ORANGE PARK - Former Orange Park High softball standout Addyson Mauldin (Class of 2018) was a hard-charging, hard-hitting battering ram of an athlete under the watchful eye of Orange Park softball coach Lee Taylor.

But, in a turn of life, she decided that being hurt all the time was not something she was looking forward to after her college years.

"I played softball at Thomas University in Georgia, came back here to coach with Angela Agurkis at Ridgeview and, one day, they told me the weightlifting position was open," said Mauldin, a two-time Southern States All Conference selection. "I was all excited about the softball because Angela was telling her girls how lucky they were to have two NCAA Division I athletes as coaches at their high school."

Mauldin, who now teaches in the Ridgeview physical education department, finished her college softball with a .299 batting average with her best season at .341 with 20-plus runs batted in three times in her five seasons. Mauldin also had a 98% fielding average as an infielder at Thomas.

With her position secured, with long-time weightlifting coach Trentin Davis driving the weightlifting program to a strong fifth place finish last year —just four points from the 16 team points for the title by Fleming Island and Leesburg, Mauldin was adept at weightlifting for her own sport but did a lot of research to learn how to teach it.

"We had like 80 girls at the initial tryouts, that got chopped down to about 50 serious athletes and we have maybe 39-40 contenders right now," said Mauldin, who was at her home school Orange Park taking on her Lady Raiders in dual meet action. "I definitely did my research that I used to stay in shape and when I was in college, the lifting was more about how to get better at softball."

Mauldin's journey in hospital visits evolved from a fractured spine, reconstructive shoulder surgery and three emergency stomach surgeries up to this point in her life.

"My body is pretty fragile, but you would never know because I still work out hard," said 26-year-old Mauldin. "Bottom line is bad luck and playing through too many injuries in my career."

Mauldin called her journey a testimony that she can share with her athletes mainly about therapy.

"If I could have done one thing, it would have been to do the therapy as energetically as I competed," Mauldin said. "Now, I can share that experience with the athletes now to keep them healthy."

Mauldin has two stalwarts to lead her team with Deja Hill and Jazmin Carabello both returning from last year's state team.

"We have a good amount of depth and, if I can get them strong and competitive, I think we will make some noise at state," Mauldin said.

In county-wide weightlifting, Fleming Island has been dominant with wins over Middleburg and Oakleaf in two separate meets recently. Area teams will be gearing up for post-season meets including the Suwannee High Power of Christmas Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 20 and the Clay County Championships on Friday, Jan. 16 at Oakleaf.

Fleming Island High coach Sean Coultis sees the Power of Christmas meet as his barometer for the 2026 state championships and his defense of the Olympics state title won last year.

"We have only had two Power of Christmas Champions; Bradi Johnson and Autumn Leviston, who went and won state titles after Suwannee," Coultis said. "It is a stronger meet because the competition is amongst all the classes; 1A, 2A, 3A."

Clay High, under coach Rodney Keller, had multiple Power of Christmas champions; Emma Heck, Annalee Harbison and Janiyah Stevens, Kyleigh LaFary with Stevens, LaFary and Heck winning state titles. Oakleaf two-time state champion Tamira Briley also won at Power of Christmas. Ridgeview's Ava Harber won a Power of Christmas title in 2021.