Recruiting: Class of 2025 Standouts McCall Sims and Ambrey Taylor (& Their Families) Wait with Anticipation for Tomorrow, September 1st

With September 1^st just hours away, the softball players in the Class of 2025 wait with anticipation to see if the hard work they have been putting in will lead to interest and, ideally, scholarship offers from schools across the country.

McCall Sims, an outfielder for the newly formed Sparks Elite Ross/Stewart team, and Ambrey Taylor, a third baseman for the Birmingham Bolts 18U Premier team, are two athletes in the 2025 class who should be busy on Thursday hearing from college coaches.

Here’s a closer look at the two talented high school seniors…

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McCall Sims

McCall, who is from Martin, Tenn., and attends Westview High School, has played both basketball and softball at a high level for most of her life.

As a basketball player at Westview, she has been part of back-to-back TSSAA Division I State Championships for 2A and has been named All-District and All-Region twice as well as to the TSSAA All-State team once.

In addition to playing outfield for the Westview softball team, McCall also pitches. She was part of the first state championship in school history and set the state record for grand slams in a game when she hit two in the championship game.

In her travel ball career, Sims has been a PGF champion twice and was ranked 12^th by Extra Innings in the 2022 Extra Elite 100. In 2023 alone, she was a PGF All-American Region finalist with her team winning the Atlanta Legacy and Colorado Sparkler and also having a Top 5 finish at PGF.

Ambrey Taylor

Ambrey, who goes to Curry High School in Jasper, Ala., put up great numbers for both her high school team and her travel team this year.

In high school, she was named the 4A Player of the Year after hitting .571 with a .625 on-base average, 88 RBIs, and 101 hits, including 35 doubles, 10 triples, and 16 home runs.

She was also named to the All-State Super Team, which is made up of only nine players across all classes. In travel ball, Ambrey had a .381 batting average with 11 homers, 44 RBIs, and 14 doubles.

In 2021, her team was the Colorado Sparkler Power Pool Champions, and in 2022 and 2023, they placed third in the PGF 16u tournament.

Working Towards Their Dreams

However, the success of these athletes wasn’t just handed to them—they’ve been working day in and day out for the majority of their lives, trying to get better and put themselves in the best position possible to live out their dreams of playing college softball.

“It’s been a long journey,” said Bobby Taylor, Ambrey’s dad and coach for the last six years. “This kid has drug me outside from the time she was six years old to now, and she’s worked. She’s put her time in, and she’s put her best effort forward. And I’m ready to see that hopefully pay off for her.”

McCall’s mom Kellie Sims, who played collegiate basketball at Freed-Hardeman University for one year before transferring to play at the University of Tennessee at Martin, also knew her daughter was a ballplayer in the making from the time McCall was young.

“We always had a ball of some sort in our hand, whether it be softball or basketball or whatever it was,” Kellie said, “and she was just the type of kid that was always ‘come on, just one more time, just one more throw, just one more shot.’ She would just wear us out basically, and it grew from there.”

In her quest to find a competitive team, McCall landed with coaches Jay Ross and Tommy Bain and it was when the team won PGF in 2017 at the 10U level that she realized that she and her teammates had what it took to play at the next level.

“I don’t think anyone expected us to come in there and win that tournament,” McCall said, “and I think we finally realized that we were really good and that we could beat anybody that was in the other dugout.”

Ambrey has enjoyed the process, even through playing for her dad, who admits that he was definitely harder on her than anybody else.

“I’ve had a really good time going to camps and meeting new people and all that kind of stuff,” Ambrey said. “I’ve been basically around the world just to be recruited and everything, so it’s all been worth it.”

Both players gave advice for the younger athletes who will be in their shoes in the not-too-distant future.

“Just make the most of it, and don’t take any of it for granted because you worked most of your life for this moment,” McCall said.

“Don’t settle and don’t put so much pressure on yourself to perform so well because not all college coaches are looking at your performance. They want to see how you react to something that happened negatively or your body language. Be a good teammate. Be supportive, and just work hard to reach your goal.”

Ambrey talked about trusting yourself and your abilities and about how learning those things has helped her become successful.

“I’ve learned a lot about having to trust myself,” Ambrey said.

“You have to put in the work enough to be able to trust yourself, and that’s what’s gotten me to where I am today because I struggled with that for many years. And I finally got to have good seasons after learning to trust myself. Work as hard as you can. I’ve put in so many hours that no one else has seen, and hopefully, it’s going to pay off for me. And be respectful. Coaches love when you have manners and listen.”

Going off his experience with this process, Bobby gave some words of wisdom to the parents of younger players.

“The main thing is just don’t be hard on them because it’s a tough game,” Bobby said, “and they don’t want to fail. But it’s a tough game, and they’re all going to fail, so just try to be in support as much as you can.”

For the 2026’s and beyond, Sept. 1 of their respective years will come sooner than they think, but for now, it’s the time to shine for the 2025’s. All the athletes and their families eagerly await midnight, but they know that the journey doesn’t stop there.

“The things that I’ve enjoyed the most is, of course, watching my daughter play ball,” Kellie said.

“But probably the most important is the friendships and the opportunities that we’ve had as a family that if she didn’t play at this level, we would never have probably ever experienced the majority of them. It’s just something that we’ll never forget, and we’ve formed friendships that will last a lifetime. It’s been a remarkable story to this point, and I just hope there’s more parts of the story to write.”

— Grace White for Extra Inning Softball