RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
The 2023 Extra Elite 100 rankings have a familiar pair of names at the top.
Over the last three years, the top two ranked players in the sophomore class have been the same do: infielder Mia Williams and pitcher Keagan Rothrock, who both committed to Florida prior to the discontinuation of the Early Recruiting period in April 2018.
The duo has alternated annually being the top-ranked player in their grad class by Extra Inning Softball—Mia was #1 in 2019, Keagan was on top in 2020 and Mia again last week—and in a sign of great respect and class, Keagan posted the following Monday on Twitter:
Mia learned she was officially #1 again when she came home over the weekend and found current Georgia Impact travel ball teammate Cali Decker, herself a Gator signee and a Top 25 player in her own class, in her home with a special sign.
Cali, a fantastic catcher, has become a great friend and mentor to her younger teammate and drove an hour from her Florida home to surprise Mia with her hastily created sign reading: “Congrats Mia, You are the #1 2023 in the Nation.”
Along with the whoops and hollers of Mia’s parents, Jason and Denika Williams, the super sophomore also was surprised with a sweet tribute video Cali put together which featured club coaches, Patrick Lewis and Lincoln Martin, sharing their thoughts as well as player friends and parents who also praised Mia for receiving the honor.
Here’s the congratulations video which features in order:
Coach Lewis, Coach Martin, Mikaela Huddleston (a friend who plays on Mojo 2021), Lori Decker (Calli’s mom) and several other standout players and peers of Mia in Taylor Malvin, Dallis Goodnight, Kylie Strott and her mom Stacie, Angalee Bueno and Anna Roman.
https://vimeo.com/551793914
You could put together a pretty darn good club team with that talent!
Mia was pleased, of course, but has had to stay focused this week as her Windermere Prep team has advanced into the Florida high school playoffs.
That doesn’t mean she’s not appreciative—the one word that keeps coming up in discussions with those around her is “humble.” She texted Extra Inning Softball’s Brentt Eads on Monday a quick note of gratitude:
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for the very kind things you write about me.”
You can bet in the future that a LOT more will be written about this well-liked athlete who quietly goes about her business of working hard and has transformed herself into not just the top player in her class alone, but one of the best in any pre-college age division right now.
We’ve seen just this year how an amazing talent like Jayda Coleman of Oklahoma can go to a high-level program and made a splash… most feel Mia will have that same type of impact once she steps foot in Gainesville.
Earlier today, one of the top sportswriters in the country reached out to Extra Inning Softball and echoed the comments of many who’ve seen Mia on and off the field when he said:
“I think we’re just now realizing how big-time she may be.”
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Here’s the article we did when Mia was announced the first time as being #1 in the 2023 Extra Elite 100:
10 Things You Didn’t Know About 2023 Extra Elite 100 #1 Mia Williams
Originally published March 25, 2019
Last Friday, Extra Inning Softball announced that Mia Williams, the infielder from Windermere, Florida, was the #1 overall player in the 2023 Extra Elite 100.
The first 7th grader to commit when she verballed to Tim Walton and the Florida Gators when she committed in the fall of 2017, Mia has become well-known in the sport on and off the softball field already—and she’s only 15-years-old.
We spoke today with the student-athlete’s mother, Denika, about Mia on and off the field… and found some fun, funny and interesting aspects of this quiet, but fiercely competitive young softball player’s life we think you’ll enjoy…
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1. The Family’s Best Athlete Is?
When the dad, Jason (“White Chocolate”) played in the NBA, the mom, Denika, was an Olympic track qualifier, eldest child Jaxon (17-years-old) is also a hoop player and 15-year-old Mia is ranked as the top softball player nationally in her grad class, you have a pretty good list to choose from as to who the best athlete is in the family. But the best athlete of the Williams family quintet many feel is the youngest, 10-year-old Nina, who is skilled at tennis and, yes, softball.
“Nina is so good at tennis,” says Denika, mom of the three. “She plays basketball too and trains a lot with Mia so she’s around softball. Nina is definitely the best athlete of all of us.”
Josh Fisher, Mia’s softball coach with the Tennessee Mojo, agrees. “Nina is just starting to pitch and she can fly, she’s so fast and runs like her mom.”
One advantage the youngest has is that college softball coaches already know who she is.
“On the recruiting circuit,” the girls’ mom explains, “when the coaches were looking to find Mia they’d look for the little girl with the white hair playing around the fields (Nina) and when they found her they’d know Mia was on a field close by.”
2. Why She Wasn’t Born on Halloween
Mia woulda/coulda/shoulda been born on Halloween of 2004, if not for a nurse who gave Denika a stern warning.
“She told me: ‘Don’t have your baby born on the Devil’s birthday!’” Mia’s mom laughs. “So I held her in until a couple hours into November 1 and that’s why she wasn’t born on Halloween!”
3. Big, Big Baby…
At birth Mia was 10 pounds, 13 ounces and 22-inches long and, amazingly, that was with her being born two weeks early.
No telling how big she would have been if she had gone to full term.
“She came into the world looking she does now!” jokes the athlete’s mother.
4. Culinary Halloween Costumes
Every Halloween for the 13-years Mia has been trick-or-treating, she’s been a food. Yes… as in something to eat. This year she was a taco and previously she’s been a hot dog, a banana, a bunch of grapes (“even her head was a grape,” laughs Denika), an M&M, a doughnut and a hamburger.
The year she started being recruited, Mia dressed as a sushi roll and when college coaches would ask the young athlete to send a photo, she didn’t know what to forward so many times the sushi pic was their first look at the young athlete. “It was embarrassing,” mom remembers. “I’d ask Mia, ‘Oh my gosh, is that what you sent to Oklahoma or Florida?!?’ Heather Tarr called Mia ‘sushi roll’ for a while.
Denika’s favorite costume was the hot dog. “It was the year of all these Disney princesses and we live near Orlando and Disney World so all of Mia’s class was one princess or another and in the middle you see this hot dog.”
