Softball Jac Roof 7-16-2020

Alumni Association CU Athletics

Former three-time MSC Player of the Year inducted into Kentucky Softball Coaches' Association Hall of Fame

VERSAILLES, Ky. — Three-time NAIA All-American Jacqueline Roof not only wrote her name in the Lady Tiger softball record books but also made a statement in the state of Kentucky during her high school career. With that success, she was recently inducted into the Kentucky Softball Coaches' Association Hall of Fame. 
 
Roof, a shortstop from Paducah, finished her Lady Tiger career as the 2015 Mid-South Conference Freshman of the Year and then was named the Player of the Year three straight seasons (2016-2018). She also accumulated some of the top career records in program history: a .402 batting average (first), a .723 slugging percentage (first), 48 home runs (first), 217 runs scored (first), 470 total bases (first), 261 career hits (second), and 175 career RBIs (second).


Story by Edward Marlowe, Paducah Sun
 
Three days before the 2010 Fort Walton Beach Bash in Florida, Lone Oak softball coach David Scheer had a strange notion. A feeling.
 
It was time to call Jacqueline Roof up to varsity.
 
He had been watching her buzz around the basketball court for the Purple Flash — then as a scrappy eighth grader — and it was the speed he desperately needed.

And having watched her grow up in this beautiful bastion of baseball under her father, Gene, and three brothers in Shawn, Eric and Jonathan, he knew she was gifted with the DNA of dominating a diamond.
 
So, he dialed up and got the folks' permission to take "Jacq-Jacq" on the Spring Break trip.
 
"They were a little leery," Scheer said, laughing. "It was kind of spur-of-the-moment."
 
"I remember coach Scheer asking: 'Can Jacq come as an eighth grader to play varsity?' " Roof said. " 'She might not get much playing time.'
 
"But I got a lot of playing time, actually."
 
Indeed, she did, especially after hitting north of .600 after games against Assumption, Henry County, Taylor County, Campbellsville (where she went 3-for-3 with five RBIs) and Franklin-Simpson, with the team going 4-1 in the stretch.
 
More playing time, however, didn't just happen for the rest of 2010, but in the following years: three at Lone Oak, one at McCracken County and four at Campbellsville ... where she became one of the best shortstops to ever play the game in state history.
 
So, in a Tuesday afternoon ceremony at Woodford County Park in Versailles — and a shade over a decade from those first steps under Scheer — her playing career became immortalized, as Roof was officially entered into the Class of 2020 Kentucky Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
 
Roof wanted Scheer at the ceremony, but he had family matters to attend.
 
No matter. He certainly has plenty to say about his former star stopper.
 
"She always wanted to be like them boys, and probably even a little bit better than her brothers," he said. "That was her determination. I think it started way back then. And you know what was so great about her? She was never cocky. Never cocky. She played the game the way that it was supposed to be played, and just went out and did it.
 
"I could talk about 'Jacq-Jacq' all day. I'd never let you go. Words can't explain her. That's probably a bad thing to say, but it's actually a good thing.
 
"Words can't explain that young lady."
 
'Ridiculous numbers'
 
Roof's Hall-of-Fame credentials speak for themselves.
 
From 2010-13, Lone Oak went 118-36-1 with a state runner-up finish in 2012 and a fifth-overall finish in 2013. Roof was near or above .400 hitting in each of the seasons — batting leadoff, no less — and had moved to shortstop by her freshman year after catching some and serving as a DP in 2010.

"Our program was already changing," Scheer said. "But she's the one that just took it to the next level."
 
In 2014, following McCracken County consolidation with Reidland and Heath, Roof undoubtedly cracked the vaunted starting lineup and again helped pull down a state runner-up finish in a 41-7 season — where she hit .436 with a .595 on-base percentage and a .714 slugging, while striking out just five times.
 
"Early on, I wasn't looking at the stats," Roof said. "I was just trying to win our school a state title ... and at the college level, a national championship.
 
"But now, looking back at it, they were ridiculous numbers."
 
Sophomore year
 
Of all the high school memories Roof possesses, it's the 2012 season that strikes her memory first.
 
Lone Oak rumbled to an impressive 40-6 finish alongside this wall of talent that included youngsters like Kelsee Henson, Jenny Chapman, Madeline Wooten and Caroline Robertson, but also had three seniors in Alex Sohl, Nicole Walker and Whitney Aspery.
 
The team's only losses in the regular season came at the hands of Christian County (twice), Marshall County and Reidland ... before the Purple Flash went rampaging in the First Region Tournament, then survived four one-run games at the KHSAA State Tournament (Green County, North Laurel, Boyle County, Greenwood) at Jack Fisher Park in Owensboro before falling to Mercy 7-2 in the title tilt.
 
"When no one thought we could," Roof reminded. "We had people from our district saying that we couldn't do it. We'll lose after the first two games and then come home. And they said we wouldn't be top five, and we finished second that year."
 
"When Jacq stepped on the field, you couldn't ever tell if we were winning by 10 runs or losing by 10 runs," Scheer added. "She was so focused that she never quit. And she never let her teammates quit."
 
Just getting started?
 
After her time with Campbellsville University, Roof was selected 67th overall by the E1 Pro Ballers in the 2018 American Softball Association Draft.
 
But when that opportunity closed quickly, another one opened: coaching — under her former skippers in Scheer and Tony Hayden at McCracken County.
 
Now, she's hoping to catch on with her own program, and is currently leading a Kentucky Prospects club that was on hand for her Tuesday award ceremony (along with her family) after a weekend tournament in Lexington.
 
"I would love to be a head coach in the next couple of years," Roof said. "My goal is to get a head coaching position, and then — possibly when Tony retires — come back and coach at McCracken. I need to get some experience in, because I would love to come back to Paducah and coach at McCracken, and keep that rich history and legacy that Tony would leave behind. Start where he left off."
 
Or, better yet, start where she began.
 
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Players Mentioned

Jacqueline Roof

#20 Jacqueline Roof

INF
5' 9"
Senior
Paducah, Ky.

Players Mentioned

Jacqueline Roof

#20 Jacqueline Roof

5' 9"
Senior
Paducah, Ky.
INF