Inspiring Others: The Madie Patton Story

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"If you can inspire others, then you're going to have a great day."

The words that Madie Patton lives by are ones she's heard and said a thousand times.

In fact, they could be found on the refrigerator door in her home growing up…and they still show up in her text messages on a near-daily basis.

"There's always a saying in our house: 'Have a great day," Patton explained. "My dad and my mom are very into inspirational stuff. And there's not a day that I could probably scroll past in our family group chat without that message. "Have a great day"…

Madie Patton and family — *'Team Patton': Madie (2nd from R) and her family*

"That's the thing they always say, and I think it's just a mindset thing."

The longstanding group text thread is called 'Team Patton' and includes the entire Patton family: father James (team captain for Miami Football in 1992 and now the program's associate head coach), mother Nichole (née Putman, one of only nine players in Miami Volleyball history with over 1,000 kills and over 1,000 digs), and all of Madie's siblings.

(For context: Exactly what kind of sports family does Madie come from? As the third of four children, she's already seen older brother Brayden win two MAC football titles and go on to an assistant coach role at his alma mater Northern Illinois, to say nothing of older sister Katie becoming the youngest female director of football operations in Division I football at Harvard.)

Growing up as the daughter of a football coach meant Madie and her family moved around a lot. "Three high schools in four years in three different states," she smiled. "I lived in six states by the age of 16."

But through the transitions and the inevitable ups and downs, the Pattons made a concerted effort to live out the mantra on their refrigerator. "Our kids have always embraced that," James Patton said. "With the coaching profession and picking up and moving and having to meet new people and that process, it's benefited our kids tremendously from that standpoint.

"Just being able to help inspire others and be friends and make new friends and encourage people to have a good day. It starts with how you think."

"We've always tried to teach our kids to be friendly and kind to everybody," Nichole Patton added. "I've always told the kids, 'You never know who's having a bad day.' If you can walk into the place and find somebody who might not be having a good day, you might be the one to make it a good day.

"With all of our moving and the coaching profession not always being the easiest sometimes, we always just felt like we should reach out to all of our kids, because they're all over the map," Nichole continued.

Madie Patton with her parents — *Madie Patton (right) with parents James and Nichole*

And that's why the encouraging text messages keep coming.

(Along with countless score updates on a sports weekend, as various family members 'blow up' each others' phones with play-by-play reports on the RedHawks, the Huskies, the Crimson and whatever other athletic competitions the Pattons might be involved in on any given day.)

"I think a part of it is because of all of our moves growing up, we are all we had," Madie said. "When we did move, it was, 'All right, here come the Patton Six. Here we go.'"

The most recent move, in the summer of 2021, brought the Patton clan back to Oxford, Ohio, the site of countless memories for alums (and former student-athletes) James and Nichole.

Talk about a full-circle moment.

"When we lived in Oklahoma, we would make our road trip back each summer to see our grandparents, and my parents were always like, 'We're going to stop through Oxford: We have to,'" Madie said. "I remember going to Mac and Joes, getting Miami T-shirts at the bookstore, taking a picture outside of Millett on the stairs where you can see Yager Stadium, and obviously all the brick buildings."

Madie ended up spending her senior year only a mile down the road at Talawanda High School, a perfectly-timed move for a prospective student-athlete already looking for the best fit to continue her softball career in college. She hit .450 in her final spring of high school ball, earning First-Team All-Conference recognition and serving as a team captain despite only arriving in Oxford a few months earlier.

"I was already sending emails to coaches…and with Miami, I would throw in there the backstory. 'My parents are Miami alums, and I know how important this university is. Graduating Champions' and all of that: I knew it, because I would hear it from my parents. Even when we weren't here, they would talk about Miami," Madie said.

"Then when my dad said he got offered the job at Miami, my parents had asked me, 'Are you okay with moving senior year?'

"'Heck, yeah! Take me down there!'"

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Madie Patton joined Miami Softball as a walk-on ahead of the 2023 season and didn't see the field much her first two seasons with the RedHawks, appearing in a total of four games under then-head coach Kirin Kumar. However, Patton still played an important role on some of the best teams in program history (with a combined record of 88-29 with two MAC titles, two MAC Tournament championships and two NCAA appearances in that span).

When Mandy Gardner-Colegate took over the program after Patton's sophomore season and began having conversations with administrators and others around the program to get up to speed, "Her name kept popping up," Gardner-Colegate explained. "How she is just such a team player and she'll do anything for the team – do anything for Miami.

Madie Patton

"The impact she's had in the community, her involvement, her community service and her servant leadership off the field…people know her and her family, and she just upholds the standard that Miami Softball wants.

"She's a light wherever she goes," Gardner-Colegate continued. "She walks into a room and she brightens it up, 100 percent…I don't think a single person could say something bad about Madie Patton, whether they've met her for five minutes or known her for her whole life.

"She's embodied everything Miami and Miami Softball…she's a really special player and a special person."

Gardner-Colegate called every returning player on the roster that summer, beginning with seniors and working her way down the list. Her call with Patton proved to be one of the longest.

"On our first phone call, she said, 'I've heard about you and your ties to Miami and what you've already done for Miami.' It caught me off guard," Patton recounted. "What I've done for Miami? In stats, I hadn't done really anything…but I know the person I've been, right? I'm a passionate person. People would describe me as having a lot of energy…and I do know what I've done within the program, as far as who I am.

