of what they stood for and recognize that they came from a strong tradition.”
The state of Florida had more than a dozen Division I softball-playing schools at the time, including the likes of Florida and Florida State, and Florida A&M played them all. Predictably, things didn’t go well as the Lady Rattlers posted a 9-41 record in Wiggins’ maiden season.
“We got to play a lot of schools. Believe me, we got beat up quite a bit,” she said.
Florida A&M joined the MEAC in softball in Wiggins’ second season. She says the lumps that the Lady Rattlers took in her first year forged them into champions and ultimately helped other MEAC schools improve their programs. The Lady Rattlers were 12-0 in conference play during their inaugural MEAC season and began their run of conference tournament championships.
“Through our trials and errors (in her first season), when it came time for first MEAC tournament, we had learned from and we brought it to the MEAC,” she said. “We had been through trials and errors with outsiders. I kept that. I wouldn’t let that go. I wanted softball to grow at FAMU, but also in the MEAC. When you experience something for so long like we experienced getting beat for so long, when we took it to the MEAC, they experienced getting beat up. They had to make changes. Everybody made changes and from that we’re where we are right now. It’s about all of us. When we took it to MEAC, they had to make changes.”
Even though Florida A&M has dominated the MEAC during Wiggins’ tenure, she doesn’t flaunt her team’s success – she is 37th among active NCAA coaches in victories – and she is always willing to share her knowledge with other coaches.
“My recipe is, if any coach in the MEAC needed me, I’m there to help,” she said. “I’m about sharing; I’m about all of us growing together. When I first started here, I went over to Florida State and introduced myself (to legendary Seminoles coach JoAnne Graf). I came away with four tapes. That’s the way this sport is; we help our colleagues grow. That’s the attitude I brought to the MEAC. Whatever you need, I’m here to help. We’re going to play, and we’re going to compete, but I’m here to help this sport that we love.”
Wiggins is bullish on the 2019 Lady Rattlers and their chances of recapturing the conference title.
“I really like this team,” she said. “This team is different from a lot of teams I have had. One thing that is special is they brought Rattler softball back. I never underestimate anybody; I try to instill that in the young ladies because on any given day, anybody can be beaten. It’s about growing. I tell them the best team doesn’t always win; it’s the team that plays best that wins. It’s not about being the best on paper. It’s about how you play that day. I emphasize that.”
Wiggins also emphasizes all-out effort. As long as the players give maximum effort, she is okay with the result – win or lose. She says this year’s squad has bought into that philosophy wholeheartedly.
“We’re about the whole rounded person,” she said. “We teach them that its about integrity, character. You give your all. Your teammates accept your all. If it’s not your best that day, you gave us what you had. If it was 50 percent, 90 percent, we know we got everything you were able to give us that day. That’s what we’re about. We’re about a unit, we’re about s team. It’s not about who did the best. All of us win or all of us lose. Our strength is each other.”
The thing that Wiggins really likes about her squad is its competitiveness.
“We have two pitchers (junior preseason All-MEAC pick Kyaira Brown and freshman Candace Boatwright) who are competitive and who want the ball all the time,” she said. “We’ve got an infield that wants the ball and an outfield that’s competitive. They want the ball. Everybody wants to play softball. That’s the difference. It’s balanced. That’s a good thing. We have the circle; we have the offense; we have the defense. It’s about coming and playing your game and being relaxed playing it.”
Wiggins has entered Florida’s Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) and will step down in 2022 to focus on missionary work. She isn’t one to get ahead of herself, and she doesn’t count her championships before they are won, but she fully expects the Lady Rattlers to win the next four MEAC crowns.
“I plan on going out with a bang,” she said.