RAYLIN MORGAN

HASKELL HIGH SCHOOL

This winter you’ll find Haskell senior Raylin Morgan laboring in the paint as a four-year starter for the Haymakers girls’ basketball squad where one of her main tasks is demonstrating senior leadership.

“I try to lead by example. We have a young team this year and I try to help them out and let them know that it’s all right to have questions if they don’t understand a play and try to make them feel comfortable,” said Morgan. And even though she’s a talented basketball player and could probably play at the next level according to her coach Kyle Ward, her heart is really in the circle on the softball diamond where she led the Haymakers to the fast pitch state semifinals this past fall.

“I’ve been playing softball since I was four including travel ball. One of my role models was Paige Parker. I loved watching her pitch at OU and had her number until I got to high school. When I was in fourth grade, I decided to try basketball and my mom let me do it. She’s my main motivator. She’s at all my games and is always supporting me and took me all over the place for travel softball,” said the talented Morgan.

Her softball talents have led her to commit to play at Rogers State next year although the path to that decision was a little bumpy.

“I went to a camp there several years ago and loved the campus and they gave me some pointers on how to improve my game. I went back again and even took pitching lessons from their coach Andrea Vaughn. But time went by and I didn’t hear any more from them and I thought I might end up going the JUCO route. But then coach Vaughn came and saw me pitch a game and was impressed with how much I had improved since that first camp and invited me for a visit and eventually an offer.”

Raylin is also a star outside of athletics as a member of the National Honor Society, vice president of the student council and president of the senior class. After she graduates, Raylin says she would like to be remembered as someone that teammates could talk to about anything even if it wasn’t sports related.