"Since freshman year, I've always tried to make an impact. Some way, somehow: Make an impact. You do that by the way you show up for others. You do that by the way you treat others. You do that by the way you represent Miami, whether you are the ultimate player or just one of the team members."

How much value did the new RedHawk coaching staff find in the reserve utility player from Oxford, Ohio?

Before long, Madie Patton was on scholarship.

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While Patton will never forget relaying that particular piece of news to her parents and what an emotional conversation it was —'My dad started crying, and you don't see that guy cry a lot!'— one of her favorite memories of her RedHawk career to date came the following spring.

February 23, 2025, to be exact.

With Miami off to a slow start on the year at 3-9, Patton found out shortly before a doubleheader against Mississippi State and East Tennessee State that she would be in the starting lineup for the first time in her career.

"With my parents and having a coach in my ear all the time, it's a good thing, but my dad would say, 'Your opportunity's going to come. You've just got to keep putting in the work,'" Patton said.

Madie Patton

"My dad and mom have always told me, 'There are things that don't take talent. Your extra work you put in, your energy, and how you go about what you want, doesn't take talent.'"

So Patton got her opportunity. She doubled in the first game, an 11-7 Miami loss. Then, in the second game, she came to the plate in the fourth inning with the score tied, and…

Crack.

"She hit her first college home run with her family in the stands," Gardner-Colegate recalled. "They surprised her; they weren't even supposed to be there. What a goosebump moment.

"I think she was crying when she stepped on home – tears in her eyes, and obviously seeing her teammates being that excited for her as well, with everyone wanting to lift her up and celebrate her was really cool."

The RedHawks went on to win the game 5-3 after Patton's go-ahead blast, propelling them toward another special season: 36-26 overall and 20-7 in conference play, with yet another MAC championship, yet another MAC tourney crown and yet another trip to the NCAAs.

Patton excelled in a pinch-hit role through the year, belting two of her five home runs off the bench. "She just wants to do well for Miami and for her team so bad that she thinks about that pitch in that moment and then capitalizes on it," Gardner-Colegate explained. "There's not a lot of people that can master pinch hitting; it's pretty remarkable."

By the time the season wrapped up at the NCAA regionals, Patton had appeared in 38 games (starting 21), hit .296, drove in 14 runs and ranked second on the team in hit-by-pitches despite being 10th on the roster in at-bats. She was named to the Academic All-MAC Team and recognized as an NFCA All-American Scholar-Athlete.

"She really bought into everything that we brought," Gardner-Colegate said. "She trusted the process and bought in and worked her tail off.

"She kept coming in clutch for us."

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"You guys have been working non-stop for this season. This is the time that you show what you have learned in the offseason and play the game you know how to. The way that you play this first game is the way you will play all of the rest. It's your decision whether to show up or not show up."

With the RedHawks' season opener set for this weekend in San Diego, Calif., the previous quote might sound like something Madie Patton would say in a team huddle in February 2026.

However, that pep talk is taken verbatim from a handwritten letter she penned to her dad's Indiana University tight ends a decade ago.

Because Madie Patton has always been about inspiring others…whether as a young girl on the football sidelines wearing cream and crimson, or now as a student-athlete proudly sporting the Red and White.

And Miami Softball —and Miami University as a whole— continue to benefit from her leadership, her smile and her voice.

In the community…in the classroom…on the softball diamond…and even in the RedHawks' other athletic venues. Patton, a Sport Media and Communication major, took on the role of in-game host for Miami Football and Miami Basketball contests this season (at least the ones that didn't conflict with her softball responsibilities).

"She loves Miami, not because me and my wife went to school here and played here, but she just loves this school and this community," James Patton said. "Being involved in athletics and what our Miami standard of championship excellence is: How can you have a better experience?

"Soaking that all in, having great teammates – that's been cool to watch. No matter what she's done with stats or homers or runs batted in or whatever, she's been a part of successful teams and [it's awesome] if she can have a little bit of a part of that and help make an impact in whatever she's doing.

"It struck me during the football games when she's been hosting. I'm sitting there coaching up my guys, and all of a sudden I hear my daughter's voice. That's cool…[and there are so many] opportunities for her to hopefully make an impact and be successful."

"Obviously her background of Miami is really cool; that's the first thing I could feel from her was just how much she loved Miami, regardless if she was a student-athlete here or not," said Gardner-Colegate.

"We would take 1,000 Madie Pattons on our team, that have that much love for the university and the school and the people and the community…and then you add that athletic piece in."

"I knew I wanted to go here, and I tell people, even if we didn't move to Oxford, I think I still would have taken the opportunity," Madie Patton said. "I just loved the atmosphere, I loved the culture, I loved the town and I loved the people. That's always a thing my parents told us, even when we would move. 'People make a place'…

"And I just want to represent Miami in the best way possible that I can."

Find more Front Row Features at: MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures

Madie Patton and the RedHawks will play five games this weekend in San Diego, Calif., facing Kentucky and Minnesota Friday, Minnesota and San Diego State Saturday, and then wrapping up against Loyola Chicago on Sunday. The RedHawks' complete 2026 schedule is available here.

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