Florida State’s Amazing 2021 Class: 5 Recruits From 1 Team!

Over the weekend, the Tampa Mustangs’ team coached by Paul Walford announced two new verbal commits: catcher Katie Bright and outfielder Haley Fox, both 9th graders who are part of the Class of 2021.

They’re the 8th and 9th players to verbal on the team, which is full of 9th graders, but that’s not what makes this announcement unique: it’s that Bright and Fox are the 4th and 5th players who are all committed to Florida State—from the same club team and part of the same grad class.

There are seven players that Extra Inning Softball is aware of who have verballed to FSU from the Class of 2021 and, amazingly, only two don’t play for Walford’s Mustang squad!

This is, as far as anyone knows, the largest group of commits in the same class from one select club to verbal to such a high-ranked collegiate program. Think of it: more than half the starting line-up for the Mustangs-Walford will continue playing together at the next level in Seminole colors.

The Mustangs’ Florida State stampede started last spring when 2021 shortstop Brooke Blankenship verballed to Head Coach Lonni Alameda’s program.

On March 31, 2017—just months shy of becoming a freshman officially—Blankenship decided on FSU, which had been her focus school.

“The first college game I attended was the series against Michigan, when FSU came from behind to get a berth to the WCWS,” she recalls. “That was an amazing atmosphere and I knew I wanted to be part of that.”

Just a month later, 2021 pitcher Morgan Kendrick followed suit.

Also a lifelong fan, Kendrick had been attending FSU Softball Camps almost as long as she has been playing softball. The right-handed pitcher from Fleming Island, Florida, has shown why she was so highly coveted, opening her high school career this month with back-to-back no-hitters and collecting 14 Ks in each outing.

Over the summer, several more of the Mustang players accompanied the pair of commits to summer camp, sandwiched between the Scenic City Showcase and the Thunderbolts Five Star Showcase events.

Another infielder, Krystina Hartley, caught FSU’s eye as the Seminole staff showed up at the Mustangs’ games in Colorado’s Triple Crown Fireworks and again in California at PGF.

Hartley, a 2021 infielder from St. Petersburg, Florida, who earned All-County and FACA All-State honors as an 8th grader playing for Admiral Farragut Academy, become the third from the Walford team to commit to Florida State when she finalized her choice last fall after a successful summer followed by a flurry of fall recruiting activity from Pac-12 and multiple ACC schools.

And that brought us to this weekend, when Saturday saw two more Mustangs decide they’d be wearing FSU colors come the fall of 2021.

Bright’s hitting has earned her a lineup spot on a very competitive Mitchell High School varsity team as a freshman and she’s already launched a home run only four games into the season. Fox is one of three regional players on the Mustangs, traveling from Mississippi to play with Walford’s squad. She’s known for speed and her ability to make almost any catch in the outfield.

The quintet’s commitments gives these five Mustangs an opportunity to be teammates for more than eight more years and several of the five already have a history together; Bright and Blankenship, for example, have played as teammates since 10 and under select ball.

“I’m so excited,” Kendrick said. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of high school and college with them.”

Head Coach Paul Walford is a New Zealand native who grew up in the men’s professional fastpitch arena. He played in the 1996 ISF World Championships with Mike White (Oregon) and Travis Wilson (FSU). Over his career, he’s been part of five teams who won national titles, three ASA National Championships, an ISC World Championship and earned four All World team selections.

Walford isn’t at all surprised to see this group go to Florida State together.

“These girls are truly committed to their cause—fastpitch, school, and their families,” Walford explains. “Each of them go the extra mile to ensure they’re continuously moving forward with their game. To be noticed, they had to perform consistently on and off the diamond. The crazy thing is that this applies to all of the girls on my Mustang team.”

Having the burden—or blessing—of preparing five girls to play on the same top college squad is a challenge Walford is ready to accept. In fact, he also has three players verbally committed to the University of Central Florida and one to the University of South Carolina.

“Moving forward,” he said, “we start getting ready for college ball: fitness, stamina, and building on the mental game. They all have the physical ability to play, but the next level is all about the mental side. Being a past player who has been in a few big games, pressure and responsibilities are what I thrive on.”

The plans include a shift toward tournaments with a competitive element. The team is heading for the TCS Fireworks, TCS Nationals and PGF Nationals this summer and all of their events will have a competitive element. For the future, they will drive hard toward getting all of their players into a home, and laying a solid foundation backed with preparation.

The coaches have also created accountability structures to help get the players ready for what they will face at the next level. The players are required to document workouts, upload report cards, and set goals in private spreadsheets that they share with the coaches. Every player on the team trains outside of practice on every aspect of the game.

“I’m really confident that we will be ready when we get there because we will be together for so long before college,” Blankenship said.

All of the girls connect with the atmosphere that the Florida State coaching staff has created. “It’s a huge family,” Kendrick said. “Past players, current players, coaching staff, and recruits, everyone just cares about each other.”

This may be the beginning of a new trend among the select clubs, as there are several University of Georgia recruits on Kyle Sewell’s Firecrackers squad and Georgia Impact is quickly becoming a pipeline to the University of Florida, albeit on different teams at the moment.

With continuity and chemistry becoming more and more important, it looks like the trend of major college programs getting multiple players from the same club organization—even from the same grad class—will continue to happen more and more.

It’s just not yet been to the level of one program, Florida State in this instance, pulling in five from the same grad year who play all on the same team.