- March 19, 2025
The Matanzas softball team celebrates teammates Juliet Fogel and Leah Stevens who will continue their softball careers next year, Fogel at St. Johns River State College and Stevens at the University of Florida. Photo by Brent Woronoff
University of Florida softball signee Leah Stevens decorated this cake for the Matanzas softball celebration honoring Stevens and St. Johns River State College Vikings signee Juliet Fogel. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Juliet Fogel with sister Ruby (left) and parents Brett and Cindy at the Matanzas softball signing celebration. Fogel will play softball at St. Johns River State College next year. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Leah Stevens with mom and dad Anne and Chris and (back row) brothers Matthew and Mark and sister Monica at the Matanzas softball signing celebration. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Juliet Fogel (left) will play softball for St. Johns River State College next year, while Leah Stevens is headed to the University of Florida. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Matanzas softball players do the Vikings horn gesture in honor of Juliet Fogel's signing with St. Johns River State College. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Matanzas softball players do the Gator Chomp in honor of pitcher Leah Stevens signing with the University of Florida. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas High softball players Leah Stevens and Juliet Fogel signed letters of intent with their colleges over a month ago. On March 13, following a game with Palatka, they celebrated with a signing ceremony on their field in front of parents and fans.
“I’m glad we did this,” said Fogel who will play softball for St. Johns River State College in Palatka next season. Pitcher Leah Stevens, who signed with the University of Florida, decorated a cake that read “Congratulations” and had pictures of the school logos — a Viking for St. Johns River and the Gator logo for Florida.
“I'm a novice cake decorator. I tried my best,” Stevens said. “I knew we were in charge of desserts today, and I wanted something special, so I thought I might as well try to do a design of mascots, and I like art, so I thought something new would be fun.”
Stevens, who has a 6-0 record with a 0.66 earned run average and 73 strikeouts this season, said the celebration got her excited again about playing next season with UF, ranked third in the nation in last week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
“It kind of reinvigorated the fact that I'm actually going there next year, because I've been in the kind of high school mindset, being at softball, but now I'm really thinking about that I am actually going there next year, and it's really exciting thinking about the future.”
Fogel plays shortstop for the Pirates, who lost their first game of the season, 10-6 to Palatka, before the signing celebration. Her sister, Ruby, plays third base. Their family moved to Palm Coast from Freehold, New Jersey, before last school year.
“When we moved here, it was kind of hard because it was during my recruiting process,” she said. “I was talking to colleges up north, and then I moved here. I don't want to be far from home, so everything just kind of changed for me.”
Fogel said that after her travel team scrimmaged St. Johns River, the 2024 national junior college champion, Coach Joe Pound began recruiting her.
“He offered me after I had a visit,” she said. “It was my first visit, and I waited on it a little bit. But I was like, this is where I want to be, and I’m really am excited to go there.”
Fogel is going to SJR as an infielder. In New Jersey, she primarily played third base, she said.
“I’ll play anywhere, pretty much,” she said.
I know Coach Steph (Florida pitching coach Stephanie VanBrakle Prothro) can really help me develop my untapped potential, getting stronger so I can get faster, work on my spin, develop another pitch.
— LEAH STEVENS, UF signee
Stevens said there are quite a few pitchers on Florida’s roster, but she is going to Gainesville with the mindset of just trying to get better.
“I know Coach Steph (Florida pitching coach Stephanie VanBrakle Prothro) can really help me develop my untapped potential, getting stronger so I can get faster, work on my spin, develop another pitch. Something like that so I can really be the best pitcher I can is really what I'm most excited about, and that I can help the team in any way they see fit,” Stevens said.
As her teammates devoured the Viking/Gator cake, Stevens said she enjoyed having a signing celebration.
“I'm really happy I got to do it with Juliet,” she said. “That was a really good experience having someone else that's also going through the same thing. We're going to be really close to each other. SJR is really close to Florida, so I'm really excited to be able to go to some of her games. Hopefully, she can come to some of mine and just go into that next step together, because she's been a really good friend the past couple of years she's been here.”
