Pocola (Okla.) power pitcher one of five players ranked in top-6 to commit to OU softball this month
Allyssa Parker delivers a pitch against Warner in a regional playoff on Sep. 21, 2023 (Photo by Tom Firme, Poteau Daily News)
By Douglas Miles, For The Crimson Captain
POCOLA — What happens when four of the country’s top prep softball recruits gather in one room?
Does a master plan get hatched to unite and one day conquer the sport? Are resumes and accomplishments compared and scrutinized? Does the competitive fire get stoked and morph into a game of one-upmanship?
Nope. Just normal girl talk.
“At breakfast, we would have our own table and then our hotel rooms were right beside each other, so at the end of the day we would just go in each other’s rooms and talk,” Pocola (Okla.) High School junior Allyssa Parker told The Crimson Captain. “We just really talked about what is going on in our lives and everything else and how we feel. … We got along very well and bonded a lot.”
Sep. 1 was the first date that Division-I college coaches could begin recruiting high school juniors, and the three-time defending softball national champion Oklahoma Sooners wasted no time in getting the homegrown Parker – a 5-foot-11 pitcher and the nation’s No. 6-ranked prospect in the Class of 2025 by Extra Innings Softball – on campus to begin an official visit that same day.
Parker was joined in Norman by three of the top-four players in Extra Innings’ rankings. Middle infielder Lexi McDaniel of Saint Joseph, Mo. – the top-overall recruit in the country – is Parker’s club ball teammate with Aces Fastpitch in Kansas City, Mo. New Jersey’s Sophia Bordi – the No. 1-ranked pitcher and ranked third regardless of position – and Georgia catcher Kendall Wells (No. 1 catcher, fourth overall) rounded out the dazzling quartet of official visitors.
“Lexi is my teammate and she is, probably I would say, my best friend from Aces,” Parker said. “Kendall and Sophia, I have been to a few (OU) camps with them. I have known Kendall since I was 14, 15 because we went to a camp together and we just kept in touch. And then Sophia, I went to an (OU) camp with her probably a year prior, a few years ago and we talked a little bit at the camp.”
Oklahoma softball recruits (from left) Allyssa Parker, Kendall Wells, Lexi McDaniel and Sophia Bordi participate in a photo session during their official visit to the University of Oklahoma on Friday, Sep. 1, 2023. (Photo submitted)
The foursome toured the campus, participated in a photo session, went shopping, dined at Oklahoma Coach Patty Gasso’s house and attended the Oklahoma-Arkansas State football game. The weekend concluded with a Sunday meeting between the individual player and the Oklahoma coaching staff. It was at that moment that a scholarship offer was extended to Parker.
“They would have a talk and ask about our interest,” Parker said. “I, of course, told (Coach Gasso) that I wanted to take my other visit to Arkansas.”
As the players disbursed and returned home, none had tipped their hand regarding their intention. But it did not take long for the dominoes to fall. Two days after the visit, Bordi committed to play for the Sooners. Wells did the same a day later, while both Parker and McDaniel had visits lined up to Arkansas and Florida, respectively, for the following weekend.
“I didn’t know that they were going to commit that early,” Parker said. “They had interest in other colleges and everything, so I had no idea. When those posts came out, I was surprised.”
Before the Oklahoma visit, Parker was giving equal consideration to both the Sooners and Arkansas, with LSU and Texas A&M also in contention. By the time she arrived in Fayetteville, Ark. – just an hour from her Pocola home – for her Razorbacks’ visit Sep. 8-10, her decision was nearly made.
“It was kind of a thing where I have always wanted to stay closer to home and be near all of my family,” Parker said. “It was a tie (between Arkansas and Oklahoma) for the longest time and then I went on my visit to OU and everything just clicked. It felt like home. It had everything there. I was comfortable there. I felt very comfortable with the staff and with the girls and everything. When I went on my visit, that was really kind of the deciding factor.”
One day after returning from Arkansas, Parker announced her commitment to the Sooners.
Following her decision, Parker started picking up on text message hints from McDaniel that indicated the Missouri standout might be on the verge of her own commitment to Oklahoma. It took just two days for those clues to come to fruition as McDaniel announced Sep. 13 that she, too, was coming aboard.
Less than two weeks after they had visited Oklahoma together, all four – Bordi, Wells, Parker and McDaniel – were committed.
“I’m excited,” Parker said. “I know all four of us are going to be working our tails off to
make sure we are ready Day 1 coming out and
I am really excited for the potential that we are going to have when we get there.”
As if that was not enough good news for Oklahoma softball, California outfielder Kai Minor – the nation’s second-ranked player overall – visited the Sooners a week later (Sep. 8-10) and committed Sep. 15.
Minor’s commitment gives Oklahoma pledges from five of the top-six players in Class of 2025. Of the five, Parker has the distinction of being the lone Oklahoma prep.
“I’m pumped for it,” Parker said. “It has always been a dream of mine to represent my home state and go play college softball.”
Parker’s initial foray into athletics did not include softball.
