The CT Softball Blog

TRUMBULL—As an outfielder, Makena Hawkins can cover a whole lot of ground.

As far as her softball future is concerned, the center fielder from St. Joseph High in Trumbull appears to be covering an especially vast expanse of lawn—perhaps ranging from her hometown of Danbury, over to Trumbull for her final season of high school softball, and then all the way to Nashville where Hawkins will take her talents to play for Tennessee State University come the fall of 2025.

Earlier this fall, Hawkins announced her commitment to play at Tennessee State, an HBCU school, upon her graduation from St. Joe’s.

“We played a lot in the south,” Hawkins said of her time with the CT Impact, a travel program which is connected with the more southern-based Georgia Impact. “We were in Tennessee about three times, and I loved it down there. Everybody was so nice.”

Hawkins also knew she wanted to go to a school that would touch upon her culture in a much bigger way than her schools in Connecticut managed to do.

She began her high school career at Immaculate in Danbury before transferring to St. Joseph her junior year.

“Growing up and going to a Catholic school, it’s really not that diverse,” said Hawkins, who was born into a mix-raced family with a white mother and a black father. “There’s not many black or Hispanics kids and I just want to explore my culture. I’m really interested in that.”

As such, Hawkins felt drawn to the HBCU schools in the south and Tennessee State seemed like a perfect fit after she met head coach Genee McRath.

“I knew I was interested in their coach,” Hawkins said. “She has really set new goals for the program and I’m all about winning, but she just wants us to compete.”

McRath, who will be entering her fourth season this spring, led Tennessee State to its first winning season since 2007 in 2024. It was also the first time in program history that TSU received a first-round bye in the OVC tournament.

Hawkins speed and ability to play the outfield could make her a key player for the Tigers in the coming years.

She sat in on a Tennessee State practice during an official visit and a lot of it seemed familiar.

“I was watching one of their practices and I realized this is what we do every day (at St. Joe’s),” Hawkins said.

St. Joseph head coach Jeff Babineau knows Hawkins is going to make her mark in the south.

“She’s quite a talent,” he said. “If you’re looking at somebody that can run like the wind and hit for power, it’s Makena. She wanted to go to an HBCU school, and she had quite the showing down there. She can cover more ground than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to love her down there.”

Hawkins’ softball career began at a young age simply because she followed some friends into the sport.

She had tried dance and gymnastics, and even horseback riding when she lived in Texas, but it was once she found her way to the softball diamond that everything change.

“It was fun just because we were all doing it,” she said.

After a season of playing some low-key recreation ball, Hawkins learned there was a much more competitive side of the game.

“I started out on a local travel team and then tried out for a national team,” she said. “That opened my eyes to the world of softball. It’s so big. The more you grow, the harder it gets, but you can make friends and learn a lot from the coaches and just learn life lessons. It’s such a challenging sport. You learn how to both fail and succeed.”

From the Danbury Hatters travel program to the Rhode Island Thunder to the CT Impact, Hawkins rose through the travel ranks and kept getting better.

Now that she has committed to Tennessee State, she’ll be returning to the Rhode Island Thunder for one more travel season before heading south for her college years.

Of course, she still has one more season at St. Joe’s—one complete season after sitting out 10 games last year after her transfer.

“It was definitely challenging. I just wanted to be on the field,” Hawkins said. “Once I was able to get on the field, everything was so easy. We practice so hard that once you step on the field it feels like a cakewalk.”

Her goal is the same as the rest of the Cadets—an FCIAC and state title in her final year.

“I feel like this year we have a good chance,” Hawkins said. “We just have to put in the work and play as a team.”

While she’s not 100 percent sure where her Tennessee State educational journey will take her, Hawkins has an interest in criminology.

“I’m super interested in crime things and psychology and how the mind works,” she said. “That really interests me.”

Hawkins journey may not be the typical road map for a softball player to find her way to college, but that’s just fine.

It’s a big world out there and there is a lot of ground to cover.

Makena Hawkins has proven she can do just that and a lot more.

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