Vols4life
Chalupa Batman
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2004
- Messages
- 8,262
- Likes
- 2,215
Tennessee Lady Vols Softball 2022.
- Thread starter Volfan2012
- Start date
Vols4life
Chalupa Batman
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2004
- Messages
- 8,262
- Likes
- 2,215
The post season seeding will be bananas current NCAA RPI which is one tools they use for post season
DI Softball Rankings - NCAA Women's Softball RPI | NCAA.com
DI Softball Rankings - NCAA Women's Softball RPI | NCAA.com
appvol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2009
- Messages
- 2,225
- Likes
- 14,072
The Asheville Paper had a article on Pickens.
Karlyn Pickens could become one of the best athletes WNC has ever produced
Dana Fusetti was giving a player a batting lesson eight years ago, when her attention was stolen by a pitcher across the training complex.
There, 10-year-old Karlyn Pickens was working with her coach, and Fusetti believed she'd just gotten her first look at a prodigy.
After completing the batting lesson she'd been distracted from, Fusetti told Pickens' father, Phillip, how special his elementary schooler was, and the importance of getting her as many opportunities to prove it as possible.
Fusetti, who coaches a travel team, acknowledges that Phillip likely thought she was just "smooth talking" him, which was only natural given the seemingly outlandish nature of her proclamations. But nearly a decade later, Pickens has lived up to those projections and then some, continuing to raise the bar for herself, climb rankings and turn heads around the nation.
The best prep softball player in WNC history and one of the area's most gifted all-around athletes in recent memory, Pickens has combined her natural tools with an indomitable spirit to become an All-American flamethrower at North Buncombe. By all accounts, what she's accomplished in Weaverville will only serve as the beginning of what could be a truly extraordinary career for the 6-foot-1 Tennessee signee.
"You almost feel like she was made for this," Black Hawks coach Tiffani Ferguson said. "She knows what she wants, and she goes for it."
The daughter of two North Buncombe graduates who played multiple sports for the Black Hawks, Pickens' early athletic development was shaped by her parents and two older brothers. She began playing T-ball with her brother, Rayce, around the age of 5 and immediately clicked with the sport.
As soon as she grew out of the coach-pitch age bracket, she gravitated toward the circle.
Being on the mound, I was able to just take fate into my own hands," Pickens said. "I just love that feeling, and just fell in love with the game."
With Pickens' preternatural fluidity and explosiveness already apparent, her mother, Rebecca, looked around for the top pitching coaches in the area. She settled on Stacey Johnson-Whitfield, a former University of South Carolina standout.
Over the span of almost a decade, beginning when Pickens was 9, she rarely missed a weekly lesson with Johnson-Whitfield, now the interim head coach at Furman.
"It was definitely a lot of sacrifice on (Karlyn's) part just to continue those lessons," Rebecca Pickens said. "If you want to make it at that level, we knew and we had been told that she has to work at it. And that didn't stop, she had to come home and then still take what she learned and work at that on her own."
On the taller side of her peers growing up but never towering over them, Pickens didn't always find it easy to harness her long arms and legs as she continued to grow.
Still, she was a naturally hard thrower, and Fusetti knew she was seeing something unique. Having previously played on a regional travel team primarily made up of Buncombe County girls, Pickens joined Carolina Elite, Fusetti's national program based out of Greenville, S.C., and was quickly playing up multiple age groups, where her competitiveness shined through.
"Then, going back down to my age group just felt weird," Pickens said. "At a young age, I kind of knew, 'OK, I need to be pushing myself.' I realized probably about the age of 10 that I had something special."
Pickens entered high school as a coveted prospect but not a blue-chip one. Between her freshman and junior years, though, she went from about 5-foot-9 to over 6-foot.
And as she grew, so did her profile.
Their sons grew to about 6-foot-3, and Pickens' parents hoped she, too, would reach the thinnest sliver of the height bell curve.
But it's not just her 6-foot-1 frame that allows Pickens to do things most players can hardly dream of.
