Frank Reed knew the early part of the 2024 season would be difficult for his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball program.
For the schedule opener in his 23rd year as head coach, Reed had entered UTC in what he expected to be an extremely challenging four-team event in Lafayette, Louisiana, expressing in a preseason interview that the Mocs “might not win a game” there.
“We could not win a game and play really, really well and feel good about ourselves, or we could go down there and not play good at all and wonder where you really stack up,” Reed said on Jan. 31.
The Mocs slightly exceeded those expectations, going 1-4 with a 4-2 win over New Mexico at the three-day event in early February, and there was improvement on their part throughout the weekend. After losing their first two games 21-2 to preseason No. 21 Louisiana and 13-6 to California — both of them NCAA tournament regulars — the Mocs were much closer in rematches, falling 5-2 to the Ragin’ Cajuns and 1-0 to the Golden Bears.
And then a week later, the Mocs learned of the death of Charlee Blackburn, the 14-year old daughter of David Blackburn, who was UTC’s athletic director from April 2013 to June 2017. News reports at the time said that Charlee, who died at Johnson City Medical Center on Feb. 17, had a sudden illness; her obituary noted her participation in cheerleading and softball at Indian Trail Middle School and said she was “the light of everyone’s life.”