Spotlighting 2023 Extra Elite 100’s No. 1 Player Keagan Rothrock… The Gator Signee is a Role-Model On & Off the Fields

The sun will rise in the East, politicians will continue to find a way to bicker and singer Taylor Swift will seemingly be atop the music charts forever.

There are some things you can just depend on.

In the softball world, for over the last half decade, that consistency has been the story with the top-ranked player in the 2023 Extra Inning Softball that were finalized on Wednesday—Keagan Rothrock from Roncalli High in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Consistent. Dominant. Champion. Role model.

Over the last several editions of the 2023 rankings, it’s been a trade-off between Keagan being No. 1 and her future Florida Gator teammate, Mia Williams—two of the five who were part of the No. 1 ranked recruited class signed by Florida Head Coach Tim Walton and his staff on Wednesday.

Click HERE to see the official Florida softball press release on its 2023 signing clas

The two friends and future Gator teammates also have another historical fact that ties the two of them together: they both were among the very few who committed in 2017 as 12-year-olds in the seventh grade and have continued to work hard and earn their scholarships to make that dream come reality.

Did Keagan ever think that the day to officially sign with the Gators? She says she still can’t believe it’s happened.

“Right now, everything is so surreal,” she said Wednesday night after the day had calmed down. “It’s crazy to think that I’ve been committed since the seventh grade, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Florida has been my dream school since I could remember, and it is somewhere that has always felt like a second home to me.”

Keagan has certainly done her part to earn that scholarship: check out this amazing resume of accomplishments she’s had over the last five years as we go from global to local:

International

• • Member of the USA Softball U-18 WNT
  • competed in the 2021 Junior Pan American Games
  • played in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s Softball World Cup
  • helped lead Team USA to two Gold Medal finishes

Travel Ball Team Accomplishments

• • 10U PGF Champs
  • 12U PGF 3rd place
  • 14U PGF Champs
  • 16U USA Softball National Champs (Covid Year)
  • 18U PGF 2nd place (was still 16U eligible)

National High School Honors

• • Gatorade National Player of the Year 2022
  • Extra Innings Softball Player of The Year (2021)
  • Two-time NFCA High School All-American (2022, 2021)
  • MaxPreps Player of the Year 2022
  • two-time MaxPreps 1^st Team All American (2022, 2021)
  • two-time Extra Innings Softball Player of The Week (2022, 2021)
  • two-time NFCA High School All-American (2022, 2021)

State High School Honors

• • Roncalli (Ind.) High two-time Indiana State Champion (2022, 2021)
  • USA Today Indiana High School Female Athlete of the Year 2021
  • USA Today Indiana High School Softball Player of the Year 2021
  • two-time Gatorade Indiana Player of the Year (2022, 2021)
  • two-time 1^st Team All State (2022, 2021)
  • two-time 1^st Team All-Conference (2022, 2021)
  • two-time 1^st Team All County (2022, 2021)

Roncalli High School Softball Records

• • 746 career strikeouts (old record 666, Ariane Kurtz ’99)
  • 32 career shutouts (old record 21, Ariane Kurtz’99)
  • 14 single-season home runs (old record 10, Kendra Lynch 2013)
  • Keagan Rothrock & Abbey Hofmann, 55 single-season RBI (old record 50, Megan Choinacky 2013)
  • 28 single-season wins (old record 24, Keagan Rothrock 2021)
  • 382 single-season strikeouts (old record 364, Keagan Rothrock 2021)
  • 19 single-season shutouts (old record 13, Keagan Rothrock 2021)

Quite the list of accomplishments on the softball field and, as any parent would doubly love, Keagan has a 4.3 GPA taking AP Classes at her impressive Catholic school that stresses academic success as much as athletic achievements.

What does the athlete herself think about when reflects on her accomplished, but still much-to-be-done career?

“One highlight that stands out the most to me is winning two back-to-back state championships,” Keagan states. “Winning two back-to-back state championships isn’t something that everyone can say they’ve done in their career. I think that this is a huge accomplishment and also a testament to all of the hard work that I’ve put in over my high school years specifically.”

“Another highlight that stands out to me is winning the National Softball Gatorade Player of the year. Experiencing everything in Los Angeles with Gatorade felt like a dream and it was awesome. It’s definitely been one of the highlights of my career.”

“Playing for the Junior Olympic softball team was also an awesome experience. Going out of the country and being able to pick the brains of girls who already have a semester of college under their belt was amazing. Being out of the country in general was an experience that I will never forget, along with winning two gold medals of course.”

Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment (at least to this observer and five-year fan who did a quick check in the Extra Inning Softball story archives and found Keagan has been mentioned in 181 articles on our site) is that she was successful very early on, true, and has maintained not just her high-level of on-field accomplishments, but also her integrity to whom she truly is: a student-athlete with balance and a sense of responsibility to others.

I asked Keagan how she’s kept her wits around her with all that she’s encountered over the last five years-plus.

“I think one of the biggest things that have helped to keep me grounded and continue to excel,” she explains, “is to just live in the moment. One of the things I focus most on when it comes to all of the spotlight is celebrating it in the moment and reflecting on it later.”

“For example, with the Gatorade (National Player of the Year) Award, I celebrated the accomplishment the week of the ESPYs and the initial day that I won the award, but, outside of that, it was work as normal. I still reflect on the accomplishment itself, but I do my best to not dwell on it.”

“I think one of the other ways that I deal with being in the spotlight is by leaning on all of my loved ones. I think having a support system (my family and friends) is very important, and I have a great one to lean on. They have helped me through so many good times and also hard times. I truly believe that they have been the reason that I have done so well being under the spotlight, but not being stressed out by it at the same time. I am so grateful that I have a support system to lean on and will forever be thanking them for everything they’ve done for me.”

