It was a long but enjoyable day at the National Elite Camp in Southern Calif. as OnDeck Softball brought in 78 top underclassmen.  We start our look at the talent there and also preview the Oklahoma high school tournament with the big schools.  Also, we look at this weekend’s Diamond Elite College Showcase in Texas and finish with our second Keilani Ricketts blog from 2007!

 

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EVENT: NATIONAL ELITE CAMP

Today was the first of the two-day 2013 National Elite Futures Camp as 78 girls came from all over the country including New Jersey, Texas and Washington.

Considered the top one-day showcase in fastpitch softball, the event is being held at Mt. SAC in Walnut, Calif. and is a magnet for elite underclass players as well as college coaches interesting in evaluating them.

Under beautifully sunny skies,  Derek and Joann Allister, the leads of OnDeck Softball which has produced the event since 2005, had things humming in testing and field drills.

One of the participants from that first year, Kimi Pohlman, was at the event helping warm up the athletes and executing the testing elements comprised of a 10, 20 and 40 yard dash, a shuttle drill, throwing test, and bat speed and exit times.

The camp featured players from the 2015, ’16, ’17 and ’18 classes and you could see some were nervous working out in front of dozens of major college coaches.

Some of the schools “wearing their colors” and onsite to evaluate the prospects were Cal Berkeley, Lehigh, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oregon, Oregon State, South Carolina, Stanford, St. John’s, Tennessee, UCLA, Utah, Virginia, Washington and dozens of others.

We caught up with Derek later in the day and he listed a handful of players he thought had upped their stock during the day’s sessions… here are five players to watch with comments from Derek:

— C/MIF Shaye Bowden (2017, AZ Hotshots 16U)
“We knew Shaye was good coming into the event and she really had a good day.  There’s been a number of college coaches who have contacted her travel coach already.  She’s going to be a major player in Arizona.”

— SS/2B Briana Perez (2017, Sorcerer 18U)
“Bri confirmed that, without question, she is one of the top two or three shortstops in the game today.  the girl is fabulous.”

— 1B/OF Miranda Miles (2016, NorCal Firecrackers 98)
“Miranda is a sweet swinging lefty out of Northern California and had an outstanding day at the plate.  She can hit quality pitchers and really knows how to stroke the bat.”

— P/MIF Grace Green (2018, Sorcerer 14U Williams)
“Grace oozes with potential and the coaches were buzzing about her. She’s going to be a major player in the future.”

— P/1B Victoria Galvan (2017, NJ Intensity)
“Victoria has been throwing gas and, although raw, she’s a big kid with a big frame who could develop into a collegiate lock-down pitcher.”

 

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RECRUITING NEWS:

*** One of the coaches who helped run the National Elite Camp activities today is Keith Householder, the Head Coach of the Arizona Hotshots 16U.

He told us that one of his players recently committed—2016 SS/3B Madison Uden to Michigan.

Madison hits left and throws right and has a 4.38 GPA.  She attends at Kellis High School in Glendale, Ariz. and this past year set a school record in triples, hits, runs scored and walks.  She received 1^st Team All-Academic honors and 2^nd Team All-District.

The sophomore has also played varsity basketball and JV volleyball.

 

*** Yesterday we reported that Natalie Alas committed to Sacramento State.  We got some more information on her from family… here it is:

“Natalie goes by the nickname “Nene” and attends Cajon High School in San Bernardino, Calif.

She was part of the Firecrackers 16U Blanco team that earned 3rd place at Premier Nationals 2013. They earned 1st place in Colorado Fireworks Showcase and placed 5th in TC-USA Nationals in Reno.

A few weeks ago, she had a visit to Sacramento State and loved everything the university had to offer her to become a great student athlete.”

 

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OKLAHOMA HIGH SCHOOL STATE PLAYOFFS (LARGE SCHOOLS – Class 6A, 5A, 4A)

It’s the final big week for fastpitch season in the Sooner State as the Oklahoma H.S. Fastpitch State Tournament (Large Schools Class 6A, 5A and 4A) started on Thursday and runs through Saturday (Oct. 17-19).

