Throughout all the COVID-19 uncertainty of high school sports, Ankeny High School senior Jasmine Rumley didn’t want to get her hopes up.
After all, she watched her fellow classmates miss out on their spring sports, and softball was next on the docket.
“Seeing the seniors that didn’t get to play their spring sports and seeing how much that hurt them, I wasn’t even going to hope we’d play softball,” she said. “I knew I’d get my hopes up and be hurt about it. Obviously, nobody knew how long this was going to go on for, so it was just one of those things where you take it day-by-day.”
Rumley, as well as her teammates, watched Gov. Kim Reynolds hoping for some sort of answer to the pressing question of summer sports.
They got one.
On May 20, Reynolds announced that high schools in Iowa had the green light to begin their seasons. Practices started June 1 and the first official games begin on the 15th.
New preventative measures from the Iowa Department of Education came with the announcement. Teams can’t use dugouts during practices but can during games, players are encouraged to use their own equipment, among others.
But in the grand scheme of things, those guidelines are nothing compared to not being able to play softball.
“I can’t be mad about (the guidelines) – that’s what they need to do in order for us to play,” Rumley said. “We have to live with it and be happy about it. I can’t really complain about it, because we have to be happy that we even get a season.”
This season, Rumley looks to be a major factor in the Hawkettes’ success.
As a junior in 2019, she led Ankeny with a .493 batting average, 69 hits, 39 stolen bases, and 10 home runs. She totaled 117 bases, nearly double the next best Hawkette.
“Jasmine Rumley, if you look at our alumni list even way before I got here… she might be the best athlete that we’ve ever had in the program, period,” Ankeny softball coach David Bingham said. “And I don’t think it’s an argument.”
But for as stellar as she is on the softball field, Rumley won’t be continuing that side of her athletic career in college.
Instead, Rumley will swim, committing to Tennessee in April of 2019. She joins a competitive Volunteer team coming off its first SEC Championship in school history.
“Swimming is her passion,” Bigham said. “I hope she swims for America one day. I hope she swims in the Olympics.”
Despite being one of the best swimmers in Iowa – she led the state in the 100-yard freestyle (50.94) and ranking second in the 50-yard freestyle (23.20) – softball will always hold a place in Rumley’s heart.
After doubting that she’d get one last chance on the diamond, getting to be back with her teammates is going to be even sweeter.
“We’re a weird group of girls, but we’re fun,” Rumley said. “Just getting to be with them again is what I’m looking forward to the most. It’s definitely going to be what I don’t take for granted because spring sports got (cancelled), and we’re blessed to even have a season at the moment. It’s going to be one of those things where you’re always happy, always trying to have fun, taking it day-by-day, and having a blast while doing it.
Adam Hensley is a freelance journalist who writes our sports notebooks for the Ankeny Press Citizen and the Altoona Press Herald. For additional content, you can follow him on Twitter @A_Hens83.
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