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Dawn Jeffs stands out on Liberty’s softball team as a leader and a star player. She has started all of Liberty’s 29 games as second baseman.
She transferred from Biola University as a junior in the fall of 2005. This season, her records boast a batting average of .413, ranking her second on the team, with 24 runs scored.
Jeffs is one of the most reliable, solid defensive second baseman Liberty has ever seen, going 20 games before her first error of the year. Her record of 11 doubles leads the team, and she is well on her way to breaking Shannon Tanski’s 1996 school record of 21 doubles in a season.
“I’ve been confident in my hitting — if I get out, I don’t get too mad, just knowing there are so many more chances you get in a game,” Jeffs said.
Something that she knows she could work on are “ground balls hit directly to me. I don’t know why, but I just get a little jumpy. I don’t mind them anywhere else — just right to me. I could work on that for sure.”
Growing up in Roseville, Calif., just north of Sacramento, Jeffs’ parents had her involved with sports at an early age. She started playing softball at the age of six. She played many other sports, like tennis, volleyball and basketball. However, softball won Jeffs’ favor over all in the end. Her enjoyment of the game and perhaps much of her talent comes from her mother, who played the sport when she was younger.
“My mom played softball all growing up and then in college,” Jeffs said. The role model and encouragement from her mom greatly influenced Jeffs’s love for the sport.
“My mom always told me ‘You know, if you strike out don’t worry about it. It’s probably going to happen again, so just keep playing.’”
Before her decision to follow Christ, Jeffs had been looking into secular universities, but afterwards she changed her mind.
“I became a Christian in the middle of my sophomore year in high school,” Jeffs said. “I decided that it would be better for me, a new Christian, to go to a Christian school. And I loved it. I loved Biola.”
After playing for Biola for two years, Jeffs made the decision to transfer to Liberty to be with her husband, Brendan.
“We talked to the coach (Paul Wetmore) and he was interested, so I came out to play softball,” Jeffs said. “It was definitely God’s plan that they needed a second baseman.”
Jeffs is looking forward to the string of home games the Flames will host, especially because of her fans who mean the most to her.
“My husband can come watch now and my parents are flying in this week to watch,” Jeffs said.
Pursuing a degree in social sciences, Jeffs is looking forward to graduating and moving back to California in a few years. Her plans with softball, however, look like they will be slowing down.
“Competitively, I’ll be done. It’s a fun sport, but after college, I’ll stick to slow-pitch and be done.”
Just in case you missed the story on Dawn that ran last Saturday:
By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
April 8, 2006
This is a love story. It's also a softball story. As the storylines intertwine, the tale takes on a new meaning, one that makes folks in Liberty's softball clubhouse smile.
Dawn Jeffs' marriage to high school sweetheart Brendan seemed to mean the end of her college softball career. Instead, it gave Jeffs a new beginning, a chance to play at a Division I school 3,000 miles away from home.
Brendan Jeffs wanted to come to Liberty to study theology, but he didn't want to leave Dawn behind. Dawn, a shortstop at Biola, an NAIA school in Los Angeles agreed. The long-distance relationship would have been financially draining and emotionally miserable. So she joined Brendan in Lynchburg.
Career over, right? Not quite. When Cassie Campbell graduated from Liberty's softball program last year, it left Flames coach Paul Wetmore with an opening at second base, Jeffs' natural position.
Wetmore's not sure he believes in kismet, but he knows there's a reason why Dawn Jeffs and the Liberty softball team found their way to each other.
"From my perspective, it was not good recruiting, but truly God's blessing," Wetmore said. "I readily tell people that."
Both sides have benefited from the move. Dawn and Brendan have begun their life together, and the Liberty softball team is 25-14.
Jeffs' bat and slick glove at second have a lot to do with LU's hot start.
"She just brings a lot to the field that elevates all the people around her," Wetmore said. "That kid comes out and plays hard every day. That's all I can ask. Great kid."
The happiest one of all might be Liberty shortstop Jessica Moore. The Flames' best player and leadoff hitter has benefited greatly from the protection Jeffs provides in the lineup.
Moore is batting .452 with 22 RBIs and a team-high 14 home runs. Jeffs, who bats in the two hole, is hitting .412 with five home runs and 21 RBIs. (She had never homered at any level before coming to LU.) So pitchers have a tough choice to make. If they pitch around Moore, they have an equally tough challenge to face in Jeffs.
"There's not all this pressure of, 'if you don't get it done, we're not getting it done,'" Moore said. "I know she's behind me."
Moore and Jeffs are extremely tight, not surprising considering the bond that forms between shortstops and second basemen.
Both were transfers as Moore came from Charlotte. So they gravitated toward each other. The friendship offers the witty Moore a chance to needle Jeffs.
"During practice, she'll be like, 'I think I'm going to make this for dinner,'" Moore said with a giggle. "And I'm like, 'if I had to go home and make dinner for my husband, and clean the house ?'
"He's amazing, though. He supports her 100 percent with softball, and that's just amazing to see that."
Jeffs is the only married woman on the team, so she knew she could be walking into a potentially awkward situation. Instead, her new Liberty teammates embraced her, giving her a surprising level of comfort.
"At first, it was a weird kind of separation," Jeffs said. "But now, it's just normal. There are a couple of girls I hang out with a lot, and the other girls I get along with really well."
Wetmore admitted he had some worries about what kind of focus Jeffs would bring to Liberty. Those concerns were quickly quashed when he sat with Brendan to explain his expectations.
"I said 'Unless you look me in the eye and tell me you're willing to support her, I'm not interested in bringing the kid here,'" Wetmore said.
"I've been at this long enough. You have to have people who are focused and dedicated in what we want to do."
Brendan's response?
"He said, 'No problem,'" Wetmore said.
The move east has been nearly perfect for Dawn Jeffs, but she can't leave California behind completely.
Every time she comes to bat, Phantom Planet's insanely catchy tune "California" blares from the speakers. The song was made famous by the Fox show "The O.C." (and, to a lesser extent, by a spoof of "The O.C." on Fox's "The Simpsons.")
Jeffs said she chose the song so she could remember the good times at Biola and her friendship with former roommate Katie Gustaveson.
While it's fun to reminisce, Jeffs recognizes that everything important in her life is in Lynchburg now.
I wondered how the whole "married" thing affected the team. Seems kinda strange to imagine college kids being married- I was nowhere NEAR ready for that type of thing at that age.
wish them the best of luck.
JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
Jeffs Named to ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team
May 10, 2007
Lynchburg, Va.
The honors keep rolling in for Liberty second baseman Dawn Jeffs, as the senior was named to the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District second team as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday.
JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
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