It’s a single elimination formation that takes place at Firelakes Ballpark in Shawnee, Okla.

Some Players to watch All Classes

 (Alphabetical Order with Year, Pos, School, Class and College Commitment)

Jayden Chesnut – Jr. (P Mustang 6A) – Oklahoma; has been dominant at times for her team.

Mallory Collins – Sr. (IF/P Sand Springs 6A) – Oklahoma State; This season’s only 2-time Tulsa World Player of the Week, Collins has been dominant at times in the circle and at the plate.
Kelsey Eropkin – So. (CF Bethel 4A) – Uncommitted; as a leadoff hitter has sparked her team this season and led them back to state.
Bryanna Flannigan – Jr. (SS Bethel 4A) – Creighton; has helped lead her team playing shortstop and hitting 3-hole.
Sable Hankins – Sr. (IF Moore 6A) – Lamar; Third baseman hit .490, driving in 41 runs behind 19 doubles, seven triples and two home runs.
Hannah Heinrichs – Jr. (OF Broken Arrow 6A) – Missouri State; one of the top outfielders in the state who makes amazing plays to help her team.
Hunter Jeffs – Sr. (P Oologah 4A) – Central Arkansas; defending state champion pitcher has led her team back again.
Aubrey Johnson – So. (IF Muskogee 6A) – Uncommitted; She is very athletic and has been dominant at the plate this season.
Kate Meyers – Sr. (IF Jenks 6A) – Univ of Tulsa; the 3-hole hitter and shortstop has led her team back to state.  She’s a huge power threat at the plate.
Sydney Pennington – Fr. (IF/P Sand Springs 6A) – Uncommitted; The freshman IF/P leads her team with 9 HRs and has helped carry the load in the circle this season.  Is being recruited by several Big 12 and SEC programs.
Lindsey Wade – So. (P Tahlequah 5A) – Uncommitted; has led her team to a 36-4 record.
Elexis Watson – Fr. (IF Muskogee 6A) – Uncommitted; The freshman IF has massive power at the plate and ability to drive in a lot of RBIs.
Emily Watson – Sr. (P Deer Creek 5A) – Univ of Tulsa; Pitcher won 23 games for the Antlers, striking out 224 batters and losing just four times.

 

Class 6A

Thursday (Field 4)

Game 1: Broken Arrow vs. Edmond North, 11 a.m.
Game 2: Mustang vs. Muskogee, 1 p.m.
Game 3: Moore vs. Sand Springs, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Jenks vs. Southmoore, 5 p.m.

Friday (Field 4)

Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, Noon
Game 1 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m.

Saturday (Field 4)
Championship, 4 p.m.

 

Class 5A

Thursday (Field 2)

Game 1: Deer Creek vs. Collinsville, 11 a.m.
Game 2: Carl Albert vs. Lawton Mac, 1 p.m.
Game 3: Duncan vs. Claremore, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Tahlequah vs. Chickasha, 5 p.m.

Friday (Field 2)

Game 1 winner vs. Game 3 winner, Noon
Game 2 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m.

Saturday (Field 2)
Championship, 1:30

 

Class 4A

Thursday (Field 1)

Game 1: Tecumseh vs. Blanchard, 11 a.m.
Game 2: Tuttle vs. Bethel, 1 p.m.
Game 3: Hilldale vs. Oologah, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Cache vs. Fort Gibson, 5 p.m.

 

Friday (Field 1)

Game 1 winner vs. Game 3 winner, Noon
Game 2 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m.

Saturday (Field 4)

Championship, 11 a.m.

