All-American Flashback: Jennifer Fenton (2009-12)
3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
In honor of Alabama softball's 20th anniversary, rolltide.com will be catching up with our 20 former All-Americans in a series of feature interviews. Our 18th feature is with Jennifer Fenton (2009-12), a constant stolen base threat who earned All-America honors as a senior in 2012.
As one speedy All-American outfielder from Georgia named Brittany Rogers was entering her senior season for the Crimson Tide in 2009, another from the Peach State arrived right behind her in Jennifer Fenton. As a fixture at the top of the Tide order from 2009-12, Fenton, now Jennifer Maloney, became interested in Alabama from watching players like Rogers at the Women's College World Series.
"When I got to eighth or ninth grade and had to decide what I wanted to do with softball moving forward, I knew I wanted to play at the college level," Maloney said. "I started looking around at schools and I started watching the Women's College World Series every June on TV. Alabama was always there and I really liked watching them play. I thought they had a great passion for the game and I had heard great things about the school.
"In Georgia, I honestly didn't switch from slow pitch to fast pitch until I was in sixth grade. I started learning the game and by the time I really understood what was going on, I was a freshman in high school and I had a very good year. I was All-State, All-Region and Player of the Year. I thought then that there was a real possibility I could play in college."
Once Maloney began playing for a club team, she traveled to many tournaments across the country and college coaches started to take notice.
"I remember my sophomore year, one of my dad's friends met Coach [Patrick] Murphy at one of the Alabama softball games and he told Murphy about me," Maloney said. "Murphy ended up coming to watch me in Colorado and we kept in touch and he would email or call me back once he was able to. He invited me to watch Alabama play and that led to my unofficial visit my junior year when I decided I wanted to go to Alabama."
When weighing the options for a college softball program, Maloney noticed the same things that many other of the Crimson Tide players see right away with the team.
"What I really loved about Alabama was that their coaching staff was very genuine," Maloney said. "They truly cared about each one of their players and you could just tell by watching them that it was a true family atmosphere. The players loved each other and they really wanted to play for each other. It wasn't a `me-first' attitude, it was about `what can I do to help the team'. On top of that, the team was very good and had won the SEC a number of times, was highly ranked and had been to the World Series."
As a freshman in 2009, Maloney appeared in 60 games including 24 starts in the outfield. A center fielder for the majority of her career, Maloney had a chance to learn from one of Alabama's best her freshman year playing behind senior All-American Brittany Rogers. Rogers was one of five seniors in the class of 2009 that was instrumental in setting the tone for Maloney and the freshmen.
"That class had amazing leaders and they all led in different ways," Maloney said. "That's what made them so special. As soon as my class came on campus, they were available for us. They were willing to help us with anything we needed. They really embraced us and wanted us to learn everything they knew. I didn't play as much as I wanted to my freshman year but I took that year as an opportunity to learn from Brittany Rogers. She was an All-American outfielder and she knew the game and how to play it correctly. I was soaking up as much as she would tell me. From the very beginning at the first workout, they set the tone for what was expected out of us. They had high expectations and it was our job as underclassmen to help reach those team expectations."
As a sophomore in 2010, Maloney and the Tide won the SEC regular season and tournament titles with Maloney taking home SEC All-Tournament team honors. In 2011, she helped lead the team to its second-straight SEC regular season title and an appearance at the Women's College World Series. Having already accomplished those goals, Maloney and the 2012 seniors set their sights even higher.
"The thing that we really wanted for that year was to finish," Maloney said. "Every year we had come so close but we couldn't get over the hill. As a senior class, our goal was to do anything we could do to help the team. Yes, we were the seniors but it wasn't about us. We wanted it to be about the team and what we could all accomplish together, whether it's the freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. We wanted it to be a complete team effort. It didn't matter if it was a freshman or senior that got the key hit, we just wanted it to be about the entire team.
Maloney was one of six seniors in 2012, along with Kendall Dawson, Olivia Gibson, Amanda Locke, Jazlyn Lunceford and Cassie Reilly-Boccia. Despite having a large group with diverse personalities, the class of 2012 was able to use their differences as an advantage.
