Sam Inman, a 2009 graduate of Okaw Valley, has signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her softball career at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Currently, Inman is a sophomore at Parkland College where she earned plenty of honors, including being named to the NJCAA Division II All-Region 24 softball team and a second team all-Mid-West Conference player as well as receiving All-American honors.
"I visited Quincy University and talked with the coach at St. Ambrose (Davenport, Iowa), but they really didn't interest me that much," said Inman, a three-sport athlete at Okaw Valley. "I really like UIS. It is closer to home and it is a nice campus. I just really liked it. The coach (Mat Mundell) came to a couple of games last spring and really seemed interested. I felt like he really wanted me to come play for him."
UIS, a school with an enrollment of 4,711, is in its second year of competing at the Division II level after making the move from NAIA. The Prairie Stars are in their second year of competing in the 15-team Great Lakes Valley Conference.
"Sam is the lone junior college player in the 2012 class," said Mundell, a graduate of Normal. "She is a difference maker for us. She is coming off a freshman year where she was named an All-American. She is the rare combination of speed and power in the middle of the lineup and a go-get'em center fielder with a ton of range."
Inman was featured in a December 7, 2010, article in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette & Charleston Times-Courier.
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