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Recruiting Spotlight: 2022 Catcher Isabella Manory… “Little Did I Know That One Phone Call Would Change My Life!”

Isabella Manory’s impressive skills behind the plate were noticed late in the recruiting process by Marist Head Coach Joe Ausanio. Photo: MHa Studios.

Recruiting has become a new frontier during the COVID-19 pandemic and players and coaches in the softball world have been learning new ways to go about the process.

C/1B Isabella Manory, #213 in the Extra Elite Class of 2022, and her twin sister Adriana Manory, a OF/UT, joined So Cal Athletics 18U-Marinakis/Jaquish a year ago and the move paid off.

Bella committed to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York earlier this week and Adriana committed to Central Connecticut State University.

“My recruiting process was a long process which all started about a year ago when I had left a team that I was a part of to go play for So Cal Athletics Marinakis,” said Bella, a junior at Royal High, California. “My parents knew about Coach Kostas (Marinakis) and his reputation and his focus on getting all of his players to college.”

Isabella continued: “Coach Kostas and Coach (Bill) Jaquish (the father of LSU legend Savannah Jaquish), are those coaches that have the capability of calling or texting hundreds of college coaches across the country. When my sister and I joined So Cal Athletics Marinakis/Jaquish, we did with the sole reason of getting to college. We would have a minimum of two organizational Zoom calls per week during the time of COVID to discuss recruiting. I don’t know about other coaches, but Coach Kostas and Coach Bill were able to commit 29 players during this time.”

The junior says one of her video’s popped up on Coach Joe Ausanio’s Twitter feed and that’s how he learned about her!

Bella credits Twitter and Social Media for helping with her recruiting.

“For my sister and I, it was perfect timing with the right coaches and the amount of use we got out of Twitter that made us success in our recruiting during COVID,” Bella said. “I would say that Twitter was a game changer and one of the reasons I received seven calls from different schools once September 1st hit.”

Bella said she tried every sport while growing up, but she fell in love with softball as an 8-year-old.

“It was during Christmas time and I took a roll of wrapping paper, my mom pitched me a roll of balled up socks, I hit it and the rest is history,” Bella said.

So how did Bella end up at Marist College?

“I believe everything happens for a reason and Marist is definitely an example of that,” Bella said. “I had my mind basically set on two totally different schools when all of the sudden one Wednesday night I get a message from Coach Joe (Ausanio) from Marist asking for a phone call.”

“Little did I know that one phone call would change my life!”

“It was constant posting videos of practice, games, trainings and everything else in between that led me to Marist. Almost by fate, one of my videos popped up on Coach Joe’s Twitter feed. He found me so last minute and when he was looking for a catcher and I was looking for a school to call home. Coach Joe and I instantly clicked. I had never grown to enjoy someone so much having only met him through Twitter, text, phone calls, and FaceTime. Marist was my final decision because it had the major I was looking for, the setting of the school was a dream and the coach is so amazing and hilarious.”

*** Scroll down for our special Q&A with Isabella as we learn what special advice really helped her in the recruiting process…

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