"She's sort of a freak of nature," said Brandon Carr, a Chattanooga (Tenn.) State Community College assistant coach who's worked with Pickens since last year. "She has a lot of God-given ability, just in her body makeup. She has a lot of leverage and long levers. ... She's one big muscle. Everything is fast-twitch."
Even when adjusting for her height, Pickens' legs and arms are longer than usual. By the time she's releasing a pitch, her pushoff has usually taken her outside of the circle.
Her hand size, too, is an outlier, heightening the effect her grips have on the flight of the ball.
"The whip that I get when pitching from just my length, is a great advantage," Pickens said. "Now that I'm fully developed, I'm able to just fine tune where I am now."
Pickens' combination of measurables, body control and explosiveness turn the basic concepts all pitchers utilize — generating force with the lower body, using the glove-side as a counterbalance, lagging and then whipping the throwing arm toward the plate — into outcomes only the best of the best can replicate.
Her fastball comfortably hits 70 mph in games, and she can touch as high as 74, speeds uncommon even among top college pitchers.
"When she lands, and her body's stabilized," Carr said, "all of that energy goes through her fingertips and the softball."
By the time she was hitting those speeds, she'd become one of the top recruits in the country. Before the spring of her junior year, she committed to Tennessee over a list of about 20 Division I offers, including many of the most prestigious programs in the country.
The results, in high school, have been domination.
Pickens was Gatorade State Player of the Year as a junior after striking out 207 batters and allowing only 12 hits in 85 innings, accumulating a 0.41 ERA. Her ERA this season is under 0.20 and she's hitting well over .500.
She's been bringing it every game," Ferguson said. "You can tell it's her senior year, she's playing confident. ... She's used to that pressure."
From a young age, Pickens displayed a desire to be the best she could be, and performing on bigger stages only amplified it. Her work ethic and training regimen gave her confidence that she could continue to perform, regardless of the opponent.
"I've just never been satisfied," Pickens said. "I just have to trust what work I put into it. Now that I've worked hard enough to be able to do what I do, I trust that I'm going to be able to follow through and help my team succeed."
Her prowess hasn't been limited to the diamond, either.
A four-year varsity basketball and volleyball player, Pickens was the conference's Player of the Year in basketball, having led the Black Hawks to a conference tournament crown. North Buncombe went 52-18 in basketball over her final three years, and the volleyball team rebounded from a tough 2020 season to go 14-6 last fall.
"She's Karlyn Pickens," basketball coach Tami Ramsey said succinctly after the conference tournament. "She's the X-factor. She is a freaking madwoman."
Pickens believes playing multiple sports at North Buncombe benefitted her softball abilities, but that wasn't the main reason she took to the hardwood in the fall and winter.
"Mentally, I'm always in game mode. I'm an athlete at heart," Pickens said. "Being able to do that all year long is great to experience."
Those close to Pickens, though, remain amazed by how she meshes her tenacity with an outgoing and relaxed personality. Fusetti remembers when an 11-year-old Pickens used a treadmill to propel pieces of popcorn into her mouth, catching teammates off guard during a weight room session.
"Her lightheartedness is huge," Fusetti said. "She's a leader on the team, with her sense of humor in the dugout and everything."
And while comfortable in the spotlight, Pickens isn't one to hog it. Her coaches emphasize her focus on helping teammates improve and thrive, and viewing her successes as a product of those around her rather than hers alone.
Those bonds also played a role in Pickens' continued pursuit of other sports, and her choice to remain at North Buncombe and Carolina Elite rather than seek out bigger programs, or enroll early at Tennessee.
"I was really surprised at Karlyn's very approachable nature. A lot of elite-level athletes don't have much of a life, per se. Their social interactions are a little bit crazy," Carr said. "She exhibits a lot of those [mountain town] values. Community first, teammates first."
In the near future, Pickens life could look quite different.
