Competition for many high school athletes does not end when the last school bell rings for summer. It does not begin when their season starts. For many, competition is year round and rewarding.

Many of those athletes improve their skills by competing in their sport on club teams or “travel teams” when they are not playing for their high school.

For a sport such as softball the competition in summer time is more important for college recruiting and offers more of a challenge against highly skilled athletes. Softball athletes are almost exclusively recruited from their summer teams and not from high school because the college schedule coincides with high school and, more importantly, the competition offers a more accurate gauge of talent.

Teams such as the AZ Cats 94 of the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) take standouts from different high schools and travel throughout the nation to improve their skills, to compete and to gain the attention of college coaches.

The ‘Cats compete at the 14 and under level and they have recently won the Arizona State Championship for that age group.

The unique aspect of this team is that they have attracted players from the Phoenix area to play on a Tucson based team. As in politics, many times highly skilled southern Arizona athletes find themselves traveling to Phoenix to play on those teams. There have also been situations where families made the sacrifice to send their kids to California in hopes of getting recognized for their talent.

The team is comprised of 14 players including: Jess Guffey, OF/1B, Scottsdale Desert Mountain, 2011; Alexis Aguirre, SS/2B, Safford, 2012; Amber Berg, UT, Glendale Mountain Ridge, 2012; Kayla Bonstrom, P/OF, Tucson Canyon del Oro, 2012; Kate McCallister, 3B/1B, Phoenix Pinnacle; Ashley Palmer, P/1B, Mountain Ridge, 2012; Lauren Robinson, OF, Tucson Ironwood Ridge, 2012; Jordan Rocker, OF, Ironwood Ridge, 2012; Abby Spiel, OF/P, Tempe Corona del Sol, 2012; Rhyeca Riley, C, Mountain Ridge; 2013; Sarah Rodriguez, 3B/P, Ironwood Ridge, 2013; Adrianna Rosthenhausler, 2B/SS, Tucson Sunnyside, 2013; Ashley Rivera UP, Marana Mt. View, 2013; and Sammy Nettling, C/UT, Canyon del Oro, 2014.

One notable athlete would be Sammy Nettling. Her brother, Ray, was a standout at Canyon del Oro in both baseball and football. He was recruited to play baseball for Loyola Marymount University before transferring to Arizona. Bill Nettling, her father, was a tight end for Arizona, 1977-80.

Sammy will only be an 8th grader this fall yet she has been noticed as one of Tucson’s top players. She described her first trip to Nationals as “Indescribable, I can’t explain how excited I am.”

The ‘Cats are in California this weekend at a major college showcase where they will compete up in the 16U division in preparation for the 14U ASA National Championship in Marietta, Georgia beginning July 25.

FRONT ROW L-R: Head Coach Phil Fileccia, Rhyeca Riley, Alexis Aguirre, Adriana Rosthenhausler, Amber Berg

MIDDLE ROW L-R: Ashley Rivera, Jordan Rocker, Lauren Robinson, Sarah Rodriguez, Asst. Coach Jamie Spiel

BACK ROW L-R: Asst. Coach Bruce Bonstrom, Katie McCallister, Sammy Nettling, Kayla Bonstrom, Ashley Palmer, Abby Spiel, Jess Guffey

Photo courtesy AZ Cats 94

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: softball recruiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.