Sports Person of the Week - McNeese Softball’s Whitney Tate

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - McNeese pitcher Whitney Tate’s career has come to an end, but she leaves behind a legacy at a program with high expectations.

“Nobody wants to be mediocre and that’s kind of the standard here and that’s the tone the mood in everything that we do,” Tate said.

Tate is one of the most decorated players in the program’s history she was named to the Southland All-Conference team, the Southland Conference Tournament MVP, and First Team All-Louisiana, those are just some of her many achievements in her time at McNeese.

“I could just never imagine what this program would do for me and mean to me, I committed my freshman year of high school and you never know what you’re going into that young and to say that it’s more than I could have ever imagined would be an understatement. I’ve met some of my best friends and been a part of incredible things in history. I can’t imagine being anywhere else for four years playing softball”,” Tate said.

She says playing alongside her teammates in the NCAA tournament this past season is a moment she will never forget.

“That was the highest level and just the most calm I feel like I’ve played underneath that pressure and just kind of leaving it all out there. I think that mentally, physically, and emotionally has been one of my favorite moments and to be on that stage in that position. It’s an unexplainable feeling of just like pure joy and just being there with my teammates, you know, it’s like your families in Seattle,” Tate said.

Tate received her final McNeese Softball accolade on Wednesday by being named the Southland Conference Student-Athlete of the Year.

“I had no idea that I was getting it, I got a text message this morning it was like, hey, you should probably be on your phone about 1:00 o’clock today, but just to be named Student-Athlete of the Year I didn’t see that coming but to be listed among some of the greatest people I know like Erica a couple of years ago somebody told me, so to be listed in the books with one of those people is something I can never express enough gratitude towards and, it’s just a testament to this program to who they made me,” Tate said.

She now exits the circle and enters her new career as a medical assistant at the Center for Orthopedics in Lake Charles.

Copyright 2023 KPLC. All rights reserved.