 

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DIAMOND ELITE COLLEGE SHOWCASE (PLANO TX)

This weekend’s Diamond Sports Oktober Showcase marks the 12^th year since Elite College Showcases began and will play host to over 130 teams.  Some top teams playing Diamond Elite Showcases this fall include:

Aces Express
CA Teamsmith
Firecrackers DFW
Gametime Stars
Houston Power
Impact Gold
KC Peppers Eakin
OK Athletics
OK Diamond Girls
OK Force
Sneaky Cleats
Team Kansas
TX Blaze Slimp
TX Bombers
TX Elite
TX Glory Adkins
TX Rapid Fire
Tulsa Elite

 

The Elite College Showcases started back in 2002 and has helped literally thousands of players to connect themselves with college coaches of all levels.  The brainchild of JD Bancroft, a prominent businessman in DFW Metroplex and founder of Texas Elite Sports, the Elite College Showcases were started while JD was still coaching his Texas Elite travelteam and traveled throughout the nation to ASA Nationals and other top tournaments like the 2001 Fiesta College Showcase in Tucson, AZ.

The Original Texas Elite Bancroft team, coached by JD Bancroft was one of the most successful teams in North Texas.

Here’s their National results (1996-2004):

1996 5^th at ASA 10A Nationals – Garland, TX
1998 13^th at ASA 12A Nationals – St Louis, MO
2000 17^th at ASA 14A Nationals – Panama City, FL
2001 USSSA World Champions – Hutchinson, KS
2002 17^th at ASA 16A Nationals – Sioux Falls, SD
2003 17^th at ASA Gold Nationals – Salem, OR
2004 33^rd at ASA Gold Nationals – Marietta, GA

As his team continued to be successful on a national basis and started to get into the 16A and Gold level, he started getting all of his players recruited by college programs like Texas (Meagan Denny, Jacqueline Williams, Christina Gwyn), Alabama (Katie Johnson), Oklahoma (Stacy Braddock), Arkansas (Samantha Buckner), North Texas (Katya Muller), Ole Miss (Jessica Plemons), etc and realized there were hundreds of great players in North Texas and surrounding states, who were not blessed to play for teams who could afford to travel to all these events and these players deserved an opportunity to be seen by coaches also.

So, JD started talking to a lot of the college coaches and asked them if he hosted a big “Texas Sized” showcase event in the metroplex and brought in over 100 teams with talent, would they come watch the teams.  Of course they agreed, another great opportunity to see some great teams.

So, the first Elite College Showcase was started in 2002 and quickly becoming one of the best College Showcase venues. With a lot of attention to detail and a lot of College Coach support, it continues to be one of the premier spots in the country to showcase unsigned players to College recruiters that are looking to fill spots on their rosters for this year and many years to come.

Located in the middle of the United States it is easy for teams from both sides of the country to come to at a reasonable price for flights or other modes of travel. The playing facilities are first class and within only minutes of each other. The hospitality provided for the college coaches is first class and they treat every college coach the same, whether they’ve just won the Div 1 National Championship or they are a first year coach at a start-up Div 3 Juco.

The Diamond Sports Oktober Showcase (Oct 17-19), the Diamond Sports All-American Showcase (Nov 8-10) and the Diamond Sports Summer Showcase (July) always draw well in excess of 100 college programs per event every year.  The nice thing is the fact that there are coaches of all levels who frequent the Elite Showcases including Div 1, Div 2, NAIA and Juco.  So, there’s an opportunity for teams of all levels.  That was JD’s intentions from the beginning and continues today.

Website: www.eliteshowcase.com

 

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: KEILANI RICKETTS’ BLOG (PART II)

Six years ago we had a promising young writer who blogged for us several times that fall by the name of Keilani Ricketts!

This is a fun look back at a time when a lot was happening in her high school and club softball world… just like the girls we write about today.

