Jayde started playing t-ball when she was two years old, transitioned to softball and hasn’t stopped playing! She practices anywhere she can, including any random field, driveway, or road, but mostly at T3 in Avon Lake. Jayde not only plays for Avon High School but also is on the travel team, The Hotshots, based out of Houston, Texas. This allows her the opportunity to travel a lot for tournaments, California and Colorado being her favorite states to play. 

Jayde is quite busy with her softball. Yearly, she competes in the PGF Nationals, based out of California. She has also competed in the USA softball all-American games in Oklahoma City, representing Alabama, where she used to live, and Ohio. Her favorite moment in softball was this past summer when her team and she battled in the heat of Georgia and won a big tournament and $10,000! All of this play has awarded her greatly as Jayde is ranked the #1 “2028 Prospect” by Legacy and Legends, the softball recruiting platform. Additionally, she was a 2x USA Softball All-American. She will also travel to Florida in December to try out for the USA softball national team. If she makes the team, she will play in Italy next year in the World Cup! Wow!

Jayde’s coach and mentor is her dad, Joey Palmer. She, of course, idolizes Sydney Romero and Tiare Jennings, both former Oklahoma University softball players. She is fortunate to have met many influential people in softball. Just one example is Lisa Fernandez, who is a three time gold medalist and is arguably the best softball player of all time.

Through softball, Jayde has learned that failure is going to happen but what really matters is how you respond. She loves being able to compete every single time she  plays softball. Jayde plans on playing for a Division 1 school in a Power 4 conference college softball after high school. One tip Jayde would give to someone looking to get into softball: Work hard even when you don’t want to because that will make you your best! Great advice, Jayde! 

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The residents of Red Tail wish you the best in your softball endeavors!