Muffley Gains Fresh Perspective On, Off Softball Field After Overcoming Adversity

Flashback to May. Within the span of a few days, Muffley’s hometown of Portage, Michigan, was hit by a tornado and her house in Tallahassee, Florida, was severely damaged by a tornado. 

“It started with my parents getting hit by two tornadoes,” she said. “Being so far away and not knowing what was going on — cell phones were down — I had no way of really contacting my parents. That was scary. I just saw it on the news. ‘Holy crap, my hometown got it.’ I was sending prayers back to them, helping them out whatever way I could.”

Muffley’s parents were OK, but more storm clouds were gathering, literally and figuratively.

A former standout collegiate player at Florida State, Muffley lives in Tallahassee and works as an EMT. 

“Tallahassee got hit by three tornadoes,” she said. “I was finishing a shift on an ambulance, a 12-hour shift. I got off at 7 a.m. I got home. I let my dog out. Made some food. Lay in my bed. I think I took the first bite of my food. It sounded like somebody was outside on a megaphone saying, ‘Hey, take cover. Some severe weather is coming in,’ which was weird because I had never heard that before. Being an emergency responder, a first responder, I never knew that was a thing.

“So I kind of just dismissed it and started watching TV. Then I heard the explosions of the transformers right outside my window. The power went out. I was like, ‘Maybe this storm is getting kind of bad.’ I thought it was just severe weather. I didn’t know a tornado was hitting us. So I grabbed my dogs — my dog and my roommate’s dog. She was at the ACCs, so thankfully she wasn’t home when it was happening. So I grabbed her dog and my dog and went in the closet. That’s when I heard an explosion in my house. I didn’t know what it was at the time because I was in my closet.”

When the all-clear was sounded, Muffley emerged and surveyed the devastation. 

“I started smelling something in the house,” she said. “I thought it was insulation. I opened my bedroom door and looked out into the hallway, where my roommate’s bedrooms are. And I saw daylight. I was like, ‘Well, that’s new. I don’t remember a skylight being in my bedroom.’ That’s when I heard this loud hissing noise. I found out our gas line had exploded in our house. My house was filling up with gas.

“Thankfully I have some family friends who live not even a block away. They met me at the house. That’s the first time I saw that insulation was all over the house, on my neighbor’s house. A tree was on top of my roof that split our house in half.”

Things got worse, and they had nothing to do with the weather. 

Seeing it as her duty as an EMT to help others, Muffley went right back to work. She was in for another unpleasant surprise.

“I was living at a friend’s house,” she said. “My house was condemned, so I couldn’t go in there and get some stuff. I was leaving and I didn’t even make it a half-mile when my car just blew up on me. I made it to Walgreens and parked it there. I went back to my house to get my mountain bike, and that’s when I found out, ‘Oh, gosh, my bike’s not here. Something isn’t right.’ 

“I started checking around my house, and that’s when I found out someone broke into the house and stole all my (championship) rings.”

At this point, you couldn’t blame Muffley if she thought, “What next?” 

“Yes, there was a lot of that, but my Tallahassee community was more than helpful, really lifted me up,” she said. “Being at work helped me forget about that. Helping the community out kind of took my mind off what I was going through because I thought my life was pretty crappy at that point. But being a first responder and seeing other people at their worst times really opened up my eyes to the perspective of, ‘Hey, your life is not that bad. I’m still walking. It could have been a lot worse, and I should be thankful for where I’m at right now.’”

Thanks to what Muffley called “an amazing landlord,” her house was repaired, and she’s on the way to recovery. There are plenty of people for whom she’s grateful, whether it was at home or with her softball mates.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I am still trying to figure out ways to repay and thank people who have done it. The outpouring of love and people texting me or just giving me a hug was more than money that I needed at that time. I just needed some shoulder to lean on or cry on. That’s where my softball and EMS communities stepped in big time.”

Becoming an EMT

It wasn’t necessarily for the love of adventure that Muffley decided to pursue what can be an adventurous calling of being an EMT.

