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Throwback Thursday: Keilani Ricketts Softball Blog On Committing to Oklahoma 11 Years Ago!

Keilani Ricketts (left) holds the NCAA DI trophy after the Sooners won the WCWS in 2013.

I had a nice conversation today with Mike Stith, who runs the OC Batbusters organization and also was the head coach of the USSSA Pride which won the NPF title this summer. One of the highlights, Mike said, was getting to know great athlete and great people like Keilani Ricketts, who the coach mentioned was as nice of a person as you could ever meet.

The pitcher (center) in 2009 after leading her high school team to a 32-0 record and section title.

I remember more than a decade ago when I started getting the athletes to blog and recount where they were in their athletic journey. Along the way I’ve been fortunate to have standouts like Amanda Lorenz, Jenna Lilley, Gwen Svekis and many more write for whatever platform I was on at the time, but one of the very first was Keilani who back at that point was a standout lefty pitcher at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, California who played for the San Jose Sting.

Keilani with Sorcerer Gold during her club days.

She’d go on to play for the Sorcerer organization and then to Oklahoma where she would ultimately help the Sooners win the 2013 Women’s College World Series and have a record-setting career where she’d win over 100 games, compile more than 1,000 K’s and even smack 50-plus home runs.

Keilani would eventually have success with Team USA, winning the 2011 World Cup of Softball, and playing in at the pro level including winning a title this summer

But back in the day, the lefty standout was known as much as being the younger sister of Sam Ricketts as she was for her own talents, which soon would make her the star of the softball world!

*****

Here’s her first-person write-up for StudentSportsSoftball.com from Dec. 18, 2007 titled:

Keilani’s Blog from the San Jose Circle!

Note: Keilani Ricketts, younger sister of Oklahoma star Samantha Ricketts, is already considered one of the top prospects in the Class of 2009 at any position. She has been with the San Jose Sting organization for the past seven years and recently jumped to the Gold team after helping the 16-U team finish 17th at the Nationals in Sioux Falls, S.D. this summer.

Keilani Ricketts in her high school days at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, California.

Both Keilani and older sister, Stephanie, also pitch for Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., which went 27-1 last spring to win its section and finish No. 3 in the final StudentSportsSoftball.com FAB 50 rankings. Interesting, the only game Mitty lost was the first game, when the Ricketts sisters were still involved with the basketball team, which won the state championship!

Keilani, a CalHiSports.com 1st team all-state underclass pick, went 8-0 with a 0.70 ERA for Mitty and for the Sting 16-U team at Nationals went 5-1 with 76 Ks, five hits allowed and an ERA of 0.16 (only one earned run).

I haven’t been able to write in a while because I have had a very busy fall. With both basketball season starting up and fall ball ending in the beginning of November I was fortunate to have my coaches for both teams let me miss some days to take some visits to schools that I was being recruited by.

The schools I visited were Texas A&M, Ohio State University, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, University of Washington and University of Oklahoma. I had great visits at each of these schools. I met the most awesome coaches and players from the different teams and saw some really great schools. But I am happy to say that I have committed to be an Oklahoma Sooner!!!

My first trip to Oklahoma was this past summer when my sister Stephanie was in OKC for Nationals so we were there anyways. I was able to tour the campus and meet the academic advisor, and I also was able to meet the head football coach, Bob Stoops. After a tour of the campus, Coach (Patty) Gasso made me the offer during our meeting with my parents and my sister Sam in the team clubhouse.

My second trip to Oklahoma was unexpected but the coaches at OU invited me on another trip to get the real “feel” of the school. My basketball team was having a scrimmage on that Saturday and I was nervous to ask my coach if I could miss it to go to Oklahoma, but she was more then happy to let me to go.

I flew back with my sister the day after Thanksgiving Day. During my first visit the campus was not very alive since it was in the summer. This time, I was able to see what Sooner Nation was really all about not just on game day, but on a state rivalry game day when OU played Oklahoma State. OU came out with a victory that sent them to the Big 12 championship game, which they also won!

The reason I chose Oklahoma was because I know it has everything I want in a school. When I was in my meeting with Coach Gasso on my second visit she asked me what things I would not like about going to Oklahoma and I honestly could not think of an answer. I told her there wasn’t anything that I disliked about Oklahoma not because I didn’t want to tell her, but because I really could not think of anything at all!

It would have been nice to stay closer to home for my family and friends to come watch me play, but I knew they would support me near or far, wherever I chose to go. I love the academic support OU athletes get as well as the family atmosphere that I felt while I was there. Having my older sister there did play a role as well in why I chose Oklahoma but whenever I had conversations with Sam she never would push me into choosing Oklahoma. I asked her just about every time I talked to her why she wouldn’t and she told me the same thing every time. She said because she knew it would not be fair and she wanted me to choose the school that was right for me and not just pick her school because it was right for her.

When narrowing down my choices it was a very stressful time for me because I felt that I wanted to go to about four different schools. I did not want to have any regrets and I kept thinking if I went anywhere else, I would regret not picking Oklahoma just because I love it way too much!

Kealani has had great success with Team USA and this summer (2018) pitched the team to a 7-0 win over Chinese Taipei. Photo by USA Softball.

I know there have been lots of debates about early commitments and while I understand the arguments against it, I feel making a decision early was what I needed to do for myself. It was the best thing for me since I wouldn’t have been able to visit later in the year when high school ball and summer ball start up again. With so many people committing early, especially pitchers, I felt that by the time senior year rolled around when I could have taken official visits that my top schools would have already been done with recruiting pitchers in my class.

So now this week is finals week and after that- maybe a little time to relax and enjoy the family during the holidays. My sister Sam is home for a few weeks and my brother Richard will be home for only a few days. He has to go back and prepare for his last football game which is on New Years Eve. He plays for the Air Force Academy and they are playing in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (That’s a mouthful!) against Cal.

During this holiday time, I have a lot to be thankful for, my family and friends and all my travel ball coaches I’ve had along the way who helped me to achieve a dream.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday….

Keilani

 

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