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Breaking News: Brentt Eads Announced as Extra Inning Softball President & Executive Editor

 

Laura Chamberlain & Brentt Eads at Mary Nutter Classic calling a game.

February 12, 2018—Extra Inning Softball announced today that Brentt Eads will serve as its President and Executive Editor. He plans to run the company’s day-to-day operations including overseeing editorial focus, sponsorships and strategic direction.

The company’s website was launched on January 29 and in less than two weeks has had over 250,000 post reaches, 110,000 video views and 3,750 Likes on its Facebook page.

Eads with Hallie Wilson and Alex Powers of the USSSA Pride.

“I’m excited to build on the great content foundation that’s been established at Extra Inning Softball in its infancy and build on the driving philosophy that ‘We Exist to Grow the Game.’” From the expanding youth/club world up through and into the excitement building for the Olympic return of softball, it’s a great time to be involved in the sport!”

Eads joins Extra Inning after serving as General Manager of the FloSoftball division at FloSports Inc. (Austin, Texas) since May of 2016 when he was hired to start the Softball channel upon the acquisition of his own company, Full Count Softball.

During his time at FloSoftball, Eads helped secure live streaming rights for such high-profile events as the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic and the PGF Nationals while also overseeing highly respected national lists including the Hot 100 player recruiting ratings, the FAB 50 team rankings and the High School All-American teams.

Sharing a laugh with Hall of Famer Sue Enquist.

“One of the best compliments I’ve ever received,” Eads continues, “came from Sue Enquist, the legendary UCLA player and coach, who told me, ‘You’re either in the tribe (of softball) or you’re not, and you are because of your rankings so don’t ever give those up!’” I plan to honor her request!”

Eads says the evolving site will include the best of everything in softball on and off the field and provide player and team rankings and profiles, recruiting news and updates, topical issues, training tips, video highlights, event coverage and much more.

“I’m proud of the relationships developed over the last dozen years with college, high school and club coaches as well as with inspiring players and families across the country,” the Huntington Beach, California resident explains. “We want to continue to have the softball community involved and participating in our editorial and social media direction; it’s crucial we have the voice of everyone involved who is passionate about elevating the game.”

Eads explains that the softball community will clearly indicate

With Jenna Lilly, the #1 rated player of Eads’ first ever Top 100 list (Class of 2014).

what it wants in terms of coverage.

 

“I’ve found the fastpitch market will tell you what it wants to see and hear and we’ll follow that closely. For example, I’ve compiled close to 20 individual Top 100 class rankings—from the Class of 2014 led by Jenna Lilly—now on the USA National Team—to the Class of 2021—and updated most years several times. I’ve had dozens of people write and call me asking for this to continue.”

“Not only will we continue,” Eads adds, “we’ll expand on it to recognize more athletes across the nation. It’s just part one piece of our content, but the reason this works—like so much else around softball—is it recognizes the players for their great work and talents while also promoting a greater dialog around the sport.”

The Ohio native had previously worked at ESPN as a Sr. Director of Digital Operations from 2009-2012 and helped lead a $1.9MM website launch.

Eads (center) with Joe and Julia Rodriguez, now at UCLA, at the 2017 PGF All-American Game

Prior to that he served at Student Sports Inc. (Torrance, Calif.) as a Vice President of Marketing and Content where he was heavily involved in media and first became introduced to softball on the event and editorial fronts.

“It was in 2006 and I was asked to begin a softball website because my daughter had played,” he says, “Nike had a softball initiative and I was asked to create a site and populate it with content in support of this project.”

“It was a daunting task,” he continues, “but I quickly found out how dedicated the fastpitch community is and within months I was fortunate to be working with legendary figures like Sue Enquist and Mike Candrea in the college space—Coach Candrea was also the Head Coach of the U.S. Olympic Team at the time—and luminaries in the club world like Gary Haning and Tony Rico. I was amazed at how accessible they all were, unselfish in their dedication to their athletes and willing to do whatever it would take to elevate the sport.”

Eads doing color commentary at Mary Nutter with former ESPN Sports Center anchor Larry Burnett.

Eads says he hopes that Extra Inning Softball will become a site where people will come to contribute content as well as consume it.

“People often ask me what I do for a living and I say, ‘I get to tell stories about great people who happen to be athletes.’ I look forward to that happening a lot more as we talk about softball 24/7 all year-round and hope to get a lot of the ideas from the public who are living these amazing experiences.”

Eads, who received a Bachelor of Arts from BYU and an MBA from Loyola Marymount, confesses he never thought he’d fall in love with softball as his life’s career like he has.

“I’ve been fortunate to work in sports media for over 25 years working with NFL, MLB and NBA athletes,” he concludes, “but nothing has been as rewarding as being around these dedicated softball players who are as inspiring off the field as they are on it.”

 

 

 

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