With early commits happening earlier and earlier, one of the concerns is that what once looked like a good fit fails to materialize for one reason or another as time goes on. Perhaps it’s a coaching change, perhaps it’s a change of mind on the player’s part.

Thus it is with one of the top players in Nevada this year.

After being once committed to a Big 12 school, Sarah Maddox, a talented 2016 first baseman/outfielder with the Las Vegas-based Lil Rebels, found herself back in the recruiting process.

Here’s where she is today, which included a pair of campus visits this weekend…

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Sarah Maddox has been playing softball since she was four years old.

“She has had the good fortune to play for coaches and teams that challenged her every step of the way,” says her mom, Kim.  “One of the best moves she ever made was to play for a California team called the Gamers Academy at 14U.  We traveled from Las Vegas to Southern California every weekend for practice and games.”

One of the coaches on that tea was David Mercado who, in the second half of the summer season in 2011, took over as the head coach.

According to the athlete’s mother, Sarah learned and grew more as a player on this team than any other team she had played on.

“After the Gamers Academy dissolved, Coach Mercado worked with a team that was too young for Sarah to play with so she tried out for the Lil’ Rebels in Las Vegas.  She’s been a Lil’ Rebel ever since that day.”

As a sophomore, Sara had her best year ever in softball despite her high school team, Foothill High, losing eight seniors and featuring many freshmen supplementing an already young team.

Despite the youthful makeup of the team, Foothill went 22-15 and 9-1 in the Southeast League winning the Sunrise Region and the right to compete for the Nevada State Championship where the team finished 3rd in State.

Sarah’s batted .448 with 43 hits, 48 RBI, 31 runs, and 15 stolen bases and showed offer her power with 10 home runs.

The Las Vegas Review Journal awarded her 1st Team All-League and 2nd Team All-State honors and she the sophomore received the Ingraham award for her 4.0 GPA the semester prior to our season.

A website covering Nevada high school sports, Silverstatepreps.com, awarded her “Rising Star of the Year” as well as 1^st Team All-State recognition.

On the club side, Sarah’s 16U Lil’ Rebels team, led by Gordie Mark, placed 13th this last summer at ASA Nationals in Roanoke, Va. In 45 games, the power-hitter batted average .374 with five home runs, 12 doubles and 24 RBI.

Sarah also showed she’s not just a one-dimensional player as she had eight stolen bases and on defense compiled a .992 fielding percentage.

The Nevada star just recently moved up to the Lil’ Rebels 18 Gold team which took 2nd place this summer at ASA Gold Nationals.

On the recruiting side, Sarah verballed to Texas Tech in January of this year after Head Coach Shanon Hays worked with her at a camp. However, the resignation of the coach changed everything.

“Sarah was extremely saddened to learn of Coach Hays’ resignation in May,” says Kim Maddox, “and, unfortunately, new Head Coach Adrian Gregory plans to run with a smaller roster and does not have a spot for Sarah.”

With the change in philosophy and direction, Sarah found herself immersed once again in the recruiting process, but the interest has steadily increased and she’s been contacted by Iowa State, Drake, Marshall, Army and several other schools.

“Sarah dreams of playing in a competitive conference and having the opportunity to play a role in a team that makes it to the Women’s College World Series,” continues her mother. “We are preparing an unofficial visit Drake and Iowa State this weekend.”