Born in Poteau, Okla., she attended school and participated in cheerleading and gymnastics in nearby Spiro. After her family relocated to Pocola, the eight-year-old Parker added machine-pitch and coach-pitch softball at the Ben Geren Softball Complex a few minutes away in Fort Smith, Ark.
As she progressed to the kid-pitch level, she was playing catcher until she observed her catching instructor’s daughter pitching from the circle.
“I WANT THIS TO BE MORE OF A COMPETITIVE THING FOR ME”
“‘You know what, I want to try that,’” Parker said at the time. “So then I started pitching.”
After a couple of years, juggling three simultaneous extracurricular activities began to take a toll on the family’s schedule. Parker’s mother, Camilla May, told Allyssa to pick between cheer, gymnastics and softball.
Parker’s newfound love of pitching – plus a memorable April 2016 visit to Fayetteville’s Bogle Park to attend her first NCAA softball game at age nine – made softball an easy decision.
That was the night the Razorbacks hosted No. 9 Oklahoma. Parker watched as Oklahoma sophomore pitcher Paige Parker – no relation – registered eight strikeouts in the Sooners’ 3-1 victory. After the game, the two Parker’s posed for a photo together and Paige autographed a ball for Allyssa.
“She was actually one of the pitchers that inspired me to be a pitcher,” Allyssa said. “She was one of the pitchers that made me realize my love for pitching. … It was kind of a thing where I saw how competitive they were. I have actually always been a competitive person. I want to win at everything. In just everything I do. Just seeing how competitive they were and how much they were into the game and how much they loved the game and how much energy they put into it, I wanted to be that one day.”
Former Oklahoma pitcher Paige Parker (2015-18), left, pictured with nine-year-old Allyssa Parker after the Sooners’ 3-1 win over Arkansas on April 20, 2016 at Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Ark. Now a high school junior, Allyssa Parker is committed to play softball at Oklahoma. (Photo submitted)
While Paige and the Sooners won the first of back-to-back national championships at season’s end, Allyssa eventually found an outlet for her competitive nature in the form of club softball with the Aces, which necessitated weekend trips from Pocola to Kansas City, Mo. for practices.
“When I was playing league and stuff, it was just like, ‘I want to be more competitive. I want this to be more of a competitive thing for me. I want it to up it a level,’” Parker said. “So then we joined the Aces and that is when I started getting better and they really developed me there.”
Under the direction of Aces’ coaches like Tony Kildow, Michaela Taylor, Taylor Taylor and Ryan Taylor, Parker has progressed rapidly through the Aces’ system over the past five-plus years.
In 2020, Parker was elevated to the Aces’ 14U National Team for a tournament at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. In her first at-bat at “The Softball Capital of the World,” Parker launched a home run.
“Every time I go on that field, it is like, ‘Woah,’” Parker said. “’I could be here one day.’ It is that type of thing when you think about it.”
At age 15, Parker was elevated to the Aces’ 18U National Team. In July, she and McDaniel helped the club reach the Alliance Fastpitch Championship Series for the first time. The Aces finished second to future Oklahoma teammates Bordi and Minor, who play club ball for the Orange County (Calif.) Batbusters.
With the Oklahoma softball coaching staff in attendance, Parker pitched the first game of the best-of-three championship series, a 1-0 loss.
“I actually threw very well,” Parker said. “I had a bunch of strikeouts. I was on that day and it was probably the best game I pitched the entire summer.”
With a population of just over 4,200 people, the town of Pocola is named for the Choctaw word for “ten,’ which is the approximate distance in miles between the eastern Oklahoma town and the nearby metropolis of Fort Smith, Ark.
Eddie Combs has seen a lot of athletes come through Pocola High School.
From 2000-19, Combs served as the Indians’ baseball head coach. In 2013, he joined the Pocola softball staff as an assistant coach. As his two daughters got a little older, he made the switch from baseball head coach to softball head coach in 2019.
He’s never seen a more competitive player than Parker.
“I've coached baseball for a long time,” Combs said. “I switched over a few years ago and I think that a lot of girls get bad raps for not being very competitive. And I'm telling you, I've coached a lot of boys, been around a lot a lot of guys that played it at a high level and I've never coached a player, male or female, that hates to lose worse than that kid.”
“SHE’S A ROCK STAR AROUND HERE”
Parker has thrived at both pitcher and shortstop at the high school level. As a sophomore last season, she helped Pocola to a 40-3 record and its first appearance in the Class 2A fast-pitch state finals since 1979. In the circle, Parker posted a 22-2 record with a miniscule 0.59 earned run average with 150 strikeouts and just 36 walks in 130 innings pitched.
“For me, getting stronger and building up my velocity has helped a lot,” Parker said. “And working on my movement with my dropball has helped a ton, too. My changeup wouldn’t be where it is today without my pitching coach (Jessica Luckett of Springdale, Ark.). I would go to lessons and get so frustrated because my changeup would not be consistent. We worked really hard to get that pitch consistent and it is one of my best pitches.”
So far this season, Parker is 11-3 with a 1.06 ERA for Pocola (26-4), which will play in a regional final on Monday. She has walked just 15 batters and, using a fastball that has topped out at 68 miles per hour, has struck out 124.
