On an unseasonably cool afternoon in mid-June, Mo'ne Davis strode into the student center on the harborside campus of Hampton University in south-east Virginia, nearly 300 miles from her home in Philadelphia. It had been a little less than five years since those weeks in August 2014 when Davis's well-developed right arm grabbed the sporting world's attention.
Pitching for the Taney Dragons in the Little League World Series, 13-year-old Mo'ne, only the fourth American girl to ever play in the tournament, threw two shutouts, paving the Dragons' way to the semifinals. Her precocious, composed demeanor and dazzling performance landed her on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, on Jimmy Fallon's couch, onstage at the ESPY Awards—all before she had started ninth grade.
