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Team NC – Hinde MIF/OF Megan Towery, #62 in the 2023 Extra Elite 100, had been eyeing Sept. 1 for a long time.
The North Gaston (Dallas, North Carolina) High junior was eager to show college coaches that all of her hard work had paid off before the recruiting process started in earnest on the first day college coaches were allowed to talk to her.
But a foot injury knocked the power-hitting speedster out for the Summer and most of the Fall, which delayed her future plans.
Towery talked to Extra Inning Softball about her road to recovery and how she’s dealt with the untimely injury…
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September 1st, junior year.
The milestone date many softball players look forward to from the days of 8U coach pitch ball. The day you can find out if any college coaches have been impressed by the work you’ve been putting in for the past eight-plus years.
There is so much hype leading up to that day… but what do you do when the recruiting plan you’ve been working on for at least the past several years collapses at the most inopportune time ever?
How do you respond? How do you keep moving forward to reach your goals?
These are the questions I’ve been forced to face since the beginning of Summer 2021; going back to when I first started thinking about getting seen by college coaches.
I was going to camps, sending tons of emails, building relationships with coaches and most of all putting in the work in order to shine on the field when it was game time. I felt that I was ahead of the game because I started doing all of those things from a young age, so college coaches knew my name.
Then came COVID-19.
When we got shut down, I felt like I was in a good spot because if I hadn’t done all of that work to build relationships beforehand, I knew I would have been in a pretty tough situation. I continued to send emails very often knowing that my only way of getting seen was to post video clips on social media and even e-mail the coaches short highlight videos just to stay in front of them.
I decided I was going to use that time that we were shut down to get better and work harder than I ever had before. I was doing stuff daily, whether it was hitting off a tee, lifting weights, doing sprints, doing ladder and cone drills, going through mental training with Jenn Salling, Stephanie Best, Ellie Cooper and Jade Rhodes (some of the best to have ever played).
I was doing everything you could think of to be ready when we were allowed to get back on the field.
My team was holding each other accountable and our coaches even announced a “Player of the Week” each week in order to push us to work harder.
I was the “Player of the Week” for Week 1 and it felt so good to know that people were seeing how hard I was working. Once we finally got the news that we could start playing again, I was so excited and just ready to hit the field again.
I knew it was going to be the Summer season before my junior year, so it was very important, but I felt prepared. We started our season and I was performing very well. We had played three tournaments and I had already hit five home runs (one grand slam).
I was on the right track to get noticed by several coaches before the September 1st date. We were in Florida for the PGF Show Me The Money Showcase in early June when I had to be benched because of an injury.
I later found out it was a stress fracture in my left tibia, so I was put on crutches for six weeks and out of softball for 12 weeks.
I was devastated.
I thought it was the worst thing that could have happened and at the worst possible time, but I figured I had to trust that everything happens for a reason, so I just did everything the doctors told me to do.
I went to pretty much all of the tournaments to support my team while I was out, and I did everything I could to be ready for when I was allowed go back.
When the Fall season came, I had finally made it through the time frame of my recovery and the doctor cleared me to play again. I was back for my first showcase and I started having some pain in my right foot.
I figured it was just from not being able to do much for so long, so I kept playing, but it kept getting worse as time went on. I remember once we got home from the showcase a few days later it got to the point where I couldn’t even put any weight on it.
That’s when we knew something was wrong with my foot so we went to the doctor and they couldn’t believe it but I had two more stress fractures in my right foot!
That meant I got put in a walking boot for six more weeks and I was out of softball for eight more weeks meaning I was totally missing both the Summer and Fall seasons.
Again.
I’m not even going to lie, it has been tough to just sit back and watch everyone play and start committing to the colleges they will go to, but I’m still trusting that everything happens for a reason.
I could let that knock me down, but I knew that I’ve done everything that I could to set myself up for success, so I’m going to remain confident that everything will work out the way that it is supposed to and that this is all a part of God’s plan for me.
I was cleared to start playing again last week (December 13) so I’m going to pray real hard and work real hard to get ready to show out for the coaches in the Spring/Summer.
After two setbacks with stress fractures, Megan is back working hard to get on the fields:
Leg day = Best day @ExtraInningSB @Los_Stuff @BrenttEads @WTurner247 @lhaeger17 @IHartFastpitch @ImpactRetweets @SCSportsReport @CoastRecruits @UncommittedUsa @AllAboutSoftbal @TeamNCHinde @SoftballNOGA21 pic.twitter.com/VpouLwHQWj
— Megan Towery (@megan_towery14) December 15, 2021
So, moral of the story is to start doing everything you can to get your name out there to college coaches at a young age. Sign up for camps, send emails, post videos and highlights of your workouts and your play.
That way you set yourself up for success no matter what happens in the future, because you never know.
Also, never ever take your health and ability to play the amazing sport of softball lightly because you don’t necessarily know when your last game will be your last.
— Megan Towery @megan_towery14