Count her 18U travel coach as another big fan and supporter of the teenage athlete.

“What is there not to love about #7?” begins James Lamar, the head coach of the athlete’s 18U Lady Duke travel ball team. “I love the way she plays the game and doesn’t complain. Keagan lifts the play of everyone around her to another level.

“I have to shake my head sometime,” continues Lamar, “because she is so humble and so God-fearing while her competitive nature just shocks me. I think: ‘This can’t be the same girl!’” I was just talking about Bible verses with her off the field and you get her on the field and she’s such the competitor. Keagan can go from 0-to-100 mph real quick!”

The senior pitcher led Roncalli in the spring of 2022 to a 33-0 with a 0.70 ERA and had 382 K’s, but sometimes people forget how good she is on offense, as Keagan batted .523 this year with 14 home runs to certainly help her own cause.

And she’s not just a winner, she’s become a local celebrity, certainly in the Roncalli, Indiana area.

The softball team has a strong following and while competing in the State Championships the last two years, the stadiums both times sold out in less than three days with crowds of over 2,000 people. Even some regular season games would bring 1,400-to-1,500 fans and it become a “happening” where people didn’t just sit on their hands, some students  would post “K” signs or wear “K” shirts (Get it? For each strikeout, yes, but also for “Keagan”)

“It is extremely fun!” she explains about the origin of the process. “They actually started doing the ‘K’s’ my sophomore year right before post-season. One of the football boys actually asked my mom if she could make 21 signs to hang on the fence—one for each possible strikeout of the game. I thought it was really cool that they had asked to make them for the games but I think teams did get tired of the boys using them, though, so they weren’t allowed to put them on the fence anymore at games.

“But they did get creative for the postseason; at Semi-State, they hung the strikeout ‘K’s’ on a tent in the outfield, and at State, we made them 21 strikeout t-shirts that they could put on instead. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better student body to be behind both me and my team, so I think it is so fun that they started making the strikeout signs for games.”

Equally impressive, the younger fans of the team and of the player—including future softball stars wanting to be the “next Keagan”—would swarm around her asking for autographs, a quick moment of her time to say a respectful “Hi!” or simply to be in her presence and hope some of her aura, grace, and talent would rub off on them.

Keagan takes seriously her responsibility to be a good role model to the younger generation of fans.

“Signing autographs and taking time with the kids is extremely important to me,” the high school senior begins. “It is important to me that I make time to interact with them because it’s my chance to give back to the community. Being a role model to them is also important to me because I know I had a role model growing up, so if I can be that for them, I’m going to. Having a role model is important because it gives you someone to look up to; therefore, for me, it is important to interact with the kids and make sure that I talk to them.”

But it’s certainly not been a case of just showing up and mingling with fans; the triumphs publicly come because of the work Keagan does privately… to better herself and to help others.

Check out at typical work week in the life of Keagan Rothrock… and remember she’s probably on the road during the weekends playing somewhere:

Mondays 
* First base lessons 4:30
* Hitting 5:00
* Workouts 6:00
* Teaching pitching lessons 7:00-9:00
* Pitches 9:00 – 10:00

Tuesdays
* Workouts 4:00 -5:00
* Teaching lessons 5:00 -7:00
* Pitches 7:00 – 8:00

Wednesdays
* Workout 4:00 – 5:00
* Drives 1.5 hours to Lafeyette, Ind. for pitching lessons 7:00- 8:00
* Gets home 10pm

Thursdays
* Workouts 3:30 – 4:30
* Hitting 5:00 -5:30
* Service hours 6:00-9:00 at food pantry
* Throws on Thursdays (time varies)

Fridays
* Workout(s) TBD

Keagan’s father, Greg Rothrock, reflects on Keagan’s career and has had a front-row seat as she can be found practically every game, no matter where it is, snapping photos of his daughter on and off the field. He’s loved every second of it.

“It has been an amazing experience,” the athlete’s father muses. “Never did I think we would travel the country and then go to South America with the USA Junior Olympic Team. We traveled to Columbia and Peru to play softball and that was sensory overload! I get to go on mini-vacations every weekend… how awesome is that?”

Another special memory is when he reflects on his daughter being offered by Florida’s Coach Walton.

“She didn’t realize at first and then when she did, she started crying,” he recalls.

He was asked if he could do anything different if he and wife Laura, herself a noted pitching coach who played high school ball , could rewind time.

“I think as a family we would do it all over again,” Greg says. “We allowed her to make the decision, even made her call the other coaches from other schools to let them know her decision.  The attention is what drives her to compete even harder.  I noticed early on, she doesn’t let her emotions dictate her actions and that’s something you cannot teach.”

Yes, but would they change anything if they could?

“Not a single thing,” he concludes. “This is Keagan’s journey and we allowed it to be just that.”

Laura was herself a noted pitcher who played at Blackford (Ind.) High, a tiny high school she describes as being “in the corn fields a couple hours north of where we live now in Indy.”

She’s very happy that her daughter has benefited from the Roncalli experience.

“Roncalli is really the best school to prepare them for life,” she explains, “and the culture for academics and athletics is the best around.

Keagan’s parents aren’t the only ones savoring this last year before the accomplished young athlete heads off to college.

“It’s been a pleasure to be a part of a special journey,” concludes Lady Dukes Coach Lamar, who has one more summer with his talented senior goes to Gainesville.

“Keagan will be truly missed after this summer, but I am thankful and honored to have been her coach. she has taught us all how to be better, including me!  Thank you, No. 7… now, go be great and finish strong!”

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball