For “Throwback Thursday,” I take you to eight years ago to the day which is, ironically, when I started the whole Daily Update concept of putting miscellaneous news and notes in one format.

Although I retired that “newspaper” approach of everything in one location, it is interesting to go back to 2006 and read about some promising players back then.

For example you’ll read about:

• Carleigh Berry, who became one of the all-time steals leaders at Iowa State
• Alyssa Allbritten, who went on to be the ACC Rookie of the Year and earn All-Conference honors at North Carolina State
• Briana Hanafin, who first went to Baylor and then to Maryland where she was an NFCA All-Region honoree.
• Adrena Anderson, who started at Tennessee and helped the Vols go 40-18 her freshman year before she transferred to Morehead State and had a nice career with the Eagles.
• Jenna Rich, who would go to Stanford and have All-Pac 10 and NFCA All-Region success.

Not a bad group to profile exactly eight years ago to the day!!!

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Daily Update (9/25/06): Big 12 verbal, Shamrock pickups

We’re starting a new feature called “Daily Update” to include news and notes we compile or come across. In today’s edition, we have news of more verbals, including Carleigh Berry heading to the Big 10, an outstanding athlete choosing soccer over softball, new players for the Shamrocks (Va.) and a few more players on the rise…

Verbals

*** Carleigh Berry, an outfielder from Kansas, has verbally committed to Iowa State.

The 2007 grad batted .330 for the KC Peppers, who she played with this year after being with the KC Extreme (Shawnee, Kan.) prior to that. She hits from both sides of the plate and uses her great speed to slap.

According to her mother, Janet, Carleigh chose the Cyclones “because she felt like they have a great coaching staff, the school was within reasonable driving distance, they had her major, and we could come watch her since most of the big 12 schools are within driving distance from KC. “

The senior had offers from Arkansas and Wichita State and was hearing from several other colleges.

Berry has been all-state the last two years and set a school record with 50 hits this spring.

*** Samantha Miller of the Shamrocks (more on the team below) has committed to Lehigh.

*****One of the top athletes we saw all summer was Jackie DesJardins from Sunnyvale, Calif., who had the third best SPARQ Rating (57.86) at the Las Vegas Recruiting Camp in June.

A pitcher/outfielder for the San Jose Xtreme, the senior is also a standout goalkeeper in soccer and has decided to accept a scholarship to Georgetown to play that sport.

“She is taking it one step at a time,” her father, Mike, told us, “so high school softball is a maybe (though) likely not in college although she considered playing both for awhile. The best situation for her turned out to be soccer at Georgetown.”

*****Tommy Orndorf wrote to say the Shamrocks, the 2005 18-U Gold national champs, have picked up a “couple promising newcomers” in catcher Alyssa Allbritten (Team FLA and N.C. State verbal) and shortstop Briana Hanafin (local youngster, an 2008) plus some Shamrock 16s moving up: middle infielder/outfielder Kelsey Green, second baseman Michelle Clohan and first baseman/outfielder Karla Powell, all three who are 2008s.

Says Coach Orndorff: “For us, tryouts are an on-going event during the fall season, very much like professional baseball’s spring training. I believe that we will field a solid lineup with pitching a question mark.”

*****Players to watch:

*** Word from several coaches tells us that Adrena Anderson from Georgia is one of the fastest-rising players in the nation. We expect to have a feature on her later this week, but in the meantime keep know that this Class of 2008 outfielder who will play for the California Cruisers has great speed and a bat to match.

Incidentally, the Cruisers also added a multi-position talent in Jenna Rich, a 2009 pitcher/infielder who looked good at the recent Cruiser tournament where she knocked in several RBI and another promising outfielder in Sam Dodd who can bunt and slap very well.

*** Courtney Steele, a pitcher/third baseman for the Fire-n-Ice (Va.) and all-metro player for Manassas Park High, holds the Va. High School League record) for RBI in a season with 43 and shares two other records with six hits and eight RBI in a game.

*** Amy Graham of Hominy, Okla. is a fast-riser in the Class of 2009. The infielder/pitcher for the Oklahoma Titanium Gold team was one of only two Oklahoma high schoolers to be invited to attend the USA Olympic tryout on Aug. 19 in Texas. For her high school team (Hominy High) she went 60-90 for a clean .667 average and stole 76 of 80 bases, which is third all-time in Oklahoma h.s. history.

As a pitcher, she had a 0.25 ERA with over 300 Ks.