Last Saturday, we honored one of the top softball players in the world over the last few years in a piece called Paying Tribute to Taylor Hoagland, who announced about a month ago she was retiring from playing for the US National Team.

For TBT (“Throwback Thursday” for the uninitiated!), we’re going back to October 14, 2007 when we did what was a forerunner to our current “Player Profile” feature.

And the very first one we ran was on Taylor!

We presented it as “a new feature… a short-and-to-the-point Player Profile which covers the bases on some of the top players in the club and high school game. We kick off our Player Profiles with one recent verbal, Taylor Hoagland, an infielder from Texas who’ll stay instate to play at a Big 12 school…”

Note that she was just a sophomore then too! Quite a good choice for a prospect to spotlight!

*****

The Basics:
NAME: Taylor Hoagland
Position(s): 3rd
Club team: Schutt Avengers 18 Gold
High school team: Flower Mound High School
School city & state: Flower Mound, Texas
Year of Graduation: 2009

By the Numbers
Key club stats in 2007: 44 RBI, HR 9, .516 batting average
Key high school stats in 2007: 39 RBI, 11 HR, .479 batting average
Stat I’m most proud of, ever!: batting .567

On the Field:
Best softball experience: a scholarship offer from UT
Worst softball experience: When a runner slid into my thigh resulting in 37 stitches
My strengths on the field: leadership
Areas to improve: moving to the right
Top athletic attribute(s)… power, speed, etc.: Throw time 3rd to 1st: 63 MPH, down the line time: 2.80

Recruiting:
College committed to: University of Texas – Austin
When and how offered: October 5, 2007 in person with Coach Clark, Looper and Hill
When committed to college: October 5, 2007
How I told them: Personal meeting with all three of the coaches and my parents YELLING: “Hook’em Horns!”
Factors in decision: Academic studies, fit in with team, scholarship dollars
Why I’m most excited to be playing for them: The Longhorns play hard like no other, me too!

Academics:
Current GPA: 3.25
SAT/ACT: Not taken yet
Class I like the most: English
Class I like the least: Algebra
Future major (if I had to pick one): Science/Psychology

Away from the game
Other than parents, person I look up to most: Coach Doug Workman and Mr Marichl
The word that best describes me: “committed”
What makes me laugh… my short friend Heather Foust
What makes me cry… when I am grounded
If my house was on fire, the one material thing I’d grab (excluding family or pets!)… cell phone
The world issue that I follow the most is (and why)… the war, my uncle is fighting there.
If I wasn’t playing softball I’d be… working out
On a rainy day, I like to… sleep
If I had to sum up my feelings about softball, it’d be… most people eat to live, I live to play softball!