To say Elissa Brown, a junior infielder from Elmore County High in Eclectic, Ala., is one of the best athletes in softball would be an understatement.

The Alabama commit was an All-State selection as a sophomore when she hit .570 with an amazing 62 steals and, this season, Elissa had another strong year with a .500 batting average and 41 more steals.

As her steal numbers indicate, she is FAST as shown by her winning the 100 and 200 meter dashes this spring which qualified her to go to the State Meet even though she had been playing softball all season.

But that put her in a tough predicament—the Alabama State Track Meet was at the same time as the softball Regional Finals and she could only do one.

The student-athlete with a 3.9 GPA had a tough choice to make (what would you do?). Here, Elissa talks about what she ultimately did and why, which make surprise you!

Also, be sure to check out the Player Profile we did on Elissa in January!

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There are a lot of things that I have been doing to get ready to join my future college team (Alabama Crimson Tide)!

Running track is one of them.

Unfortunately, outdoor track and softball are both spring sports and I don’t get to participate or train often but I run when my schedule allows. It’s that way in the fall too because I also play basketball. I run in-door events when I can too.

But recently I got to participate in outdoor Regionals and competed in the 100 meters and 200 meter dashes. I won 1^st place in both events and that qualified me to go to State.

The State Meet was the following weekend—the same days the softball Area Tournament started so, this put me in a difficult position to choose what I was going to do.

It was my first time qualifying in a track event to compete at the state meet, so I was so excited about that. My track coach asked me what I was going to do? He told me to talk to my parents about it.

He was excited and, although I could get better and improve on my form, he told me that it was amazing considering I haven’t been training and competing like a lot of the other girls.

I told my softball coach about it and she asked me what was I going to do. She let me know that whatever decision I made, she would support it.

“These moments don’t come around often,” is what she said. Believe me, I thought about it long and hard because I wanted to compete against girls that were fast like me and see how it goes. Like I said, as bad as I wanted to go, it was an individual achievement and opportunity but I had been on the field all season playing softball with my teammates.

So, after talking with my parents and thinking about the team and what message it would send to them, I decided not to go to the state track meet and stay and play with my team.

We had talked about winning the area and going to Troy (Ala.) for Regionals and I didn’t want to let them down.

I had already become Regional Champ for track in the 100 and 200 meters so now it was time to try to help my softball team win our area or at least finish 2^nd to have a chance to play in Softball Regionals.

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen the way I had planned… we lost. Our plans and goals had fallen short for this season. After last year’s success of being Area and Regional Champs, it was a bitter taste.

I felt bad for our seniors who didn’t get a chance to repeat, but I know we gave it all we had.

My coaches always tell us to leave it on the field and I felt good knowing that we did. Not knowing what would happen at state, even though we lost, I don’t have any regrets. I was glad to be there with my team!