Jenna Lilley has taken off her high school hat, is now wearing her Beverly Bandits club cap and in a short time will be wearing her Oregon Duck colors!

Jenna was ranked as the No. 1 senior prospect in the nation and was recently named a 1^st Team All-American after finishing a storybook career at North Canton (Ohio) Hoover where she won a softball state championship in each of her four years of high school ball.

The Buckeye State star has done it all team-wise and individually. She was named the Ohio State Player of the Year and All-American as a junior and finished high school with a 3.9 GPA.

In today’s blog, she looks back to the state title win and explains why she’s always out of state for her birthday!

Click here to read Jenna’s earlier blogs and those from our other standout players

Learn more about Jenna and her athletic family in this piece by her mother, Debbie, called A parent’s perspective: softball sacrifices

See our video interview of mother and daughter shot this summer at PGF

 

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Hey all!

It’s been a busy last few weeks to say the least. My high school team won its fourth state championship during the first week of June. It was a great journey and I’m so fortunate to be apart of such a great softball tradition at Hoover High.

Although I’m sad I won’t ever get the opportunity to wear Hoover across my chest again, I’m ready to keep going along in this journey of mine!

Softball season “Part II,” aka summer ball, began the following week at a round robin in Indiana. It was great to be back on the field with some of my favorite teammates and people.

Since I played SS in high school ball, I will say it took me a few games to adjust to being back at third: primarily with taking the different angles and reading the speed of the ball off the bat.

The following week my team played in the So Cal A’s Invitational (one of my favorite tournaments ever!). It was so fun to get the opportunity to play against some of the truly top teams in the country.

The speed of the game was definitely turned up that weekend, which was why it was so much fun. We played pretty well but definitely had some little things to work on in the coming weeks.

That’s what playing the best teams is all about! You can learn so much as a player and so much about the team as a whole and what you need to work on. There isn’t a lot of breathing room for little mental and physical errors.

This week is Colorado and us going it be a test for us. I can’t wait to get on the field this week, this is always such a well run and fun tournament! And, I turn 18 today (July 2). I’m so lucky to always get to spend my birthday in Boulder!

On another note, I can’t believe I leave for Oregon in a month, but I will be soaking in this next month with my teammates playing against the best teams in the country.

Best of luck to everyone competing this week!

As always,

Jenna