The last day of the year sees us all over the map as we squeeze in some last-minute 2013 profiles!  We look at a serious candidate for the Hot 100 2015 list in a Kentucky standout committed to an SEC school, look closely at an East Coast talent who is realizing her dream to go Ivy League and profile a Missouri prospect who’s narrowed her college list to five…

 

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2015 HOT 100 WATCH LIST SPOTLIGHT:  LEX HULL

Alexis “Lex” Hull of the Louisville has emerged as one of the top catcher/utility players in the junior class and has committed to South Carolina.

The 2015 grad started out playing baseball and recreational softball in Lexington, Ky at the age of seven as a catcher and third baseman.  At 9 she started playing travel with the Louisville Lady Sluggers with her father, Joe, serving as an assistant coach.

Lexington is about 70 miles away from Louisville meaning the family had an hour and a half drive each way to practice.

“We thought that was a lot,” Lex’s mother, Angie, laughs, “but later realized that was a piece of cake.”

The level of competition increased and soon the family was going out of state, to places like Tennessee and Georgia to play.

“We learned quickly that there was a whole other world of competitiveness, especially in the South,” the athlete’s mother continues.  “Those years were amazing and such a growing experience for all of us.  Both of Lex’s younger siblings, Riley and Brady were raised at the ballpark!”

By age 10, Lex was playing for the Kentucky Diamond Cats coached by her father and were able to win the 2008 10U NSA “A” World Series Champions in Columbus, Ohio earning the distinction of being the first Kentucky team to ever win the event in any age group and finishing with a strong record of 84-11-2.

The next year, the family decided to join a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based team, the Frost Falcons, which later became the first 12U team for the prestigious Tennessee Fury organization.

The good news: the team was good enough to play in the ASA Nationals each year.  The bad news: practice meant a minimum of a 4 ½ hour drive to practice and even further for competitions in Tennessee and Georgia.

The sacrifices made the Hull family sometimes wonder what they were doing.

“We felt like we were on an island by ourselves,” Angie remembers.  “We were being deemed crazy and over the top by all our friends and family.   We were traveling gypsies to say the least.  It was no easy task at all.   None of Lex’s Kentucky friends could relate to what she was going through with the endless hours of travel and number of games she was playing from Spring until late summer.   She missed countless birthday parties, school dances and more for the love of softball.”

As a seventh grader, Lex was already the high school varsity starting catcher at Lafayette High School in Lexington.   She set two new school records that year with most runs scored (season) with 47 and most walks (season) with 23.  She tied for second with the most doubles in a season with 17 and, perhaps most impressively, didn’t have an error all season.

The next year, her high school team finished fifth in the state, the farthest Lafayette High had ever advanced.  The future South Carolina commit had the eighth highest average in the tournament with a .563 and all of this before most in her age group were in high school.

It was the summer before her freshman year and the family made a tough decision, to leave Lexington and move to Louisville where Lex enrolled as a freshman at Ballard High School in August 2011.

“The first four months were a difficult transition for Lex as she lived with family friends of ours until we could get our entire family moved to Louisville,” her mother remembers.

“We would see her every weekend but it was the hardest four months of our lives.  She had left all her childhood friends behind and was in a much bigger city and only knew one student at Ballard.  She had to earn the respect of her new teammates and fight for the starting catching position.

Though in new and unfamiliar surroundings, her level of play elevated and she was noticed by major colleges. that fall she took unofficial visits to Tennessee and South Carolina.

Her freshman year at Ballard, a perennial power in Kentucky softball, she led the team in batting average at .450 and slugging percentage at .793, the fourth best in school history and her 50 hits and 45 RBI also ranked in the top 10 bests in school history and was the team’s Co-MVP along with another SEC-bound teammate, Jessica Adell (Tennessee verbal).

In the summer of 2012, Lex played for the Tennessee Fury 97 team and was part of a National Championship team at the 14U ASA Class A level.  In the fall, she took a second unofficial visit to South Carolina and committed to the Gamecocks on Sept. 22.

“That was the most exciting day ever for all of us as all the sacrifices were finally paying off big time,” says the proud mother.

This past summer, Lex and her Fury 97 team finished as runners-up to the Beverly Bandits in the 16U Division of the Louisville Slugger TPS Independence Day tournament in Boulder where the Fury beat some high-profile teams including the OC Batbusters and Corona Angels.

In the win over the Batbusters, the junior-to-be hit her first career grand slam and added three other home runs during the week.

