Casey Stangel is an incoming freshman at the Univ. of Missouri who had one of the most prolific high school and club careers in recent memory.  Casey was the MaxPreps National Player of the Year this spring after leading her Lake City, Idaho team to the second straight Class 5A state title.  The 5-foot-10 lefty pitcher went 28-0, but she’s not just a threat in the circle—she also batted .640 and had 16 homers—and had a great summer playing for Explosion.

One of the most energetic, hard-working and passionate people you’ll meet on and off the field, we’re excited to get her perspective of softball life.  For more background info, here’s a link to an earlier story we did titled Player spotlight: Casey has a plan

***

Every single day is about one thing–it is about achieving a goal.

I have goals for a day, for a season, for my whole career and on a day-to-day basis I am sacrificing and committing myself completely to those goals.

Softball has always been my “go to,” it has been my escape and my love for my whole entire life.

As a kid I was exposed to very many different sports and opportunities to dive into whatever I was passionate about doing. I always had that great support from my mom and dad in whatever I wanted to do.

Thing is, off all the things I had the chance to do, there was only one thing I wanted to, and I think you could guess what it was. Here’s a hint: it involved bats, balls, dirt, long days out at the field, countless hours of training, and excessive bruises and scrapes to show my mom.

It was love at first swing, and it is what I have been passionate about since I was strong enough to even pick up a bat and ball.

I got involved with travel ball at an early age, and was always playing up with the older girls. I always wanted a challenge and wanted to get better so that I could be the best. It didn’t matter to me if I went up to the mound as a 14-year-old pitching against 18-year-old girls and having them hit bombs off of me, it made me stronger.

I had my struggles then, but it made me so much stronger as a player because it taught me to put my head down and keep going through tough times. It taught me not only to play harder, but to train harder.

Living in Idaho means living far away from the Southern California softball “hotbed.” I was never in that every day environment of great players so I knew I had to do twice as much work to be better than all of those girls. It was an everyday effort to train as hard as I could and achieve the short term goals I would have that would pay off in my long term goals.

I recently finished up my travel ball career with the Southern California Explosion.  From starting off playing on a small team in Northern California and working my way through teams, I ended up on one of the top rated teams in the country.

Throughout that process I was honored in being offered a scholarship to play softball for the University of Missouri. It was a long time coming and a lot of work, but believe me it all paid off.

I spent this summer taking classes and training at Mizzou and every single day was like heaven. I got to wake up to go train, eat, go to class, train, eat, and train some more. It was one of the greatest experiences I have had, and that was only five weeks of my summer. I now get to go back this weekend and begin doing it all over again every single day for the next four years.

One of my favorite memories of this summer is my first Friday night in Missouri. I had finished up my workouts and eaten dinner and was unsure what to do for the night. I got in my truck and drove down to our stadium and pulled out a tee and a bucket, along with some speakers playing music off my phone, and I just hit.

I was probably out there for two to three hours by myself hitting on our field and loving every moment of it. When I am on that field at Mizzou I have this huge rush of emotions because I am playing on the field that I have dreamt of playing on my whole life.

All of the hours of hard work, all of the frustration, the sacrifices, everything; it was all so that I had the opportunity to play on that field and I was standing right there on it. It was my ultimate goal to be right there on that field every day.

So now it’s back to that hard work, that grind, that every day commitment. My next goal is to be standing on that field in Oklahoma City with a trophy raised up in the air.

This is a journey that is beginning right here and now and I am so ready to get started!