Recruiting Spotlight: 2022 Shortstop Maddie Pomykalski Lights It Up in Front of Her Future Longhorn Coaches!

It’s gotta be nerve-wracking when you’re a softball player on the fields and you know college coaches are there to watch you play… especially if you’re already committed to that school and want to impress your future coaching staff.

That was the case for Maddie Pomykalski, a 2022 shortstop for the Chicago Cheetahs who had recently committed to the Texas Longhorns before taking the field in a Colorado Power Pool earlier this summer.

One fateful weekend—June 30^th to be exact—Texas head coach Mike White and assistant coach Steve Singleton came to see Maddie play… and they had never seen her in person.

“The funny thing is,” Maddie recalls, “I was in a bit of a slump as I was putting pressure on myself thinking I needed to be someone different now that I was a Longhorn.  (Texas Assistant) Coach (Megan) Bartlett just told me ‘Be yourself, you’re a stud!’ and I guess that’s what I needed to hear.”

As Coach White walked up to her field with a game in play, Maddie hit a two-homer in the first inning.  It got even better from there.

“The next inning as he sits down to meet my mom, older brother Jake and my twin Nick,” the athlete continues, “I hit a three-run homer.  There was just something about me seeing his Burnt Orange shirt behind the screen and knowing he was making time to come see me… that was all I needed.”

By the time the day was finished, the talented infielder had smacked four home runs, a double and triple with eight RBIs in just two games. If the Longhorn coaches weren’t sold before, they were after her impressive outing.

Here is Maddie in action this summer at Triple Crown…

 One element that’s key to that story is family. Maddie explains that she’s “really lucky with my family and we are really a close group.”

And they’re a strong sports-loving group as well.

Scott Pomykalski, the father of the three kids and husband to Michelle, played three sports growing up and was good enough in baseball to be drafted by the Boston Red Sox.

“I have an unusual skill of not having a dominate hand,” he explains, “so I pitched with both arms and had a glove made by Rawlings with the webbing in the middle and two thumbs so I could switch to the other hand at any time (rules permitting).”

He had quite the successful prep baseball career as well at Oak Forest (Illinois) High.

“We were ranked #1 in the country when I was a junior in high school,” he continues. “We won 56 straight games between my junior and senior year so lots of eyes were on us.”

Maddie’s oldest brother, Jake, is 22 and is finishing up his last semester at Illinois-Chicago where he went for baseball, business and marketing.

“The boy is a horse,” laughs his father. “He was throwing 90 mph-plus and ran a 6.5 second 60 before he could even drive.  Jake could have played any sport in college but chose to stay close and do baseball.  When he was invited to Vanderbilt in the summer before high school and met with Coach (Tim) Corbin I think that’s where he made up his mind to play baseball. I coached him in basketball, football and baseball and Jake has really talked the role of mentoring Maddie with his experiences. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Maddie has a twin brother, Nick, who played football and baseball until high school where he, as his father describes it, “developed a unique skill for computers and built his own PC . He is now going to go to college for Esports on a scholarship… I know, go figure!”

The mother of the three kids, Michelle, swam in high school and “isn’t a huge sports fan,” per her husband, but she “keeps the family on track with everything else… especially shopping!” he jokes.

And then there’s Maddie, who played basketball, baseball, volleyball and even cheered when growing up. Her dad coached her and brother Nick’s travel baseball team when they were younger and when she reached age 10, her father told her they needed to look into softball.

“She wasn’t happy,” Scott remembers,” but Maddie ended up winning five state titles before she entered high school.”

Maddie’s dad eventually became a club coach and has helped her in her development to where she is today.

“He’s my partner in crime,” the softball player says with affection. “I’m the first girl on his side in 58 years so he was pretty happy to see me!”

As Maddie continued to grow and develop in softball, she caught the eyes of college coaches.

Last Fall, she pulled the trigger on committing to North Florida for a reason the Chicago-area native made clear: the warm Sunshine State weather.

She wrote us in February to talk about her commit.

“September 1^st, 2020 was a really exciting day that started at 12:01 am. I was fortunate to be on quite a few radars before COVID hit,” she began.

“I had multiple offers from all different conferences and areas of the country, even a few surprise schools showed up. I really enjoyed talking to so many different coaches and getting a chance to know them.”

“I think I surprised many people and schools when I didn’t take any of the Power 5 offers; I just really want to play softball in the South and have a chance to wake up to palm trees every day!”

“Living in Chicago my whole life I wanted a chance to play year-round outside.”

One coach who had recruited Maddie was then Ball State head coach Megan Bartlett who moved to coach at Texas in June of 2020.

She remembered the young athlete and when she moved to Austin re-established contact. On March 20, 2021, Maddie and her father took an unofficial visit to the school and loved it.

On May 8, a Zoom call was set up for the Longhorn coaching staff and Maddie to talk. Little did she know it would be a conversation that would change her life.

“Coach Sing (Singleton) contacted me about a call with him Coach White and Bartlett and he said he really needed my parents on the call. It sounded like they didn’t want me to get out in front of other coaches with the summer season right around the corner.”

“They offered me right there on the spot and I couldn’t throw up the Horns quick enough! Coach Bartlett about came through the screen she was so excited. It really made me feel wanted… and I couldn’t believe how funny Coach White was!”

Maddie continued to impress and in that same month showed how she could go on a hot streak for her Lincoln Way East (Frankford, Illinois) High team as the shortstop went 7-for-10 with two homers, three doubles and eight RBIs and made several outstanding plays in the 6-hole.

And she didn’t just light up Colorado with her future UT coaches present—Maddie hit .440 over the spring summer with 13 home runs, 22 doubles, seven triples and 52 RBIs in 59 games when combining high school and club action.

This next year will be one of change, though; after 18 years of coaching, Scott is retiring and Maddie will make a change to a new team as she has ties to the West Bay Warriors, which just won the Alliance National Championship at 16U.

“My team (Cheetahs) was all 2021s,” the athlete explains, “so after our season they all are going on to college.  I made the West Bay Warriors and will start this fall with them. The coach is Ray McDonald and my oldest brother Jake played at UIC with Ray’s son Micky who now plays for the A’s.”

As for the change of universities, Maddie is happy that she’ll get to go to a more temperate climate still, but there’s one other major benefit waiting for her in Austin.

“I am so excited and humbled by this opportunity,” she concludes, “and one of the strangest things is I’m going to study fashion in college and UT has one of the best programs in the country!”

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball