Extra Star Power: It’s a Long Way from England to Texas for Promising Prospect Tia Warsop

Most softball dreams of little girls beginning the sport usually involve playing in the Olympics one day with Team USA.

For Tia Warsop, a 2023 speedy outfielder who plays with the Texas Glory 14U Naudin team, that is her dream also, although she’s split—if the opportunity would ever rise, Tia would also love to play for Team England as she was born there.

Explains, her mother, Alex, “Tia is British and we moved to the USA in August in 2009 when she was just four-years-old. But having lived here longer than she lived in England, she feels this is home now and wants to play at the highest level and that’s Team USA.”

The young athlete’s father, Mark, worked for Panini in the United Kingdom subsidiary as well as the head office based in Modena, Italy, when he was asked to move to the United States offices to take the position of CEO Panini America.

Panini America, for the unfamiliar, is the worldwide leader in sports collectibles, trading cards and certified authentic memorabilia for the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, FIFA, baseball and hockey and one of the perks of your dad serving as the head of Panini is Tia got her own official trading card designed last year (also nice way to grab a college coach’s attention!).

When Tia’s parents were enticed to move to the United States and to the foreign land of Texas, they had visions of a Southwest desert, tumbleweeds and cowboys.

Unbeknownst to them, however, their future would involve dirt infields, a pitching mound and the green grass of the outfield where their daughter would emerge as a promising athlete. However, her athletic accomplishments have not just been in softball, but also in volleyball, swimming, indoor field hockey and track.

You don’t have to look far to see where Tia’s athleticism comes from: both parents were quite skilled in various sports in England.

“If you ask her dad, he will say she gets her athleticism from him,” laughs Alex, “and I would say me! So the answer is probably both. Mark and I were both the fastest in our grade throughout our school years and we both played to a high level in field hockey U16, U18 & U21 for our county–which is pretty much like playing for your state here.”

“I went on to college and played two years of 1st Team field hockey and in my final year I decided I wanted a change and played 1st Team women’s rugby. Both of us played in a competitive league after college and although field Hockey is not as popular in Texas, we still occasionally play for a co-ed team in Dallas.”

Unfamiliar with the sports of this country, Tia was asked to join a neighbor’s daughter who was playing softball. Never one to shy away from something new, Tia has been playing ever since.

Although the 7th grader’s parents weren’t familiar with fastpitch softball at all, they did have a comparable sport back in England. Well, somewhat.

“A game we did play at school that resembled softball or baseball was ‘Rounders,’” remembers Tia’s mother. “It was probably the game that came before baseball or softball. The GAA version of rounders is very similar to softball, the main difference being that the game is played with baseball-type bats, balls and field.”

“However, baseball-style gloves are not allowed. The main differences between baseball and the Rounders England version of the game are that the rounders bat is much shorter and is usually swung one-handed and misses or strikes are not called, so there are no walks or strike-outs and each batter receives only one good ball and must run whether they hit it or not.”

“Other differences include the posts for marking the bases, which should be wooden, and are preferably encased in plastic sheaths, the lay-out of the pitch, especially the location of the last base; and the bowler’s arm motion, which is an underarm pendulum action, as in softball.  And there are no gloves—you have to catch bare handed!”

A Sample Look at How Rounders is Played…

A natural athlete with inherent speed, it didn’t take long for those around Tia to realize she had potential in whatever sport she competed in.

Last year, for example, she was also the fastest 6th grade girl in her school and beat all the boys except one in track tryouts. This year, never having played volleyball before, Tia tried out and was chosen from 106 girls to be one of the ‘A” team members.

Still, Tia’s love for softball takes precedent over all other sports. Her primary position is centerfield because her fleetness of foot gives her the ability to cover a lot of ground and her reads of the ball off the bat adds greatly to her defensive success.

“She loves how fast-paced the game can be,” Alex says, “and how it has different dimensions like fielding, batting and base running. She also loves how the game revolves around playing as a team but also has an individual aspect.”

Her Texas Glory coaches are high on her potential, including Kevin Shelton, the head of the organization who says, “I have worked with Tia on slapping for years so she owns a special place in my heart.”

The slapping opportunity was introduced to take advantage of her speed and, according to Glory coach Jason Greenwell, “ Obviously, physicality is a huge part of who Tia is, but she also does not shy away from a challenge and is not afraid of opportunities.”

“She switched her batting from right hand power to left hand slapper to utilize her blazing speed and Tia loves working as a team and enjoys every aspect of softball. Her favorite experience thus far has been taking 3rd in 10U Premier Nationals, as well as making the 12U USA All American Region 5 Blue team and placing 2nd in the USA All American games at the Hall of Fame Fields in Oklahoma City.”

Even though Tia was only four-years-old when her family moved to Texas, she still does have memories of England, mainly of a couple of her friends that she still keeps in touch with and certain places she would like to visit.

But, according to her “mum,” one thing she still remembers and misses from her days from England has to do with her taste buds.

“It’s mainly the chocolate,” she declares. “English chocolate in is far better!”

Since the move to the States about nine years ago, Tia has only been back to the land of her birth three times due to school and summer softball making it difficult to travel back to England.

However, what’s interesting, is—thanks to her parents background obviously—Tia switches back and forth between a British and American accent depending on who she is talking to and it’s a natural and seamless switch.

“If she is in the car with me and her friends,” explains her mother, “and I ask her a question her response will be in a British accent and then she will go right back to an American accent when speaking with her friends!”

“At home, she is all British. There are several words that are totally different and others that we just say slightly differently. She still says ‘petrol’ instead of ‘gas’ so ‘We need to stop and fill up the car with petrol’. We call ‘chips’ ‘crisps’ and she will ask, ‘Mummy, can I have a packet of crisps please?’ ‘Chips’ to us are ‘fries.”

There are even softball terms that are different and probably have raised some eyebrows to anyone who’s caught wind of a Warsop family conversation around the fields.

“We take a ‘cool box’ to the softball games and not an ‘ice chest,’” continues Alex, “and we put it in the ‘boot’ of the car (not the ‘trunk’). We walk on the ‘pavement,’ not the sidewalk and this one is a little worrying because here you call the road ‘the pavement!’”

Minor language differences aside, the future is bright for the Texas transplant who, playing for a 14U team loaded with talent that includes 2021 and 2022 commits to schools like Oklahoma State, Houston, Mississippi State, Kansas, Northwestern and Nebraska, will surely get noticed not just for her uncommon speed, but for her ability to set the table as a slapper for the big boppers behind her in the line-up.

“Being so young,” states Coach Greenwell, “Tia still has so many great experiences still in front of her. Playing for the 14U Texas Glory Naudin team will enable her to make the most of her softball journey and her dreams of playing for a high academic D1 university and, who knows, maybe the Olympics some day!”

The most pressing question then could be which side of the pond she would be representing.