“For a high school junior to post 68 miles an hour, (wow),” Combs said. “Her goal was to get to 70 by the time she graduates. And as hard as she works, there is going to be a big party in Pocola when she hits that 7-0 number.”
Parker is also a speedster on the basepaths, as well, evidenced by the laser-timed 2.8 seconds it took her to run from the right batter’s box to first base during July’s Alliance Fastpitch Championship Series in California.
“I've had several Division-I coaches that came and watched us the last month and told me that they could envision her playing anywhere from center field to shortstop and anywhere in between,” Combs said. “Because of her athleticism.”
At the plate, Parker is hitting .454 this season with 11 home runs and 45 runs batted in despite being walked 40 times. Last year, 48 walks did not prevent her from posting a .531 batting average with 20 home runs and 70 RBIs.
Only three Oklahoma high school players – Madison Neighbors of Kellyville (23 homers in 2017), Putnam City’s Leah Tabb (22 in 1997) and Yukon’s Caitlyn Halbert (21 in 2011) – have homered more in a single season.
“She had an unbelievable year last year, just unbelievable as a sophomore,” Combs said. “I mean, she wasn’t even driving. The season she put up is what really got her name out there.”
Allyssa Parker throws to first base for an out during a LeFlore County Tournament game against Heavener in Panama on Sep. 11, 2023. Parker committed to play softball at Oklahoma earlier that day. (Photo by Tom Firme/Poteau Daily News)
Parker’s competitive fire has manifested itself at the high school level, as well. In Thursday’s regional win over Warner, Combs directed Parker to intentionally walk a batter that she had struck out earlier in the game.
“She looked at me and started shaking her head, like, ‘What are you doing?’” Combs said with a laugh. “That was the first time she intentionally walked a kid in her three years. And she looked at me and shook her head like, ‘No,’ and I kind of yelled and said, ‘Put her on.’ She just gave me this look like she's ready to kill me. She’s just a super-competitive kid and then you throw in the fact that she's the most athletic girl I've ever been around. I mean that I've ever seen. I mean, she's almost six-foot tall, runs like a deer, jumps like (Michael) Jordan. I’ve just kind of joked the last couple of years and just said, ‘She's a unicorn.’”
Allyssa Parker hits a short-range shot over an Atoka defender during the first round of the Choctaw Nation Invitational Tournament in Talihina on Dec. 15, 2022. (Photo by Tom Firme/Poteau Daily News)
Parker has also been a part of Pocola’s back-to-back slow-pitch softball state finalists, which included a 3A state championship in 2022. As a freshman on the basketball court, Parker averaged 18.6 points per game and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2022 2A state tournament as the Indians won their first girls’ basketball state championship since 2008.
“I couldn't be more happier for a kid and her family and a little small town like Pocola,” Combs said. “She's getting autographs from a lot of the little kids around here every time she's playing softball and when we go to basketball games, she's getting people already wanting her autograph. She's a rock star around here.”
“OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY AT OU IS ABOVE EVERYTHING”
Parker was in eighth grade when she began e-mailing college coaches to encourage them to come and see her play club softball.
Schools like Arkansas, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M were early recipients of the youngster’s spirited correspondence. And while NCAA rules prohibited schools from sending personalized replies in return, they did send invitations to on-campus workout and skills camps.
“I was just loving the game and I wanted to continue playing the game,” Parker said. “I would watch college softball and I would want that for myself.”
Once Parker was elevated to the Aces’ 18U National Team, college coaches began to appear at her games to scout her and her older teammates. Oklahoma pitching coach Jen Rocha was seemingly a constant fixture at the games, and Parker vividly remembers her first pitching performance with Oklahoma coaches in attendance.
“At first, it was very nerve-wracking,” Parker said. “I would get really nervous. At first, it started affecting me and then I got used to it and it just kind of spiked a competitiveness in me and I would go out there and be better.”
Eventually, Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso and hitting coach JT Gasso joined Rocha to observe Parker, which included last season’s playoff and state tournament games at the high school level.
Despite all the camp attendance and the game appearances from coaches, no active recruiting could take place until Sep. 1, 2023. If a school wants to have a recruit on campus for an official visit on Sep. 1, the Big 12 Conference allows for an invitation to be sent out five days beforehand.
Parker received that invitation and when the clock struck midnight on Sep. 1, she was already in Norman.
“I was just ready to be stressed out,” Parker said.
The stress and initial flurry of contact from a host of coaches eventually gave way to a feeling of reassurance as Parker talked with the Oklahoma staff and learned that they were excited about her future as a collegiate pitcher, loved her competitive fire and were open to the possibility of Parker playing other positions.
As the official visit with Bordi, McDaniel and Wells progressed, the players were presented with a clear vision of how the Oklahoma program plans to continue its level of excellence as the Sooners move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference in 2025 and christen a new home stadium – Love’s Field – this coming spring.
“The opportunity to play at OU is above everything,” Parker said. “But it is going to be a great opportunity to be in the SEC. And also with Love’s Field, there are going to be a lot more fans and it is going to be beautiful. … I’m so excited.”
