Arkansas Softball Prospect Refuses To ‘Fit The Box’

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Any time you begin thinking or talking about college recruiting, inevitably, you’ll touch on the subject of “the box.”

What is “the box”? It’s a small set of “norms” or “parameters” that college coaches follow in each sport to recruit athletes. They include things such as height, size, speed, tools and metrics.

National Scouting Report scouts work for high school athletes and college coaches alike. A special part of their job is finding talent across the country for college coaches, including talent hidden in small towns that college coaches have never even heard about.

Robby Wilson, National Director of Softball Scouting for NSR, recalls the first time he saw 2016 catcher and infielder Ashten Graves from Pocahontas, Arkansas.

“She was one of the most athletic kids I’d ever seen,” said Wilson, state director for Arkansas. “Her ability and quickness behind the plate was like none I had seen before. Strong arm with accurate throws consistently. The balance, ankle sway and lateral movement to block poorly thrown balls. Awareness and field control like I’d never seen. Home-run power, 3-hole hitter, who was skilled at placing the bunt and a 2.76 home to first to beat most of them out. Then see her hit the infield AND outfield, and look 100 percent natural. I struggled to find a flaw with this kid … until the obvious poked out at me: She’s a 5-3 catcher and, therefore, doesn’t ‘fit the box.’ As freakishly talented of a game-changer this kid is, I couldn’t let the box bother me. A small town kid with big-time dreams, who had been working her tail off all her life for this one dream, I had to help her.”

Graves was 3-4 inches shy of the “norm” for what a catcher should look like if they fit the box. Wilson explained to Graves and her parents about the difference. He let them know it would take some different approaches and different college programs whose coaches were willing to look “outside the box.” But Wilson was confident that Graves was an NCAA Division I prospect.

“I’ve worked with tons of prospects and families in the recruiting process, but rarely do you have an athlete like Ashten willing to do whatever, whenever, in order to achieve her dream,” Wilson said. “Luckily, she had the support of mom, dad, grandpa and grandma, and was able to travel to all of her personal camp invites and visits throughout the process. It was scary at times for her and them, but her perseverance paid off in a big way a year into her process when the offers started coming.”

As good a catcher and game manager as Graves was, she had begun to train a lot of her infield skills in fear of not “fitting the box” as a catcher. But as her first several Division I and II offers started rolling in, she noticed something.

”It was different,” Graves said. “Some coaches wanted me to catch as a freshman. Some said I would never catch for them and play shortstop mostly. It was confusing but interesting.”

As the offers started pouring in for Graves, Wilson said this about her decision: “The same thing basically I tell all my girls every year:

1. When you wake up one morning and decide, yep, I want to go here 110%, that’s the right place.
2. When you layout your criteria for a dream situation, and grade each program, who wins?
3. Considering it’s a 40-year decision, not just the next four, who wins academically?
4. If you couldn’t play softball, would you still attend the school?
5. Which coach is going to challenge you and not hand it to you on a silver platter?”

As Wilson advised Graves on her difficult decision ahead, it didn’t take long before she committed to a school.

“When I looked at what I was looking for in a school academically and a program/coach athletically, I couldn’t quit thinking about playing for coach [Rick] Fremin,” Graves said. “He was the first coach to really step up and say, ‘I don’t care how big she is; that kid is a winner.’ Considering my occupational therapy major didn’t really affect the school of choice, I committed to Coach Fremin.”

At the time, Fremin was the head softball coach at Jackson State University, a Division I school in Mississippi. Of all the other offers Graves had to consider, and more coming in the coming months, she just knew this was the right one.

Shortly after, Fremin received an offer to become head softball coach at Southeastern Louisiana University, a Division I program in the Southland Conference. Because Graves’ commitment to Fremin at JSU was only a “verbal commitment,” she had the option of changing her decision. When Fremin took the new position, Graves decommitted.

A few days later, Graves got a phone call from Fremin informing her that she was one of a few commits whom he wanted to take with him. By the end of the call, Graves had plans to play in a showcase and visit Southeastern Louisiana. During her time on campus, Graves remembered why she committed to him the first time.

“He not only has a demeanor about him that makes me want to give 120 percent, he believes in me,” Graves said. “He makes me feel like there’s nothing I can’t do on the field. Your experience with your coach in college can determine whether you’re happy or not, or even finish your full four years of playing. So I’m extremely happy that I have a coach that I connect with like we’ve known each other all our lives. He makes me want to give my all and be better every day.”

Graves made a verbal commitment to Fremin and Southeastern Louisiana, and last November signed her National Letter of Intent.

“She’s been training hard in all aspects,” Wilson said of Graves. “Coach Fremin is confident she’ll start out in the infield, then possibly move into a catcher role, and possibly even move out to outfield if needed, in that order. Coach Fremin was confident that Ashten’s offensive prowess and speed on the bases was a must-have as a freshman, and defensively in the lineup, she’s a problem-solver because she can cover eight out of the nine positions on the field legitimately.”

Graves said she learned a valuable lesson about “fitting the box.”

“Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t,” Graves said. “Make the decision that you are going to do what you want and achieve what you want, regardless of what they say is ‘not normal’. Don’t follow trends, set the tone. Don’t try to go through the recruiting process alone, especially if you don’t fit the box. I learned, there are some college coaches who absolutely want a certain size for each position, and some who will overlook it if you have other things to ‘bring to the table’. Having a scout made it easier because Coach Wilson knew what coaches were and weren’t OK with ‘not fitting the box’ and made targeting the right programs easier. My parents and family were huge for my support during the process, too, so make sure you remind your family how important they are to you.”

Wilson learned a lesson, too.

“Ashten defied all odds and logic,” he said. “She’s undersized, doesn’t fit the box, she’s from a small town in Northeast Arkansas, where nobody had ever signed a D-I softball scholarship NLI, and it had been years since anyone had signed an NLI for a D-I program in any sport. She’s a testament to the fact that work ethic, faith, and family will always defeat all odds.”

With 1,600-plus college softball programs out there, if you have the talent, academics, family support, and other qualities of a legitimate college prospect, there’s a home for you. Find your home. Be scouted. Get recruited. Go to www.nsr-inc.com/softball and fill out the request to be scouted.

See more of what Graves and her mother had to say about NSR and the recruiting process in the video below.

 

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