Inside Pitch: 2024 Extra Elite 100 Catcher Jada Phillips… Coming Home to the Tampa Mustangs

Who says you can’t go home again?

Jada Phillips, a catcher/utility player from Lakewood Ranch, Florida, started off in the Tampa Mustangs organization before time spent winning championships with the Hotshots and Mojo organizations before she returned back to the Mustangs closer to home.

Jada, who we’ve featured this year on Zoom calls and in our The Last Inning series because of her great Workout Warrior mentality, is also a candidate for some of our upcoming projects including the All-Summer Teams starting this Tuesday and the updated 2024 Extra Elite 100 rankings which kick off September 14 (she was in the Top 30 last year and has a great chance to advance in this round!).

All Jada did this summer was hit .522 with a .620 on-base percentage, smash 12 home runs and go 18-for-18 in steals thanks to her 2.68 home-to-first speed.

Off the field she works tirelessly to improve her speed, strength and game IQ and can even squat 265 pounds—her goal was 250 pounds by the start of high school!

Here’s a tweet showing Jada during one recent workout:

Day 1 of high school✅
Day 1,000 of strength training✅
Each steps to my future. To those taking elevators, you won’t see me for a while, I’ll be on the stairs!
❤️the climb #StrengthIsBeauty pic.twitter.com/IRIeqLvuSG

— Jada Phillips 27 (@phillips_27) August 18, 2020

In July, she made the move back to the Mustangs organization and is now playing for Kevin Maguire’s 16U team. Jada explains the reasoning behind going back to the Florida-based club program…

*****

I saw the article with Mia (Williams) and thought I would add my reasons in moving to Tampa Mustangs 16U – Maguire.

For me, it was a grand slam, both figuratively and literally: the one I hit at the World Fastpitch Championships where we took 3^rd place and also because I get to come home full-time and play up with a high-level older team and get coached by Coach (Kevin) Maguire.

I miss my former teammates a lot, but it was, and is, the best decision for me to really grow as a player.

*** Scroll down to read more about Jada and why she’s “come home again!”

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