RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Marissa Santos, a 2022 right-handed pitcher from D’Hanis, Texas, a small town about an hour south of San Antonio, had an excruciatingly tough decision to make.
After leading her small high school to its first-ever UIL state title when she was a freshman and earning every honor possible—from State Championship MVP to 2019 TWSA Pitcher of the Year and Player of the Year—Marissa had a bright future on the softball fields as she threw hard, in the mid-60’s, and was drawing attention from major DI programs nationwide.
Check out this interview with Marissa after she won the UIL Championship last year:
At the beginning of her sophomore year, the 5-foot-8 athlete was a big reason that D’Hanis High School was favored to repeat its 2019 championship run, but then COVID-19 hit, prematurely ending her softball season but having a much more devastating impact on her family.
COVID was not kind to her or her family. After she and her family contracted the disease, Marissa found herself in the middle of a family financial and health nightmare and softball was the farthest thing from her mind.
Without hesitation knowing the stakes involved, the current junior hung up her cleats thinking that her career was over but knowing her help to her family came first.
During the early months of 2020, when the Coronavirus was spreading across the world, Marissa focused on helping her dad as a ranch hand and assisting her mom in rebuilding her hair salon business.
“She didn’t look back,” explains Aimee Felices, the head of the Firecrackers AC program in Texas and the coach of the 16U team. “Marissa is unselfish on and off the field. She readily accepted her role to do what she could in order to minimize the burden on her family and to be there for her parents and her younger brother.”
Coach Felices has known Marissa since the young player was in the 7th grade as the coach and formerly college player at Alabama State have been interconnect for years.
“We are basically neighbors,” the 16U coach explains, “and I had been hearing about this kid who was a dominating pitcher. When I reached out to Tony Rico to become the head/director of Firecrackers AC, I knew that I also wanted to be the head coach of our 16u team. Marissa was one of the players that I wanted to reach out to because I had been hearing about her for so long.”
Most scouts agree that previous to the pandemic’s onset, Marissa was on her way to a big D1 program as she was garnering heavy interest from many top softball programs across the U.S.
Still, despite her promising future between the lines, the athlete would not shirk from her family responsibilities and turned down offers from many top travel ball clubs and colleges alike.
“Eventually, I reached out to her because I saw a Facebook post about her mom losing her salon and Marissa and mom contracting COVID,” Coach Aimee remembers. “Initially, she didn’t want to come back but as a former player, I knew that she wouldn’t stay away for long so I asked her to call me when she was ready. She finally called me about two weeks before our first tournament.”
Marissa decided that she wanted to try getting back into softball, taking baby steps due to her time off from the game after contracting COVID and helping jump start her family’s businesses.
“She contacted me asking for a tryout for our Firecrackers AC 16U Gold team,” Aimee remembers. “ We had concerns because she had been out for so long and we knew that she recently recovered from COVID. At the first practice, Marissa warmed up with the team and shortly thereafter, she had to sit out because she was experiencing light headiness and dizziness. Fortunately, one of our parents is a paramedic and was able to attend to her onsite.”
By the second practice, though, Marissa was back on track, popping catchers’ mitts in the low 60’s and was impressive enough to make the team.
“At that time,” her coach states, “we started seeing glimpses and by the third tournament of the fall, Ronald McDonald, she finally pitched a full game and held the STX Bombers to only one run and led us to a 9-1 win. That’s when I knew she was almost back to 100 percent.”
Today, Marissa is throwing 65 mph after only a few short months after returning to the circle, but that doesn’t mean her work on the home front is over. She continues to wake up at 5 am every day to assist her family with her ranch duties and helps her mom at her new salon in addition to attending workouts and going to school.
“Marissa has been a work horse for our team,” her coach adds. “Over the last 37 innings, she has racked up 38 strikeouts and allowed just eight runs and only five walks.”
The pitcher has “locked it down” according to Aimee and led the team to a second-place finish at the 5 Tool College Classic. In one of the Firecrackers’ last tournaments of the season—the Stars Over Dallas Showcase—Marissa was on top of her game against the club’s strong sister team, Firecrackers 16U-Ulmer.
“We ultimately lost the game 1-0 due to a fielding error late in the game,” Aimee says, “but it wasn’t on Marissa. She is a ‘hard hat’ player. People say you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their hands; one look at Marissa’s hands and you know that this kid works hard. When it comes to character, Marissa is a player that I would have loved to play with during my college years. She is so special in so many ways.”
The Texan’s resurgence on the field comes with her balancing everything else… and doing it well. Marissa has maintained her strong GPA and is member of the National Honor Society. Athletically and academically strong, she has had interest from several SEC, Conference USA and Big 12 schools but has not made a decision yet.
She values family above everything else so when asked why she hasn’t made a decision yet, she simply says, “I’m looking for the right family.”
After having willingly and selflessly putting softball temporarily behind this year, anything else Marissa accomplishes moving forward will be a bonus… one she will appreciate more than almost anyone else can.
*****
Scroll down to hear from Marissa and how she was willing to leave softball behind to help her family… and what led to her coming back.