Her own youthful fascination with the profession and a later near-death experience helped to inspire her to help others in need. 

“I think I had a love for it,” she said with a smile. “At a very young age, my mom called me a black cloud because we would go anywhere, we would go rollerblading, and someone would break their back or someone would break an ankle. I was very young, and we would watch ‘Trauma: Life in the ER,’ my mom and I. That’s what I grew up watching.”

That was a TV show, but things got all too real for Muffley a few years back. 

“I was pretty close to losing my life in 2019, freshman year of college,” she said. “That really opened my eyes because a paramedic saved me, and also a nurse. I was in a weight room. I had a seizure. They intubated me. I don’t remember why they intubated me, but they did. When they originally intubated me, my airway was closing around the intubation tube, and they didn’t know that.

“So when they extubated me, that’s when my airway started to close, I pretty much couldn’t breathe for three days — suffocating. That’s when a nurse saw it on an X-ray. She truly believed me that, ‘Hey, there’s something wrong with this kid.’ I was again intubated for seven days. I was in the ICU for a week and a half.”

Things were touch and go for a few days for Muffley.

“It was just waiting for that swelling to go down,” she said. “It was just a waiting game at that point. I do recall that my mom was on her hands and knees praying to God that I would live because my airway was that closed. They had an emergency respiratory team there. It was really, really bad, a scary time, but I have no lasting effects from it. Thank the Lord I’m still here. It was pretty close. I saw the afterlife, and that was something that will haunt me to this day, not haunt me, but it doesn’t make me scared to die, in a way. That’s how I was.”

That experience gave her a new perspective. 

“I see life in a different way now,” she said. “I was given a second chance at life, so I take every day as a blessing to be here. It’s a blessing to be where my feet are and to be able to put on my shoes and walk out and have fun on a softball field. So it’s kind of a full circle, but a blessing in disguise. So yeah, it’s what changed my life.”

Perspective in Softball

Muffley is now a professional softball player after starring at shortstop for Florida State. She didn’t take up the sport until she was 15 years old. 

“I grew up playing any sport possible – hockey, soccer, lacrosse, baseball,” she said. “I grew up playing baseball. My brother was in the minors, so we were kind of a baseball family. It was in my sophomore year of high school when the softball coach came up to me and said, ‘You’d be pretty good at softball.’ He’s the one who got me to switch over to softball.

“I’ve enjoyed it and kind of stuck to it. I didn’t take it seriously until my senior year of high school. That’s when I was like, ‘OK, I actually do enjoy this. It’s something new. It’s something fresh.’ The rest is history, honestly.”

Muffley was named to the 2023 AU Pro Softball All-Defensive Team during her rookie season. This season, she has seen more time on the bench, but she’s making the most of the new challenge. 

“It’s been good,” she said. “Not playing as much has given me an opportunity to kind of figure out who I am as a softball player and as a person, as well, connecting with other girls on the team, finding my new leadership position on the bench. Just seeing what I can do for my team has helped me grow as a softball player big time. I’m enjoying it. It’s been fun. The workload is a lot, but I could be stuck on an ambulance right now for 12 hours. I’ll take it.”

Life’s experiences have given Muffley a strong sense of perspective. It has helped her in her softball life, both as a player and as a person.

“As a player, I found out that there’s a lot more than just being on the field,” she said. “You can pick pitches and help your team out. You can observe a lot more on the field than you could if you are actually in the game because it’s just so fast. Being on the bench, it’s kind of slowed down a little bit. You get a bird’s-eye view of the plays going on in positioning and all of that. I can help my team find different avenues to win. That’s been a huge thing for me and my team.

“As a person, just accepting my role in being there to hug somebody who struck out or hug somebody who is down or is not speaking the way we should – positive self-talk. If I can be that helping hand or that shoulder to lean on for my team, that’s kind of what I’ve accepted as a person, as well.”

Bruce Miles has covered sports in the Chicago area for 45 years, including baseball, hockey, football, and Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball. Follow him on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.