There is no doubt that sports brings people together. But how many can say they are still close friends with their childhood team mate?? Not many. For UCF Softball Coach Cindy Ball-Malone, she's got a best friend from middle school to brag about:

Jessica and Cindy use to light up the home video screens back in the mid 90’s.

“I remember our team dinners when we would just try to like ‘you are going to try and fly like an airplane and I’m going to shoot you off with my legs and we’d do all these fun things,” Ball-Malone explained.

It was always the two of them goofing off in-between softball games and travelling, they forged a deep friendship from the start.

“We were actually on opposing teams, it was in middle school and I was on the Simi Valley All-Stars and she was on the Camarillo All-Stars and we would play literally every weekend against each other and we always ended up in the championship game against each other. I just remember she was this skinny lefty that could just mash.”

Cindy was the dominant pitcher, in high school the two joined forces on the playing field and became inseparable.

“We played basketball together, we played volleyball together and then we actually played softball together and she was my catcher in softball,” Ball-Malone added.

They were tremendous athletes, both setting school records in college and earning All-American honors.

They kept in touch even though Jessica went to Stanford and Cindy to University of the Pacific.

“So we played each other every year, we would go visit each other if we were in the area because it was only an hour and a half away and then she kind of took off from there in a different direction.”

Flash forward 22 years and Cindy now goes by Coach Ball-Malone and is the front woman for UCF’s softball program and Jessica Mendoza, well she’s on national television every Sunday night talking about baseball.

“What you see on camera is exactly who I know, who is one of my good friends from high school. So, I value that about our friendship. It’s so cool to even, a couple of days ago, when I told her about the interview she said “that’s awesome” and the very next question was ‘How is the season going?’

Oh and Cindy let her know that the team is off to its third best start in school history and has an ace of a pitcher who is 4^th in the nation in wins.

No matter the distance or the professional arena they call home now, this friendship is standing the test of time. Growing just as their two families have—together--.

“We played travel ball together, we played high school together, we followed each other through college and now being able to share stories that we both have two boys and I also have a daughter but to share those stories it is fun how it’s all come full circle.”