Jailyn Ford

Classroom

Jailyn Ford holds a cumulative GPA of 3.182 and has made the dean’s list multiple times as a student-athlete. This past semester, Ford turned in a Fall GPA of 3.764 and has held a 3.5 GPA over the past two semesters.

Character

Ford is going into her second consecutive season as team captain. She is a vocal leader and leads by example with her excellent play and sportsmanship on the field. Off the field, she is a model student-athlete based on how she conducts herself in the classroom and around the community. She motivates her teammates to continue to get better both on and off the field.

Community

Ford and the JMU softball team were presented with the 2014-15 JMU Community Service Award after compiling an average of 32 hours of service per student-athlete over the previous year. She and her teammates even spent time around finals working with the United Way’s “Be a Santa to a Senior” initiative, which provided gifts to senior citizens around Harrisonburg. She also participated in “Bears and Bags” to collect presents for foster children in the area and had a hand in making holiday wreaths for the fundraiser “Our Community Place.”

Competition

Jailyn Ford is a two-time NFCA All-American pitcher, the first in JMU’s history. She was named to the NFCA All-Region First Team and was voted CAA and VaSID State Player of the Year after hitting .383 with 11 home runs, 44 RBIs and 44 runs from the plate while going 16-5 with a 2.30 ERA in the circle. She held opponents to a .165 batting average and conceded just 4.1 hits per seven innings while racking up 9.83 strikeouts per seven.

She also broke a pair of JMU single-season records for on-base percentage (.485) and strikeouts per seven innings (9.83) while also setting four career records for wins (64), shutouts (24), strikeouts (634) and complete games (56). She also tied another career record for home runs (35). On April 15, 2015, Ford produced JMU’s first-ever perfect game at East Carolina while simultaneously breaking the career strikeouts record. She also produced a pair of one-hitters during the 2015 campaign.