"Each of us led very differently," Maloney said. "Cassie [Reilly-Boccia] was more outspoken, others weren't as vocal but led with their actions. We used our leadership abilities in different ways. I would lead in the outfield, Kendall [Dawson] would lead behind the plate, Cassie had the infield. We just tried to lead the way we knew best for the team. We each embraced our role. My job as the number two hitter was to move the runner over. Whether I got on base or not, my job was to move the runner and that's what I tried to do every time."
Blessed with great speed on the base paths, a sacrifice bunt attempt would often turn into a bunt single for Maloney. Once she got on first, her base-stealing skills usually meant that second base wasn't far behind. Maloney ended her career with a school-record .964 stolen base percentage, swiping 133 in 138 attempts.
"Baserunning was always my thing," Maloney said. "I would always steal a lot. Once I got to Alabama, I fine-tuned my form and got a little faster. Murphy allowed the `green-light girls' on the team to always steal on the first or second pitch unless there was a specific situation he didn't want us to. Me, [Kayla] Braud and Jaz were allowed to steal any time on the first or second pitch. I took pride in baserunning. It wasn't something that I just took for granted."
A nondescript stolen base on March 16, 2010 in game one of a doubleheader at Kentucky would end up as the start of an incredible streak for Maloney. She would go on to steal 77-consecutive bases without being caught, setting a new NCAA record. She broke the record on April 6, 2012 against LSU and saw it end the next day against the Tigers as she was thrown out in the first inning. It was the first time she was caught stealing since March 13 of her sophomore year.
"I honestly had no idea that there was a streak or a record or anything like that," Maloney said. "I didn't know anything until the night I broke it and they announced it on the intercom. Our SID staff tried to keep it away from me so I didn't think about it as much. Stealing bases was just something I took pride in. I wanted to get in scoring position so that my teammates could hit me in. Speed gets things done and causes chaos on the infield."
The streak was one of many accolades Fenton earned her senior year. She was named All-SEC, SEC All-Tournament Team, NFCA All-South Region and NFCA First Team All-America. Her biggest accomplishment would come at the end of the year with a national title and a spot on the Women's College World Series All-Tournament team.
"I don't remember a lot of the little plays," Maloney said. "The big thing I remember is our reaction after losing the first game. We weren't going to let that happen again. We don't get beat twice. We needed to fight back and win it because we knew we could do it. On the bus rides to the games, we watched some really good motivational videos that really pumped us up and got us ready for the game.
"When the rain hit in game three I remember that was a huge turning point in the game for us. We were losing at that point and we were just trying to find some way to get an advantage. We were making adjustments at the plate before that but once the rain hit, our team decided that we weren't going to sit in the dugout. We wanted to stay pumped up as a team because that was what we needed. We had been through all kinds of rain and cold and adversity throughout that year that, when I look back at those moments, completely prepared us for that three-game series. We were on the field and cheering with the fans. I remember looking over and seeing Oklahoma in the dugout with solemn faces and thinking `this could be big'. We stuck together as a team and it went from there. We kept getting little hits, they would make mistakes and we would score."
Off the field, Maloney made academics a priority. She was a three-time SEC Honor Roll award winner and was named the SEC Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2012.
"Academics are very important because most girls won't leave and play pro once they're done with college softball," Maloney said. "Because I was student teaching my senior year, I was working out at 5 a.m. and then I would have to go teach at an elementary school from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., go to practice and then stay extra after practice to do extra because I missed some stuff. It was very challenging. I had to learn a lot of time management and put in a lot of extra hours but it was completely worth it."
Like many former players, Maloney finds herself now teaching the same lessons that were given to her during her time at Alabama.
"The biggest one that sticks out in my mind was `the sooner you realize it isn't all about you, the better off you'll be'," Maloney said. "That stuck with me and, being the number two batter, it was particularly important for me to realize that. I coach high school softball now and that's something that I try and teach my players. It's not about the individual but about us as a team fighting together. I got a head coaching job right out of college and we've gone from only winning a few games when I started to now being second in the region. The girls have really embraced that saying and they have come together as a team. I teach elementary school and think of all the lessons that I learned when I'm trying to give them life lessons."
Maloney currently resides in Kennesaw, Ga., as a third grade teacher at Abney Elementary School and a softball coach for North Paulding High School. She married her husband Brian in the summer of 2015.
