Signing Spotlight: Makenna Mitchell… The Texas Tech-Bound Infielder Has a Wonderful Signing Day (Even Though It Wasn’t ALL Smiles!)

This is what it’s all about.

A young softball player from small town Texas plays the game she loves, succeeds through hard work and effort, gets noticed and lives the dream of taking her talents to the collegiate level.

In this case, it’s Makenna Mitchell, a senior infielder from Santa Fe (Texas) High and member of KC Jackson’s strong Impact Gold 18U team, who signed with the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday as part of the program’s Top 40 ranked 2023 signing class that includes three infielders, an outfielder and a utility player.

All five of them are also from within the Texas state borderlines.

Here’s a brief clip of the athlete making it official:

Makenna, or “Kenna” as she goes by, had a well-received press conference at Santa Fe High on Wednesday as family and friends joined to celebrate her making her signing official with the Big 12 school.

Well, almost everybody looked like they were having a good time as the family posed for a photo (left to right) that included Makenna’s brother Cross, Kenna, her brother Gaige, mom Julie and dad Ricky.

As any parent with teens know, it’s not unusual to have one (or more) not conform to the desired photo look—for the Mitchell’s, it was 16-year-old Cross (far left) who looked like he’d have rather been anywhere at that time, although when his mother asked him why he didn’t smile in the photo, he quipped: “That is me smiling.”

“We didn’t know what to do with the family picture,” Mom Julie laughs. “We didn’t know if we should cut him out or what!”

Still, a good time was—we are assured of this— had by all as Makenna got to enjoy her big moment with family and friends, including her best friend, Sidne Peters—a teammate on the Santa Fe and  Impact Gold teams who got to win a 10U National Championship together.

It was particularly touching when each of the signees got to say a few words and Kenna expressed her love for her family as she got emotional in her speech.

Kenna, wiping a tear from her eyes, says in part:

“Mom, thank you for being my biggest critic and my biggest fan. I always wanted to be the best player I could be, even when you were yelling at me to swing the bat even when (the coach gave me) the take signal.”

You can watch her poignant speech in the link below:

Finally, check out this nice video produced by the school introducing the new quintet of incoming freshmen for 2023:

Makenna already has quite the resume as noted in the Texas Tech press release announcing the class:

Mitchell will come to Lubbock out of Santa Fe High School, where she led her squad to a District 22 5A Co-District Championship, a Bi-District Championship and an area championship. She was named an all-district first team member and an academic all-district selection.

During the 2022 campaign, Mitchell batted at a .437 clip with an .506 on-base percentage and a .930 slugging percentage. She also added eight home runs and 13 stolen bases.

“Makenna is a phenomenal athlete that brings all five elite tools to the table,” said Texas Tech Head Coach Craig Snider. Her versatility in the infield will add a lot of value to our program. Makenna also has some incredible power and hittability! She will make an impact day one!”

It was a wonderful day all around for thousands in the fastpitch world, particularly the player in the 2023 class, who got to take the next step into continuing their journey in the sport they love.

You could even say it was a day to smile about; well, at least for most…

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball