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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.michigandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/online_akf.SFT_.vsIllinois.4.7.23.0026.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.michigandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/online_akf.SFT_.vsIllinois.4.7.23.0026.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1" /> Melina Livingston is the ultimate team player.
The graduate first baseman is a captain of the Michigan softball team this year and continues to lead by example through in-game pep talks and encouragement. Throughout her time at Regina High School, Penn State and now as a graduate transfer in her second year with the Wolverines, Livingston has always provided leadership and consistency.
After being moved all around the field throughout her career, bringing stability for a team without having a stable position is Livingston’s specialty. Since finding a home this year as Michigan’s first baseman, her purpose continues to be contributing in any and every way her team needs.
“I was the coach’s kid position,” Livingston told The Michigan Daily. “I didn’t care what I played as long as I was on the field.”
Her selflessness and leadership made waves everywhere she went. Whether it was leading her team by example in high school or becoming a more vocal leader at Michigan, Livingston has made others her priority throughout her entire career. But much of the culture and camaraderie she learned came from her time at Regina High School.
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Regina High School is an all-girls catholic school in Warren, Michigan. For softball, recruiting and player development happens mostly during travel season with different club teams. And for Livingston, who spent most of her time developing as a player for travel teams, high school softball was a place for her to build confidence in herself as a leader.
However, not only did Livingston excel at softball, but she was also on the swim team all four years of high school — following in the footsteps of her mother, who was a collegiate swimmer at Oakland. Dedicating her time since she was eight years old to swimming, it was her goal to make the Olympics.
Due to limiting factors outside of her control, though, Livingston decided to stick with softball.
“I really put all my time and effort into (swimming) but when you don’t grow past 5-foot-2, it makes it a little bit more difficult,” Livingston said. “ … But it taught me a lot of mental toughness, because you’re staring at a black line for two or three hours a day. So that definitely helps me in softball to be more mentally resilient.”
During her time under the mentoring of long-time softball coach Diane Laffey, who won seven state championships and 15 Catholic League titles in her 52 years coaching, Livingston learned right away that success wasn’t just about how well you played.
In her first year at Regina, she was placed on JV for the first month. And that definitely came as a surprise.
“It was a bummer,” Livingston said. “I could have heard that and sworn off the whole high school situation and really just focused on travel ball, but I knew a lot of the girls that were on the varsity team. I’d grown up with them through travel ball and through the Catholic middle school system and so I wanted to get up there.”
Using the mental resilience and patience she learned from swimming, her positive outlook on the situation gave Livingston the motivation to play even better and achieve her goal of competing at the varsity level. And when she reached varsity, she had an immediate impact on the team.
“She was definitely a Division I athlete from the time she started playing at Regina,” Laffey told The Daily. “She worked very hard, definitely a team leader, but she always had her teammates in mind when she did anything.”
Throughout Livingston’s freshman year, when Regina won the state championship, she observed everything she could in efforts to make herself the best leader and player for Regina’s program.
Not only was her work ethic noticed by those around her, but it was also contagious.
“She also inspired, for a number of people on her team, that same type of behavior worth work ethic to make yourself the best overall player so that they could help her team succeed,” Carolyn Lekki, Regina assistant coach, told The Daily. “It wasn’t just about her.”
In her sophomore year at Regina, Livingston was recruited and committed to play for LaSalle, a small school in Pennsylvania. But after a coaching turnover resulted in the lack of a complete coaching staff, Livingston reopened her recruitment after her junior year.
Livingston deems herself a “late bloomer.” As she bloomed into a leader towards the end of her high school career, larger schools like Penn State began to take notice. And in the summer before her senior year, she received an offer and committed to play softball for the Nittany Lions.
While travel softball is often where the majority of recruiting and player development occurs, Livingston learned many valuable lessons in her time at Regina.
“It’s an undervalued opportunity that a lot of kids will just mindlessly go through,” Livingston said about high school softball. “And luckily I had coaches like Lekki and Laffey to help me through that and really pushed me to do that. … They taught me how I can help the team be successful, mentality wise, how I can build a culture and how I can help lead a team. I will be forever thankful for them.”
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At Penn State, Livingston again found herself fighting for a spot in the lineup. However, come time for her freshman season to begin, she started at shortstop and didn’t miss a single game. She was moved to the outfield in her second year, but the season was cut short due to the pandemic. And her junior year, her final season with the Nittany Lions, she played outfield and third base before suffering an injury.
Livingston boasted a batting average of .290 in her three years with Penn State, which led the team in her final year. However, due to her injury, Livingston did not play as often in her senior season and had to take a different approach.
“I had to really take a step back,” Livingston said. “My whole life I was more of leading by example, doing my thing and then being as positive as I can doing it to hope everyone can follow me. But I had to instead lead from behind a little bit and lead through being more vocal, which was really challenging my senior year, but I think I’m a lot better for it.”
In her time with the Nittany Lions, through the challenges, Livingston made her name known. She certainly grabbed the attention of then-Michigan associate head coach Bonnie Tholl, now the head coach of the Wolverines.
“We played against her at Penn State,” Tholl told The Daily. “It’s just somebody that you notice, you never want the best in-state kids to get away. So you do take notice. And she was one of those top performers at the college level at that point.”
Growing up in Michigan, Livingston was always a fan of Michigan athletics and especially the softball team. Her father attended the university and her uncle was a bullpen catcher for the Michigan baseball team. With many ties to Ann Arbor, Livingston never failed to consider the Wolverines as her destination after graduating from Penn State in three years.
“I was a Michigan softball player like two or three times for Halloween,” Livingston said. “That was my goal. … My freshman year at Regina in 2015 when we won the state championship was parallel to the Michigan 2015 Women’s College World Series run. So that was a whole big thing in my head and thinking, ‘Isn’t that really cool?’ ”
After graduating from Penn State, Tholl quickly reached out to Livingston. In fact, Tholl contacted her on the first day Livingston put her name down to mark her eligibility. And from that point on, Livingston’s dream of playing softball for Michigan came true.
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Just like at Regina and Penn State, Livingston found herself vying for a starting job with the Wolverines. In her first season, she played third base, second base and designated player before solidifying herself as the starting second baseman after multiple strong performances early on.
“She’s a player that you have to watch every single day to really appreciate her value,” Tholl said. “It took us the first 15-plus games to recognize that this is somebody who needs to be in the lineup more often. At the start of our Big Ten season, we recognized that she needed to be an everyday player for us whether it was in a designated player role or whether it was at second base.”
And Livingston embraced the playing opportunity in her first year with Michigan, recording a .284 batting average including nine multi-hit and seven multi-RBI games. This season, Livingston has taken on first base for the first time in her career, sticking by her role of “the coach’s kid.”
But when Livingston’s time with the Wolverines comes to a close, she will be remembered for much more than just her on-page statistics. Rather, she will be remembered for the same team-first mentality that has characterized her leadership throughout her entire softball career.
“She’s an absolute giver,” Tholl said. “She gives way more than she takes. When we talk about what you can get from your Michigan experiences is what you give to it, Melina is the epitome of that because she wants what’s best for other people.”
With her experience in high school and throughout college — learning to be the best team player she can be — leading the way, Livingston’s impact on the Wolverines will help carry the program into the future.
Because whether she’s fighting for her spot in the lineup or starting every game, Livingston will always be a team player.