DVHS senior softball player Tiffany Sanchez commits to Sam Houston State University

DVHS senior softball player Tiffany Sanchez officially committed to play softball at Sam Houston State University during a signing ceremony held this week. 

Tiffany’s family, friends, coaches, and DVHS student-athletes gathered to celebrate the monumental milestone with her. Tiffany signed her commitment letter and thanked her family and coaches for their support over the years. 

“My dad, my biggest motivator. You've always pushed me to reach my goals and make my dreams come true. Mom, thank you for introducing me to softball. Without you, I would not be in this seat today. Thank you for always taking me to my tournaments, sending me inspirational videos and never giving up on me. You know how to make a girl feel really good about herself. I love both of y'all so much, and words cannot express how much I appreciate everything you've done,” she said holding back tears. 

Tiffany thanked her select softball coaches and DVHS softball coach Ally Valdez, who she sees as another parent figure in her life.

“It has been a joy to watch you grow and mature into a young adult. You have developed, displayed, and fine-tuned many characteristics that will assist you in your future endeavors, like goal setting, a passion to be the best, dedication, unconditional commitment, motivation, and the pursuit of excellence,” Coach Valdez said. “I'm beyond proud of you and cannot wait to see you excel on this new journey.”

Tiffany has played softball for most of her life; her mom Lori said she picked up the bat and ball when she was three years old. Just several years later, when she was eight years old, she began playing select softball, following in the footsteps of her four older sisters. Three of them went on to play softball at the collegiate level, and now Tiffany is the fourth. 

“She's seen the work that goes into getting where she's at now, but It's very stressful. We have to do a lot of tournaments out of state. If it weren't for softball, we wouldn't have gotten to visit all the places we've gone, you know, but it's long hours of practicing and road trips, exposure tournaments, lessons every day, pitching, batting. I mean it's always something that we that's that's all we've done since she was little.”

Now, Lori is preparing to send her youngest daughter to college hours down the road to Huntsville where she’ll continue the path to achieve her dreams. 

“Going pro is my lifelong dream. I’m going to get there,” Tiffany asserted. “Going pro and just making a name for myself at Sam Houston and breaking records.” 

“I'm excited for her, for where she's going, what she's going to do, but sad because she's my little spitfire,” Lori said “It's going to be hard at first, but I'm excited, more excited than anything, to see what she's going to do and to go watch her play at that level.” 

Tiffany says she’ll miss her softball family, coaches, and the atmosphere, but right now is looking forward to going all in on her last high school season and performing well in district play.