Although our
Team48's historical season has come to an end, the attention our softball program has garnered on the CF is at an all-time high. It's really nice of Jared Stansbury (
@JStanz51) for writing something about our softball program in
his latest Monday Musings. Since this is the same website, I just copy the softball part below. I hope Stanz doesn't mind.
*** Cheers to the Iowa State softball program for finishing up its historic season over the weekend. The Cyclones finished 34-23 and won their first two NCAA Tournament games in school history on Saturday before losing in the regional final on Sunday.
Obviously, the program’s rise was highlighted by the dominance of Sami Williams. There will never be another player like the insanely talented shortstop from California in a Cyclone uniform.
The question on my mind now is how sustainable is this success after Williams moves on?
Iowa State softball obviously had more or less zero history of success up until this season. It is a program still fighting somewhat of an uphill battle in a conference dominated by programs in the south.
But, Iowa State proved it belongs on the national stage over the weekend. Can that become a common occurrence rather than a one-year blip?
I asked Williams that very question just last week.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Williams said. “There’s a very high percentage of our team coming into this year that never played a Big 12 conference game because our freshman class from last year didn’t get to that point. We had a huge freshman class last year and a huge freshman class this year. It feels good being able to be here for another year and kind of just drop any kind of wisdom I can or any answer any questions that I can for them before my time’s up, but I feel confident that the people here are going to be able to keep this going. The coaching staff is really committed to this team and everyone here in this program. So I feel confident that they’ll be able to keep it going after.”
Iowa State will lose only three players off this year’s roster in Williams, starting infielder Logan Schaben and starting outfield Skyler Ramos. All three players have been key pieces of the program’s recent resurgence.
Everyone else will be back next year and beyond, though, and this weekend gave them all a taste of what it takes to compete at the sport’s highest level.
While Williams and the other seniors will be missed, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Iowa State softball’s best days are still to come.
Here are my follow-up thoughts.
1. "
There will never be another player like the insanely talented shortstop from California in a Cyclone uniform." I sure hope this is not true. We can definitely find and recruit more Sami Williams caliber players in the near future. I understand it requires a lot of resources and support (especially financially) to make it happen, but as long as our softball program and our administration have the determination, it's not a "Mission Impossible". Our WBB program has been doing it for a long time, I hope our softball program can duplicate the success.
2. Of the three seniors on our softball team, Sami Williams and Logan Schaben are 5th-year seniors. But our left-fielder Skyler Ramos still has one-year eligibility left. I just saw this CycloneSB Tweet which makes me wonder if Skyler is not included in the photo, is there any chance she's coming back for another year?
3. Regarding recruiting.
1) I'm glad to hear
Mizzou Man mention we are getting a promising 2021 recruiting class. Here's more about the four freshman signees.
We have signed two players from the HS powerhouse programs in the Quad Cities area (one of them is the teammate of the Spelhaug sisters) and the other two come from California (since Asst Coach Courtney Herron-Martinez is from California, I assume she has contributed to the commitment of those two recruits).
2) A lot of you would agree with me that the pitching position is probably the most important on a team. We saw firsthand how much a pitcher can impact the outcome of the game in our NCAA Regional. Although we have solid pitchers on our team and I'm sure our coaching staff will develop them into better ones since most of them are sophomores and freshmen, it doesn't hurt if we could look for an elite pitcher on the transfer market. If we could strike gold by finding a Sami Williams kind of program-changing player in pitching, this program can definitely sustain its success next year. Just take a look at what Kailyn Packard did for UNI who transferred from UMKC last year. Since we are a program on the rise, I'm sure some great pitchers who decide to transfer will now give us a serious look.
4. Regarding the scholarships.
I understand college softball is classified as an equivalency sport for NCAA scholarship purposes. For D1, only 12 athletic scholarships are given for each program. It's up to the coaching staff to offer each player a full-ride scholarship, a partial one, or none. Considering college softball is a non-revenue sport and each team usually carries a 20-30 player roaster, I can imagine it's not an easy task to distribute the scholarships on the team and attract recruits.
I have some questions for CF members who follow college softball more closely and have inside information about the softball scholarships. Could you please chime in and let us know
a) The details about ISU's softball scholarship structure?
b) Can a softball program offer non-athletic scholarships such as academic or donor-endowed ones to their players in addition to the 12 athletic scholarships? Or are there other financial aids available for players who only get partial or don't get athletic scholarships?
c) How do the softball powerhouses like OU and Mizzou manage their roasters and their softball scholarships (calling
Mizzou Man and
OKClones)? Naturally, if more scholarships or financial aids are offered, more good players will come to play.
Here's the current Endowed Scholarships for ISU Athletics posted on the Cyclone Club site, there's none designated for our softball program. I hope it can change this offseason (if applicable).
I apologize if there's any misunderstanding of the softball scholarship in my post. Hey, I come here to learn something new every day. Your information and comments about the recruiting and scholarship situation are really appreciated.