Extra Elite 100 Player Rankings: Why We Launch Each Class When We Do

This is Brentt Eads, President & Executive Editor of Extra Inning Softball.

On Monday, January 30, we will launch our first-ever 2028 Extra Elite 100 rankings, which will begin the annual cycle for the class to be evaluated until they graduate.

There have been questions from the softball audience as to why we begin each class at that age—when they are typically in the seventh grade—which some feel is too young.

The purpose of this article isn’t to sway anyone’s opinion in either direction. I respect those with a different opinion, and my main purpose with this article is to lay out how and why we’ve found this to be the best starting point for the rankings.

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Some feel that these types of rankings or media coverage can put pressure on a young competitor or even cause mental health issues.

We spoke to a mental health expert, Benjamin Holland, who is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and asked for his thoughts on the topic.

“As concerns for the mental well-being of young athlete being recognized on a national level continue to grow among parents,” Holland says, “it is important to consider the potential effects of such recognition and to explore methods for ensuring positive outcomes.”

“To that end, there are several psychological strategies that can be employed to ensure that praise and recognition are beneficial for a young athlete’s mental health. These include providing specific, descriptive praise that acknowledges effort and progress, balancing praise with constructive feedback, encouraging autonomy and self-evaluation, avoiding overpraising, and being mindful of the type and frequency of praise given.”

“Ultimately, it is essential for parents to remain attuned to the unique needs and circumstances of their child and to act in their best interest in order to promote positive mental health outcomes.”

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The publishing of player and team rankings is an inexact science. Player development and progressions are going to change over time, in each class. It’s all about monitoring how the athletes grow and continue to elevate their skills and abilities as they move to graduation… and hopefully beyond.

While this has been published previously, I’d like to review why we publish the player rankings in the first place:

1. The primary reason: to honor the athlete.

This is in recognition for all her hard work to get to this point and the projection that they will be impactful in the future at the next level… whatever level that may be.

2. Secondly, to inspire the athlete.

We have seen that a third-party company like us recognizing a player as one of the top 100 players in the country for her age—at that particular moment in time— with the positive comments from her coaches and, sometimes, even those who’d played against her, can help the athlete see the success of her efforts and further inspire her to get better and work harder.

3. Thirdly, to bring discussion to the sport.

When I worked at ESPN, I was surprised to view the analytics showing that, at least at that time, 98% of all traffic regarding the high school age sports we covered was around recruiting, including the rankings database. Players care and certainly parents, coaches and fans do too.

Inevitably, rising prospects will emerge and rise in stature, others will drop, and some even quit the sport. It’s an organic, ever-changing, and evolving journey—just like life.

I can only remember one player who was ranked #1 from start to finish and that was Jayda Coleman, the outstanding athlete from the Texas Glory program who is now at Oklahoma and, in her two years for the NCAA Champion Sooners, has a .435 batting average with 17 home runs, 93 RBIs, a .564 on-base percentage and has 39 steals.

She is also a two-time NFCA 1^st Team All-American, was WCWS All-Tournament team last summer (2022) and is a member of the USA Softball Women’s National Team.

Rankings are a journey, not the arrival at a destination.

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There is also an important note that I’d like to address directly, specifically whether or not anyone has to pay to be included in the rankings. Some have written us asking if they must subscribe to our site or otherwise pay to be included in the rankings.

Absolutely not.

We accept nominations, particularly from coaches, and along with our own evaluations, we get input from those who DO have access to scouting and recruiting info, especially those coaches and organizational leads who provide the content to us that will be used to spotlight the player.

All of the information-gathering, processing, and evaluating that goes into the rankings is done separately from anything else that goes into running the Extra Inning Softball website – we don’t “cross-check” to see who subscribes or doesn’t, and our player nomination form is open and available to anyone on the internet, whether they subscribe to Extra Inning Softball or not.

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So why did we start at that age in the first place?

One key reason is we saw that age point as where the separation of those players into wanting to pursue softball as their sport begins to develop more clearly, especially as they compete on club teams with the hope of playing at the collegiate level someday.

Players are being more dedicated to the sport via hours and hours spent in lessons, workouts, practices, showcases, camps, tournaments and travel all over the country to compete against other top players their age.

They are focusing the bulk of their non-scholastic energies on being the best fastpitch player they can be and do appreciate the positive feedback of those who have noticed their dedication to the game.

You see travel ball national championships and major tourneys at the club level starting as young as 10U and going up through 12U, 14U, 16U and 18U. Additionally, elite players in the 2028 class are playing up as high as 16U, based on nominations that we have received.

Additionally, college coaches ARE starting to track kids as young as this—they’ll invite them to their on-campus camps, certainly—and will be aware of their progress and growth in the years prior to them being able to be openly recruited.

It wasn’t that long ago that a couple of current elite high school seniors were offered and committed in the 7^th grade to the national championship-winning Florida Gators. Of course, the NCAA ruling for when college coaches can contact a prospective student-athlete has been moved to September 1st of their junior year, but the hard work put in by these aspiring young athletes still continues from their young entry into the sport.

Honestly, a key reason for beginning at this age is that we have received feedback from the softball market over the years that this was a good starting point to recognize these athletes as one of the best in their class and that those who have been awarded as a top 100 honoree feel rewarded for being one of the best and seeing their hard work acknowledged.

That is why we do the rankings—because of the positive publicity it brings to these great young athletes who give their all on their journey to become the best they can be.

Those we don’t want to be part of it have that right and, though we may agree to disagree as to what age is appropriate, for those players and those close to them whom it motivates, we’ll continue to honor them with the understanding that we’re willing to make changes needed to better the process and listen to those who have concerns.

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
[email protected]