The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THREE young ladies from the Bahamas Athletic Pride (BAP) softball programme are now set to take the next step in their young softball careers after last Thursday’s inaugural signing day over at JBLN’s Field of Dreams complex. 

Collegiate player Reghan Ingraham signed her national letter of intent (NLI) to join Voorhees University in Denmark, South Carolina. 

Additionally, highschoolers Katelyn and Janae Bain will transfer to The Independent School in Wichita, Kansas for the remainder of their high school tenures. 

For Ingraham, her journey playing softball began at Freedom Farm when she was 9-years-old. She is now 17-years-old and is excited to make a name for herself at Voorhees University.

“It feels really good. I am really excited and thankful for my coaches for even having the BAP programme to help myself and other girls get this opportunity to go off to school and experience new things,” she said.

The Charles W Saunders graduate did not have a seamless journey as she had multiple offers going into her senior year but those plans were derailed.

Despite being discouraged, Ingraham stayed the course and was overjoyed on signing day. “It was hard. It was complicated sometimes and I wanted to give up but I just had to trust in the Lord and always remain hopeful and grateful. It really feels good knowing that all my hard work paid off. I want to thank my mother, brother, my second mother, my coaches and my entire family for their support,” she said.

The Bain sisters are a special duo. K Bain started out playing softball at the T-Ball level at Freedom Farm. Initially, she was not fond of the sport but she eventually took a liking to it and joined the BAP softball programme in 2023 as a pitcher. During her time with BAP, she won the 2023 BAP 14U Most Defensive Player Award and was the no.2 ranked 14U player in the BAP All-Star Rankings.

J Bain, on the other hand,  plays the catcher position. She has been a part of the BAP programme for the last few years and has certainly made her mark. 

During her tenure with BAP, the 14-year-old was the youngest player to play at the BAP All-Star Week, winner of the Golden Glove Award in 2022 and MVP in the 15U Division. 

The former CH Reeves student was also the no. 1 ranked 14U player on the BAP All-Star rankings and was made MVP of the BAP travel team.

BAP programme director and head coach Dachye Stubbs was pleased to see seven years of hard work with the softball programme finally pay off on signing day.

“It has been seven long years. It is a day that I have been dreaming of since the inception of the programme so it feels good. It feels good to even know we have the talent here to make it possible because we have girls going to college and high school which speaks to the diversity we have here,” she said.

Stubbs spoke highly of the three softball players and said the goal is to continue to develop and grow the BAP programme.

“These girls definitely set the tone. It is unbelievable that we have kids that are so young who could come and decide they have dreams and goals and want to work towards them. It is going to be hard to replace this group of girls because their talent alone is something out of this world and is totally different from any other kid I would’ve worked with over the last three to four years. It is going to be hard but we look forward to developing more kids and growing the programme,” she said.

She added that next year the goal is to double the amount of signees and transfers. All three ladies expressed great appreciation for coach Stubbs and Sophia Cartwright as well as other coaches and relatives that supported them leading up to this point.