OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. –
It would be impossible to perform the way Army Sgt. Melina Wilkinson has at this year's Armed Forces Softball Championship without being both extraordinarily talented and tough as nails.
Before the competition officially kicked off at Oklahoma City's Devon Field last week, Wilkinson and teammate Capt. Katherine Ontiveros ripped a combined 23 home runs over the fence to lead the Army's women's team to victory in a home run derby and start the week of competition.
Wilkinson hit another one over the fence four days later in a critical match against Air Force to help Army clinch the top seed in a final series to determine who would claim this year's title. This time, she did so with four stitches in her lip from an injury she sustained just hours before.
Off the field, Wilkinson carries herself with the understated confidence of the soldier and natural leader she is. She walks with a subtle swagger fitting of an athlete who has competed at highest levels throughout the globe.
But tears still come to her eyes when she talks about her mother watching her play via the tournament's live stream from South Africa where Wilkinson grew up in the country's largest city, Johannesburg.
"For her to be up at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning back home to watch me play, just fuels me even more," Wilkinson said with a shaky voice as she and her Army teammates prepared to face off against Air Force again on Saturday. "I'm here because of the sacrifices she's given in order to allow me to be where I'm at."
LIFELONG COMPETITOR
Before she began playing softball when she was 10, Wilkinson said she mostly played sports with boys her age. She played soccer, cricket and netball. She also ran track.
"I was a tomboy growing up," she said. "And my principal called me into his office one time, and he was like, 'Hey, I know you love playing sports. Why don't you start playing softball and start playing with some of your female counterparts?'"
She said she would give it a try.
"First practice, I fell in love with the sport, and I've been playing it ever since," she said.
Her love for softball would eventually lead her on a journey across the world.
In high school, Wilkinson began representing her district in tournaments that would take her to competitions throughout South Africa and neighboring countries.
After high school, she played a season while in college in South Africa; in 2007, she was selected to play for Team South Africa in Thailand.
She continued to play on club teams as she began seeking opportunities to attend college and play softball in the U.S.
After receiving an acceptance letter from Montreat College in North Carolina in 2012, Wilkinson would again have the opportunity to represent South Africa in a summer tournament in Canada.
"I absolutely had a blast," Wilkinson said of her time in Canada. "I played against a ton of the American Olympians that you see on the U.S. circuit, and I even played against my own teammates that played overseas during our offseason. It was a really neat experience, and I saw a lot of competition out there."
"But then, I got home after the tournament was done, and my mother said, 'Get your stuff together, you're going to the States.' Two weeks later I was in the States."
Wilkinson attended Montreat College on a softball scholarship and she eventually went on to earn a master's degree.
She was charged with two years of softball eligibility for the time she had played in South Africa. While she sat out her first softball season at Montreat College, she was far from idle.
"I was like, 'Well, I played soccer back home,' [so I] walked on to the soccer team to stay fit for softball and [I] end up becoming a dual-sport athlete."
Wilkinson went on to be both the starting goalkeeper and the starting shortstop at Montreat College.
After finishing her bachelor's degree in business administration in 3 1/2 years, Wilkinson continued at Montreat College through graduate school and became the graduate assistant for the softball program before joining the program fulltime after graduating with her master's degree in management.
A CALL TO SERVICE
Despite all she had accomplished, Wilkinson had her sights set on another goal.
She said she has always been fascinated by the military, and she said she knew a career in the armed forces would be a perfect match for her personality. She said the Army offered exactly what she wanted out of life and a way to give back to her adopted country, which she said had given her so many opportunities.
"So, when the opportunity came for me to actually enlist and pursue a career with the Army, I took that opportunity wholeheartedly," she said. "I eventually got tired of talking about it, and I was like, 'You know what? Now's the time.' So, I walked into the recruiter's office."
She joined in 2021, and serves today as a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist trained to mitigate and protect against a wide range of attacks.
Three years into her career, she said the Army has offered everything she hoped to gain in her career. She said she is in it for the long haul and hopes to eventually gain a commission through Army Officer Candidate School.
Wilkinson said that when she joined, she had no idea she would have the opportunity to represent the Army on the softball diamond.
But that opportunity soon arose when one of Wilkinson's teammates on a club team at her duty station told her about the All-Army team. She made it on the Army roster and played in her first Armed Forces Softball Championship in 2023.
"It's honestly been surreal for me," she said. "I never knew that this was even a possibility being the military. Being able to pursue an Army career, and a good one at that, along with representing the greatest organization in the world on a sports field, you'd never think that those two go hand in hand together. But the military in the United States provides that, and it's an incredible experience."
Hosted by USA Softball, the Armed Forces Softball Championship is where top athletes from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps represent their services in a weeklong competition each summer.
Wilkinson said what sets the tournament apart is not only the competition between the military's top players but the lasting bonds the players form.
"This brings the military services together like no one could ever think it would," she said. "Once this concludes, everyone will go off to their duty stations again, but the friendships that are formed are everlasting."
MAKING THE ARMY ROSTER
Making the Army roster takes more than a solid batting average and skill as a position player, said Army women's Coach Bridget Pena.
"One of the big reasons that each individual girl gets a spot on the team is, yeah, you can hit, you can catch, but are you a good teammate? And what keeps you here?" Pena asked. "Because there's going to be moments when we're losing or we have a bad game, and you've got to have your teammates help pick yourself up. And that's what we go for."
She said Wilkinson proves day in and day out that she has what it takes to represent the Army on the diamond.
The Armed Forces Softball Championship is a grueling, five-day battle in the soaring Oklahoma heat. Teams play multiple games a day in double, round-robin play before going into the final series to crown the men's and women's champions. Every game is a must-win, and the services vie throughout the week for top seeds in the final two-day, double elimination series.
The Army Women's team was in position to clinch the top seed on Friday when Wilkinson took a ball to the lip during the team's warm up before the first game of the day. She got stitches and was back with her team before the first pitch. Still, she stayed the dugout until the trainers were sure the injury wasn't more serious.
But Wilkinson said even though she wasn't on the field, she had a role to play for her team.
"It's difficult being on the bench for anyone that has a level of competitiveness and grit and desire to get out there and play 110%," she said. "But in hindsight, there are certain times when those types of players are needed in the dugout to keep the dugout up so that players on the field can feed off of that energy. I feel like that was what was needed yesterday for our first game."
She was cleared to play for Army's second game of the day against Air Force, where she went on to hit the team's first home run during tournament play and help the team clinch the top seed in the championship series.
"I was just grateful to be able to play and that my injury wasn't worse than it was," she said. "So, that, for me personally, fueled me to go out and do what I do best."
Pena said the performance was textbook Wilkinson, and exactly what means to be on the roster.
"She stays with it every day," Pena said. "Whether it be just small ball practicing or shooting the long ball with however many outs we've got, she works with it. She does what we ask of her."
The All-Army team made it to the championship game on Sunday, where they lost in a tough battle against the All-Navy team. At the conclusion of the tournament, the U.S. Armed Forces Selection Committee named Wilkinson among the 11 top players from across the services.