Enjoy reading what this future National Player of the Year had going on in her life back then…

 

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Keilani’s blog from the San Jose circle (Oct. 19)

Since her last blog, highly sought-after 2009 pitcher Keilani Ricketts has had a lot of excitement… her sister, Stephanie, verbally committed to a school; she traveled to pitch in a tournament only to have it rained out one of the days so she got to put her go-cart driving skills to use and her family and other San Jose Sting teams were impacted by the horrific fatal truck crashes on California’s I-5 last weekend…

***

Publisher’s Note: Keilani Ricketts, younger sister of Oklahoma star Samantha Ricketts, is already considered one of the top prospects in the Class of 2009 at any position.  She has been with the San Jose Sting organization for the past seven years and recently jumped to the Gold team after helping the 16-U team finish 17th at the Nationals in Sioux Falls, S.D. this summer.

Both Keilani and older sister, Stephanie, also pitch for Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., which went 27-1 last spring to win its section and finish No. 3 in the final StudentSportsSoftball.com FAB 50 rankings. Interesting, the only game Mitty lost was the first game, when the Ricketts sisters were still involved with the basketball team, which won the state championship!

Keilani, a CalHiSports.com 1st team all-state underclass pick, went 8-0 with a 0.70 ERA for Mitty and for the Sting 16-U team at Nationals went 5-1 with 76 Ks, five hits allowed and an ERA of 0.16 (only one earned run).

 

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Hello softball friends!

Well, our family has had some exciting news since I last wrote- in my last blog, I mentioned how my sister Stephanie was on her official visit to the University of Hawaii.

Well, right before they got on the plane to return home, she called me to tell me that she gave her verbal commitment to Coach Bob Coolen while she was there! She is very excited and hopefully one day I will get to go watch her play as a Rainbow Wahine!!!

These past two weeks have been very hectic for me; I have taken two unofficial visits of my own to two really impressive schools and I have a few more planned for this fall.

Even though making a decision this early is a little stressful , I have softball to help keep me from getting too overwhelmed about it all. I am excited that the fall season has finally started and we played in our first tournament last weekend at the Surf City Tournament in Huntington Beach.

Unfortunately, due to rain and poor field conditions, our games were cancelled on Saturday. Since that meant we had a FREE day, a couple of teammates and I went to a place called Boomers where we played laser tag, miniature golf, arcade games, and go-cart racing.

Due to my previous experience of go-cart racing from Nationals this summer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I was finally able to come out on top and beat everyone for the first time, which I was pretty excited about!

After that, my sister and I went with Kelly and Lauren, two catchers on our team, with our parents and walked around the hotel to go find a place to practice pitching. We found some nice grass next to a business building which was still pretty wet from the rain, but we were able to manage a get a good workout (without breaking any windows!!)

On Sunday, our team, the San Jose Sting Gold, played two very good teams and were able to come out on top defeating both teams with shutouts. Even though we only played two games, it was great to get out there and see what our team looked like, with so many new faces. It was a fun day and this coming weekend, we will be returning to Huntington Beach for another tournament.

You may have heard about the huge explosion on Interstate 5 last Friday night which is a main road for all of us traveling down to Southern California. Fortunately, since we were already down in L.A. for the unofficial visit I had, my parents and I missed being affected by the accident Friday night.

One of the families on our team was caught in the traffic from 11:30 pm and not able to move their car out until 3am! They did not arrive at the hotel until 5am! Due to this accident, we had to find an alternate way home to San Jose (Northern California) which would have taken longer.

My dad took the Pacific Coast Highway which is the highway that goes along the coast of California  and we enjoyed all the beautiful beaches along the way. It was a great ride back from a great day of softball.

Until the next time,

Keilani

 

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TOP UNCOMMITTED 2014’s – LIST WILL BE LAUNCHED FRIDAY

Thanks to those who sent player info to be included on a list of top uncommitted seniors.  We’re going to post the first list on Friday (supposed to be today, but had meetings that will bump two days… sorry!) and hope the softball community adds to it regularly.

If you’d like to send a player we’ll be adding to our soon-to-be-launched list, please send your info to us at brentt@studentsports.com.

We’ll take stats, honors, accomplishments, recruiting info, photos and promote as appropriate.  We hope to launch the list next Monday or Tuesday

 

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