Inside Pitch: Powerhouse Bentonville (Arkansas) High Begins the 2021 Season… From the Perspective of Extra Elite 100 Pitcher/Infielder Kasey Wood

The high school softball season is here and we’re excited to introduce a new feature: an in-season on-going report as we follow one of the top high school programs in the country, Bentonville High in Arkansas.

Kasey Wood is one of several 2023 Extra Elite 100 players who competes for the Tigers and will be providing an insider’s view this season.

Bentonville High is not just strong in softball, it annually wins multiple state in conference titles in sports ranging from swimming, golf and more. But in softball, the Tigers are especially strong and have been under the coaching of Kent Early, ranked in December as one of the Top 50 High School Softball Coaches in the nation!

From 2016 through 2018, the school won Arkansas state titles and has finished as state runner-up finishes in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2019.

Here is our introductory look at the Bentonville High softball program in Kasey’s words as the 2021 season gets underway!

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Growing up in Bentonville as a softball player, nothing excited but scared me more than reaching the highs school level and playing for Coach Early and the Tigers!

It was almost as if I was a football player grown in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and dreaming of one day playing for the Crimson Tide and Coach Nick Saban.

Going to Tiger Camp as a 10-year-old with my closest friends Tallulah Pascucci, Kadence Stafford, and Sara Watson and having the opportunity for just a glimpse of what the team was like was what we all looked forward to every summer as kids.

Growing older, we saw Bentonville High win six conference championships, making it to state seven times and collecting three state championships. The dynasty Coach Early had built got bigger as we did and as we got to 8th grade the decision to go to Bentonville High over another local school was clear.

Although we also grew up hearing of the horrors about how hard playing softball for the Tigers was, we knew that what we were walking into was going to make us even better players than we ever thought we could be.

I clearly remember the first day getting into the facility with my life-long friends, looking at each other and thinking we finally made it here; we couldn’t have been more excited to be a part of—and carry on—the legacy past teams had built.

Our freshman year (pre-COVID) we spent at least two days a week running, conditioning, doing Navy Seal workouts and hitting the weight room. We spent the year learning more about how far we could go and learning how to keep the same mindset about getting to our goal no matter if it was the first lap, or the fifth when we still had five more to go.

I gained more knowledge about myself and how to play the game than I even knew was inside me. As March approached, we were ready to do whatever it took to get to the championship. Flash forward to after five months of lockdown—it was time to make sure that when COVID allowed us to play we’d be ready.

This offseason was different.

We got our minds to where they needed to be to win it all last year but didn’t get to play so this year it was about making sure that when the time came, we weren’t going to make mistakes. We did scrimmages, pitching, hitting, and defense every day.

This year we are bringing to the field four Tigers who were included in the 2023 Extra Inning 100 player rankings in Audrey Lacina at 89th overall and 25th ranked catcher; Kadence Stafford at 75^th as an outfielder, me at 64th and 38^th as an pitcher/infielder (third base) and Tallulah Pascucci at 82^nd as an infielder.

With Coach Early being ranked 35 out every high school coach in the nation, make that five Tigers who are ranked!

We also have several other standouts including Kenzie Derryberry who plays short and is committed to Missouri State, Emily Perry who lines up at second and is committed to Central Akransas, McKenzie Vaughn who is our starting pitcher and also going to Missouri State and Sara Watson who is another talented catcher.

We couldn’t be more excited to perform at the highest level this year and we are all looking forward to making our only purpose carrying on the tradition of Bentonville dominance and bringing more greatness to our title.

As much as we all owe it to ourselves and the legacy, we put even more passion into making sure we win a state title with this team before our seniors leave their mark for good seeing as we got our opportunity taken away from us last year.

We couldn’t be more excited to show the amount of greatness that we can play this spring.

— Kasey Wood, Bentonville High

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