Tia Williams isn’t your typical short stop.
“I’m actually really shy, but that’s off the field, but on the field, I’m a whole different person,” she said.
The Land O’ Lakes junior flips a switch ever y time she sets foot onto a softball field.
“I know that I run that infield," Williams said. "I have to talk to my players. I have to just push them, that extra motivation to get them where they are.”
And the bigger the game, the bigger Williams plays. It didn’t get any bigger than the Class 6A state championship game where Land O’ Lakes made history winning its first softball title.
“I think it legitimizes the program that we’ve built at Land O’ Lakes and it’s something that we want to keep, we don’t want to make this a one or two time deal," Land O' Lakes coach Mitch Wilkins said. "We’d like to come back every year.”
“Last year we were saying we just wanted to make it here," Williams said. "This year we were saying we wanted this, we wanted this championship. We weren’t this way a few years back. We were that team that just, we weren’t bonded as a team. We weren’t together. But I feel confident about us next year and years after that.”
With Williams and the rest of a young Gators roster on board, one title isn’t enough. They want more.