Photo courtesy of Annie Gregory.
Mountain Brook High School graduate Annie Gregory has committed to play softball at Samford University after a two-year detour following her high school days.
Annie Gregory’s path may seem straightforward on the surface, but it has been far from that.
The Mountain Brook High School graduate has committed to play softball at Samford University, capping a two-year detour that took her away from the sport and back again.
Gregory spent her senior season weighing a path other than softball. Her dad graduated from the Naval Academy and her mom spent 20 years as a Navy Judge Advocate General officer, and she decided she wanted to follow in their footsteps. She was not accepted.
Rather than return to the softball field despite offers to keep playing, Gregory enrolled at Marion Military Institute for the 2024-25 school year to pursue a second application to the Naval Academy. The year bore little resemblance to a normal senior-turned-freshman experience.
Her days began with a 6 a.m. wake-up call, followed by runs of 1 to 3 miles and workouts that included push-ups, sprints, sit-ups and pull-ups. Her barracks room had to stay inspection-ready at all times, bed made and nothing out of place. Classes in physics, precalculus, chemistry and English filled the middle of the day, bookended by formations in uniform before lunch and again before lights out. On weekends, she drove three hours round trip back to Birmingham to work with a chemistry tutor and a physics tutor.
Gregory earned four nominations to the Naval Academy, from the president, her senators and her congressman. She still did not gain admission.
“I know God’s plans were and are always in place,” Gregory said.
With the Naval Academy chapter closed, Gregory returned to the game she grew up playing. She signed on for the 2026 season at Southern Union State Community College, a junior college in Wadley.
“I got an offer to play JUCO at Southern Union, and it was great to be back at it,” Gregory said. “I am so thankful for my year at Southern Union, especially because I learned a lot, and it showed me that I can play at the highest levels.”
Because of the year she spent away from the sport, Gregory said she expects to have four years of eligibility remaining under current NCAA rules, the equivalent of a gap year restored to her college softball career.
That eligibility will now be used at Samford, a decision Gregory credits to more than just the softball program.
“Samford is a world-class academic school with the best professors. It is also faith-based, which my belief and walk as a Christian is incredibly important to me,” Gregory said. “It is also 20 minutes from home, which I used to want to go far away, but the more I leave Birmingham, the more I miss it.”
Looking back on the path that led her from Annapolis dreams to Wadley to Birmingham, Gregory said the last three years taught her more than any recruiting timeline could have.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned over these past years is that you are going to fail a lot more times than you succeed, but it is what you do with the failure,” Gregory said. “Rejection just means redirection.”
