RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
With the details of the final go-round of the 2023 Extra Elite 100 announced earlier today (click HERE for the details), it gives us a reason—especially for our new readers—to repeat one of our very favorite stories in the five years we’ve published Extra Inning Softball.
More than 3 1/2 years ago–on March 19, 2019–we first published the article whose title summarizes it well: The Winding Path to a Complete Family: the Addie Mettler Adoption Story which we’re re-running below.
It tells the beautiful and inspiring story of Addie, 2023 grad, and how she ended up with Greg and April Mettler through the adoption process. The feature received such favorable feedback and response from the softball community, we tabbed it at the end of 2019 as one of the Top 15 Stories of the Year.
Since then, Addie has continued to flourish both on the fields and in the classroom where she has maintained a 4.20 GPA heading into her senior year and last November committed to UCLA… below is also a recap of her thoughts from that time on her verballing to the Bruins.
For Pitman High in Turlock, Calif. as a junior this past spring, Addie was her typical dominating self as she earned CalHiSports.com All-State, 1st CCAL All-Conference and 1st Team All-District honors after batting .492 with 19 RBIs in 21 games. She also had four homers, nine doubles and was walked 17 times—10 of them intentionally (yes, opposing teams know who she is!).
The senior made the Extra Inning Softball 2022 All-Summer Team too after she batted .382 with seven home runs and 34 RBIs. Addie especially caught fire the last two weeks of the season as she hit .407 with six home runs, five doubles and had 26 RBIs in 59 at-bats during the TCS and Alliance Nationals, where she made the All-Tourney team.
Here, then, is how this NorCal talent, a Top 5-ranked player in the 2023 Extra Elite 100 (May 2021), became a Bruin after first becoming a Mettler!
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Originally published December 2, 2021 on Extra Inning Softball
Name: ADDISON METTLER
Positions: Catcher/ Utility
Club team: Firecrackers Rico
Committed to: UCLA
Date committed: November 13, 2021
What have been your top softball experiences?
My top softball experience would have to be going down to Oklahoma to play in the Alliance Nationals. It was in a huge stage in front of a huge number of coaches so I had a lot of pressure but, to me, pressure is a privilege and I used that to my advantage to show coaches what I can do on this team.
How did you first get acquainted with UCLA?
I had been going to camps since I was 9, so the coaches truly got to see me develop as a young athlete.
How did you officially commit to the Bruin staff?
I was on my official visit when Coach I (Kelly Inouye-Perez), Coach Kirk (Walker) and Coach Lisa (Fernandez) sat me down in the office and we began to talk about my developing as a player. We began to talk about my offer, and she didn’t think I would make a decision on the spot, but I knew this is where I wanted to go so when Coach I asked me if I wanted to be a Bruin, I said “Yes!”
When did you know for sure that UCLA was the place for you?
It was the best feeling because minutes after that, the team was waiting in the clubhouse for me so, when I walked out, they were also cheering and hugging me. That’s when I knew that the team was more than just a team—they are a Bruin family—and I couldn’t be more grateful to be a part of that.
What did the UCLA coaches say they liked about you enough to bring you into the “family?”
The coaches at UCLA told me that they knew I could be a huge leader in the field because I like to talk and hype up my teammates and because I will have someone’s back after every play. As a player, making sure that my teammates are in the right headspace is really important to me because that is something that can impact the whole team.
Any idea what you’ll study once you reach Westwood?
In college I will be majoring in Communications; I believe I have a huge calling to be in journalism and sports broadcasting so I know this major will help me get where I need to be. And to hopefully use my voice to better this world in any way possible.
Where would you like to be after your softball career is completed?
In 10 years, I can see myself mentoring young girls about my life and the journey of being a student-athlete… and hopefully more. I love speaking to younger girls about the same things—it is something that I was so glad I had at that age as well. I want to be an outlet to young women who also love the sport to let them know all the things they’re feeling—or are going to feel—are valid and that, if the sport is something you truly want , there are certain things that you can do to get better.
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The Winding Path to a Complete Family: the Addie Mettler Adoption Story
Originally published March 19, 2019 on Extra Inning Softball
Greg and April Mettler both played sports in college—football for him at Sonoma State and softball for her at Santa Rosa Junior College—both in Northern California.
Eventually the married couple would get into coaching youth fastpitch softball as their oldest daughter, Alexis (now 21 years old), would grow up to be a four-time All-Conference honoree and All-State selection as a senior before she’d go on to play for the University of Virginia.
But that wouldn’t be the end of their softball journey nor their family increasing in size—far from it, for the mom, dad and athletic daughter who live in Turlock, California.
The Mettlers felt they needed one more addition to make their family complete, but it wouldn’t be easy, for it would entail a white family of three opening their arms to adopting a young black girl in foster care.
Here’s the heart-warming story of how a beautiful two-year-old came into their lives and today is starring on the softball fields for her parents’ Firecrackers team as one of the top players in the 2023 class and an Extra Elite 100 candidate.
This is the adoption story of Addie Mettler as told by her father, Greg…
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In 1997, April and I became first-time parents when Alexis Mettler was born. After a few years we felt it was time to add the final member to our family as we had both always wanted to have two kids.
What we took for granted with having the first child became the beginning of an emotional, sometimes heart-breaking, but ultimately amazing journey that would bring Addie Mettler into our lives.
For approximately eight years after our first was born, April and I tried for a second. We visited doctors, tried Invitro but nothing worked.
As we continued down the path for our second child, through the tears and the heartbreak, we never once wavered knowing our family was meant to be four in number. What gave us strength was the amazing support of family along with the love and support from our oldest, Alexis.
