Tyler High’s Dy’Niste Lacy signed to play softball at Wiley University during a ceremony on Monday at the Tyler High School gymnasium. On hand for the ceremony were mother Shacamia Goodwyn; sisters Addyson Goodwyn, Maryah Goodwyn and Samara Humphrey; brother Jadavion Lavy and Lady Lions softball coach Melvin Jenkins. (Phil Hicks/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Dy’Niste Lacy started playing softball at the age of 3.

Her love for the game continued to grow each year and that dedication to softball now means a college scholarship.

Lacy, the Tyler High School standout, signed to play softball for Wiley University during a ceremony on Monday at the Tyler High School gymnasium.

“It means a lot to me. It took a lot to get here,” said Lacy, who is expected to play shortstop and pitcher for the Wildcats. “It was a long journey.”

Wiley University announced last month its return to the softball diamond as well as the appointment of Kendrick Biggs as interim head coach.

Softball will be a club sport for the 2024-25 school year and be upgraded to varsity in 2025-26. The team will compete in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletic Conference, currently known as the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.

Wiley previously offered softball from 1980 until the early 2000s. In 1981, Wiley’s softball team won the Interregional Athletic Conference title and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics District VII title and clinched a berth in the first NAIA World Series.

Lacy said she is excited about being on the ground floor of the program.

She was a four-year varsity starter for the Lady Lions. She earned the Tyler Morning Telegraph Hitter of the Week this season.

Lacy said she will major in education and would like to be a teacher.

“We collectively wish Dy’Niste a future of success in the classroom, on the field, and in life as she moves forward from Tyler High and starts her next adventures at Wiley,” said THS Head Coach Melvin Jenkins, who was speaking collectively for himself and assistant coaches Jalla Coleman and Jazmyne Hicks.

Wiley University (formerly Wiley College) is a private historically black college in Marshall. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman’s Aid Society, it is one of the oldest predominantly black colleges west of the Mississippi River.