This past fall Lex decided to not play her second year of 16U and joined back up with the 18U Louisville Lady Sluggers Gold – Dobina team where she is the starting catcher.  Lex’s younger sister, Riley, is now in the organization as well, on the 10U Louisville Lady Sluggers, and like her big sister is a catcher and wears the same number, 44.

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RECRUIT PROFILE: IVEY WAGNER

Grad Year: 2015
Pos:  outfield
High School: Fallston High (Fallston, Md.)
GPA: 4.0
Club: Wagner’s Sports 3n2
Honors: National Junior Honor Society, National Honor Society, Maryland State Student Athlete Leadership Council
College: Cornell

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StudentSportsSoftball.com: You have a cool first name… anything interesting in how your parents named you “Ivey?”  
Ivey Wagner: I asked parents the same question and apparently it just came out of a baby book.  My dad says he woke up one morning—we lived in Germany at the time—looked out the window and saw the pretty greenery of Germany and thought, “Ivey, that will be pretty.  Okay, we can do that.”  Coach [Dick] Blood (Cornell) was the first college coach to comment on it and he said, “Ivey in the Ivy League would be pretty cool!”

 

SSS.com:  How excited are you to be going to an Ivy League school?  
IW: It’s so amazing but I still have so much work to do to get through high school.  I can’t wait to get there and be around smart, motivated people.

 

SSS.com:  You’re a talented player, one of our 2015 “watch list” prospects. Did you look at going to other schools or was Cornell too great to turn down?
IW:  When I started out in softball UCLA was winning the WCWS, so that is where I thought I wanted to go.  But then over the past few years I started to think about how softball could help me get into not just a good softball school, but also a great academic school.  My dad went to West Point, which is an amazing school, but I have had enough travelling with the military so I didn’t really want to go there.  So, I asked my dad, What are some schools that are as good as West Point, but not military?”  We then began to look at the Ivy League schools and that was when I decided that is what I wanted to shoot for.  I visited Penn, Princeton and was talking to Williams and Bowdoin, but ultimately my visit at Cornell was just so perfect and Coach Blood is such an amazing coach and person.  I decided that day that Cornell is where I wanted to go.  So I told him that day and we worked out my verbal in the next few days.

 

SSS.com: Walk us through the recruiting process and how it went for you, from when Cornell saw you to when you committed…
IW:  Wow, that is a long story.  Because my dad has been in the military my entire life, I have moved a lot.  That means I’ve played for a number of travel teams.  I started in Virginia then moved to Kansas, then back to Virginia and now to Maryland.

I guess the recruiting process really started the fall of my freshman year when I was playing 16U.  I had a few good games and got noticed by a few schools, one of them being West Point (argh, the military again!).  So, my first actual visit was to West Point that Spring.  Then I moved to the Vienna Stars for the summer and had a few more looks, but it was really last summer at the Pennsbury High Academic Camp, after my sophomore year that I got noticed by several of the high academic schools.  I then had a good weekend at Pennsbury and started to keep in touch with some of those coaches.

Coach Blood saw me there, but I really connected with him at a High Honors camp later in the summer where he and I got to work together one-on-one.  From there, I just kept playing and moved to Wagner’s 3n2 (Sports55 at the time).  That is when things really started to pick up for me.  Moving to Wagner’s 3n2 was really the move that started causing things to fall into place.  Both for me and my little sister (who as an eighth grader has already been on an unofficial visit to a D1 school and has another one lined up in the Spring!).

But the biggest thing that comes to mind about the recruiting process is stress and emails! I’m so glad to be done with the emails and worrying who is coming to see me play, or not see me play.  I can just play softball now and practice, and that is a lot more fun.

 

SSS.com: Did you and your family do anything to celebrate your Cornell commitment?
IW:  Not really, my parents were in Austin TX when I got the message from Cornell.  Also, I’ve had so much homework, volleyball, and now I’m doing crossfit, hitting and working out. We really haven’t had any time.  My dad is also retiring from the Army next summer and it looks like we are moving again…so maybe then.

 

SSS.com: Describe your emotions around telling them, what was like for you?
IW:  well my parents knew before I did.  I’m pretty sure my dad cried….he does that.

 

SSS.com: Was distance a factor in your decision at all (in other words, did you seriously consider other schools closer to home)?
IW:  I definitely did not want to stay close to home. Penn was about the closest I was considering (about 1.5 hours away) but that is only because it is an Ivy League school.

SSS.com:  What do you think (or have others said) are your strengths as a softball player?
IW:  I’ve been told that I’m very fast, athletic and tough.  I know that I work very hard and play very hard, so i think they just like to see me getting dirty and hustling.  I also try to sprint everywhere I go on the field, so maybe that makes me look faster than I am.

SSS.com: Wagner’s is a pretty respect name and organization to play for, yes?
IW:  I didn’t play with Wagner’s last summer, but Wagner’s beat my team every time we played them last summer.  So, this summer I’m looking forward to winning ASA Nationals with them and maybe even Triple Crown Nationals too.

 

Quick Hitters

 

What do you want to major in?  
Medicine.  I hope to go to medical school after Cornell.

What academic tip that has worked for you would you suggest?  
Get a planner and use it.

What do you think is the No. 1 issue in the world today?
Hunger and poverty. I’d really like to go on missions and serve in underprivileged parts of the world that maybe can’t afford medical care.

Favorite subject:
I really like biology and psychology.

Least favorite subject:
Physics.

Favorite place in the world:
Los Angeles.

What was your favorite gift or part of Christmas this year?
My favorite gift was a Micheal Kors purse and my favorite part was going to see our Greek friends in Virginia.

What’s something unusual or different about you that few know?
I used to collect wolves (anything that had a wolf on it) and I love Elvis Presley.

Describe yourself in one word:
Dedicated.

What’s your No. 1 goal/New Year’s resolution for 2014?
Help my team win an ASA gold championship.

If you could meet any one person in history, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Elvis Presley because he’s awesome and I love his music.

 

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PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: KALI NELSON

High school: Dixon
City: Dixon
State: 
Mo.
Grad year: 2016
GPA: 3.0
Club: Team Power 97
Ht: 5-8
Position(s): C/SS
College: uncommitted
Stats: (high school): batted .448 with .965 slugging percentage and had 37 runs, 28 RBI, 24 walks and 29 steals, led team in all stats offensively and defensively; (club): .460 average with .768 slugging percentage and 44 runs, 31 RBI, 19 doubles and eight home runs with 14 walks.
Honors: two-time 1^st Team All-District (catcher) and All-Conference; two-time 1^st Team All-State Academic

 

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StudentSportsSoftball.com: What was the highlight of your summer with Team Power?
Kali Nelson: I went 12-for-17 at the St. Louis College Showcase 1 with two home runs and six doubles.

 

SSS.com: Where are you in the recruiting process?
KN: I am currently undecided and have not committed to a college ye although I have narrowed my schools to five over the last couple of months.  I plan to take a few more visits this winter/spring to look at some more of the campuses and programs.

My new club coach has had several contacts from college coaches during and immediately after the St. Louis College Exposure Showcase 1 that was held in October.  There are about seven Division 1 and about six Division 2 schools that have expressed interest beyond the normal email chain when I have attended their camps or have had contact with my coach.

I’m really looking forward to playing in two big college exposure tournaments coming up in January 18-19, 2014 and February 2-3, 2014.  Three of the schools that I am very interested in will be in attendance and I hope the team and I play very well for them.

 

SSS.com  What are you looking for in a college and what factors are important to you… Location? Level of play? Playing time early? Academics?
KN:  I’m looking for a college that has a medical or veterinary program.  The most important factor is finding a good atmosphere that will be conducive to gaining a great education.  Location is not as important to me as receiving a good education.  I really want to play Division I softball for a competitive team and definitely want to be able to make an impact and improve the school I attend early on, but will do whatever the team and coach needs me to do to make the team better.

 

SSS.com: What do you like to do off the field?
KN:  I do a lot of reading, spending time with family and friends, and enjoy watching movies.

 

SSS.com:  How about academics? What is your GPA and have you taken the ACT or SAT?
KN:  My GPA is 4.0, ranked #1 in my class; I’ve carried straight A’s since starting school.  I’m preparing to take the ACT this spring before the softball season gets into full swing.

 

SSS.com:  What’s something that makes you unique and special on or off the field?
KN:  I’m very driven and competitive to be the best, not only on the field but in the classroom as well.  I push my teammates to be better to help them realize their dreams as well.

 

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Players, parents and coaches:  want to know the best way to get us info on your favorite player?  Fill out our Recruit Form link and complete.  It comes directly to me (Brentt) and you very likely could see the info used somewhere on our site!

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If you’d like to submit information, forward to brentt@studentsports.com.  Also, follow us on twitter at @SS_Softball.