We finally realized that our second child was already born… God had just not connected us yet.
Once we decided to head down the adoption path, it started a journey for us that is indescribable.
You began a process that makes you ask yourself questions you never thought to ask. You are asked about the obvious issues such as gender and age.
Then comes the tough questions: what medical issues you are ok with? Would you take on siblings or not? and the biggest, are you open to adopting a child of a different race?
Though we were open to all races, you begin to ask yourself if you are ready to face things that, as a child, you never had to deal with due to race.
But in the end, all those questions that seemed so significant in a sterile office setting disappeared. All the concerns about what you are ready for or not disappears.
Why would they disappear?
The answer was clear: the day came when we were introduced to this beautiful young girl, only a few months shy of turning two-years-old. A young lady who, the moment she waddled into the room, stole our hearts.
This was the day we met Addie.
One cannot describe the feeling of seeing a child walk into a room and knowing immediately God destined her to be part of our family. For us, it could only be described as your heart being a puzzle and the final piece was just put in place.
Addie did not have the easiest life up to that point. She was removed from her biological family’s care due to neglect and for her safety. When most kids would be growing up surrounded by love and security, Addie was placed in to the foster care system, a system that is staffed by some incredible social workers with a near-impossible job.
We knew we wanted her in our lives and began the adoption process. A few weeks later, April received a call while I was away on business. It was happening the very next day and I’m not sure how they did it but in one night April and Lexi converted our spare room into a princess room. Addie, we found out, LOVED the Little Mermaid.
The day she joined our family Addie came with just one outfit and one toy, but also one of the most amazing spirits to grace this crazy world.
Our family was complete.
This was the just the beginning of our amazing journey. We were already a family of athletes, with my wife and I both playing collegiate sports and Addie’s older sister on the path to do the same.
At the time of the adoption, athletics were the farthest thing from our mind with Addie. She loved to sing and dance, especially to Disney movies.
At her our first visit to the family doctor, they noted her knees had a slight flex inward and that may make running difficult as she grew. She was slightly asthmatic and small for her age. The only thing that we cared about was she was in overall good health and now part of our family.
We continued to be an active outdoor family going to Hawaii (even though Addie was initially scared to death of water), snow skiing, hiking at Yosemite, camping and, yes, out on the softball field where April and I coached a travel team.
Through all these activities one of the guiding forces and support for Addie was her older sister. She was a role model as a successful student-athlete as Addie pushed through fears in life.
And then Addie’s own softball journey began.
From the age of 2 on when we had practice, you would see Addie out on the field watching and copying what she saw.
As time when on and Addie started to grow, her legs became straighter and stronger. Though still small, her athleticism began to develop. April and I decided that we wanted to her to experience other sports because all she knew was softball at that point.
We put her on a local swim team when she was 8 and she excelled. We had her play basketball and she excelled. She even joined an all-girl flag football team in a league filled with only male teams and she excelled.
Still, although she shined in all these other sports, we could not keep her away from the softball field.
When Addie turned seven-years-old we decided to sign her up for the local coach pitch team in Turlock.
After her first game of coach pitch at a local park, she came over to April and me and asked, “When do we travel?”
We looked at her and just chuckled, for it was one of those moments as a parent from which there was no turning back.
That next year, a family friend asked Addie to join their travel team, RR Gold 10U. This start began a bit of a journey through teams for no other reason than, because she started so young—her teams kept aging up and she still had three years, then two years, then one year of 10’s left.
Away from sports, the journey has been amazing but not without its challenges.
One of the cutest moments was when Addie was 5. We were hanging out in the house while she was outside playing with neighborhood kids. Addie came running in out of breath and asked, “Mom, Dad, am I adopted?”
We looked at her and simultaneously said, “Yes.”
She said “OK” and ran off to play more.
And there came the challenges, like the first time racial comments reared their ugly head. Addie was shocked at the speed at which I shot out of the house and down to the school.
There have been nights with tears as Addie asks us questions as she tries to understand how a mother or father can give a child away or hurt them to the point they have to be taken away.
A question that there is no good answer to.
Through this journey, the key to making it work has been communication.
We will face more bumps in the road as we continue down this path. But the one thing we, as a family, know in our hearts is that we can overcome anything with our love and commitment to each other.
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Addie’s Adoption Insights
Do you sometimes wonder about the circumstances of your birth?
Although I was too young to remember anything that had happened before my adoption, it still leaves me with questions that to this day still can’t be answered.
What exactly did I do to you (birth mother) to make you leave? Will you ever come back? How come you gave me up?
So many more things that I have been curious to find out come to mind.
What has it been like for you, being adopted?
Since I have been with my parents from the age of 2, I’ve never thought less of them or said, “You aren’t my parents.”
They have taught me and raised me to be strong, kind and considerate so there is no doubt that they have a huge part in who I have become.
People sometimes ask me, “Do they ever treat you differently because you aren’t their real kid?” My face always goes in shock because they treat me even better than my biological parents ever could.
Yes, they push me because they want me to succeed, but what good parent doesn’t want what is best for a kid? If I wasn’t adopted by my parents, I probably wouldn’t even be playing softball. What happened to me sucks and I think about it all the time, but so much good has come out of these events and I couldn’t be happier.
Has the difference in racial backgrounds been an issue?
More now than ever, especially since I am going into high school next year, racial comments have come up.
At school some kids will tell me, “Your parents don’t really love you, they only kept you because you are good at sports… why else would they keep a black kid?”
Obviously, I know that these remarks aren’t true in any way, but these kids have me thinking about things that kids shouldn’t have to think about.
But in the end I am glad these things were said, because it has taught me to be confident and not to care about what other people think.