She's done plenty to cement her status as a local legend. But soon, she'll be pitching in the SEC, a conference which produced three national champions in the last decade, hoping to lead two-time national runner-up Tennessee back to the College World Series.
Those who have worked with her believe the sky is the limit.
"I think she's going to be the face of softball," Fusetti said.
Pickens said because of how quickly and recently she was still growing, it's only been within the past year that she's felt in rhythm and able to work on the finer details of her craft.
She's continued to hone offspeed pitches to complement her fastball and riseball, and during this high school season has focused on showing even better control.
"I've definitely stepped it up a little bit," Pickens said. "I've noticed from last year to this year, it's evolved a lot."
In the short term, Pickens has caused nightmares for WNC coaches, whose batters are helpless to catch up to her pitches and whose pitchers can't get her out.
But her impact could continue to be felt for years, as evidenced by the young girls and the occasional travel team asking for photographs and autographs after Black Hawks games.
"At one point, I was that little girl that looked up to somebody and thought, 'This is the coolest thing in the world,'" Pickens said. "For me to have an impact, or just the littlest impact on someone to encourage them or brighten their day, that's what I'm here for. That's what makes it so special."
Karlyn Pickens could become one of the best athletes WNC has ever produced
Dana Fusetti was giving a player a batting lesson eight years ago, when her attention was stolen by a pitcher across the training complex.
There, 10-year-old Karlyn Pickens was working with her coach, and Fusetti believed she'd just gotten her first look at a prodigy.
After completing the batting lesson she'd been distracted from, Fusetti told Pickens' father, Phillip, how special his elementary schooler was, and the importance of getting her as many opportunities to prove it as possible.
Fusetti, who coaches a travel team, acknowledges that Phillip likely thought she was just "smooth talking" him, which was only natural given the seemingly outlandish nature of her proclamations. But nearly a decade later, Pickens has lived up to those projections and then some, continuing to raise the bar for herself, climb rankings and turn heads around the nation.
The best prep softball player in WNC history and one of the area's most gifted all-around athletes in recent memory, Pickens has combined her natural tools with an indomitable spirit to become an All-American flamethrower at North Buncombe. By all accounts, what she's accomplished in Weaverville will only serve as the beginning of what could be a truly extraordinary career for the 6-foot-1 Tennessee signee.
"You almost feel like she was made for this," Black Hawks coach Tiffani Ferguson said. "She knows what she wants, and she goes for it."
The daughter of two North Buncombe graduates who played multiple sports for the Black Hawks, Pickens' early athletic development was shaped by her parents and two older brothers. She began playing T-ball with her brother, Rayce, around the age of 5 and immediately clicked with the sport.
As soon as she grew out of the coach-pitch age bracket, she gravitated toward the circle.
Being on the mound, I was able to just take fate into my own hands," Pickens said. "I just love that feeling, and just fell in love with the game."
With Pickens' preternatural fluidity and explosiveness already apparent, her mother, Rebecca, looked around for the top pitching coaches in the area. She settled on Stacey Johnson-Whitfield, a former University of South Carolina standout.
Over the span of almost a decade, beginning when Pickens was 9, she rarely missed a weekly lesson with Johnson-Whitfield, now the interim head coach at Furman.
"It was definitely a lot of sacrifice on (Karlyn's) part just to continue those lessons," Rebecca Pickens said. "If you want to make it at that level, we knew and we had been told that she has to work at it. And that didn't stop, she had to come home and then still take what she learned and work at that on her own."
On the taller side of her peers growing up but never towering over them, Pickens didn't always find it easy to harness her long arms and legs as she continued to grow.
Still, she was a naturally hard thrower, and Fusetti knew she was seeing something unique. Having previously played on a regional travel team primarily made up of Buncombe County girls, Pickens joined Carolina Elite, Fusetti's national program based out of Greenville, S.C., and was quickly playing up multiple age groups, where her competitiveness shined through.
"Then, going back down to my age group just felt weird," Pickens said. "At a young age, I kind of knew, 'OK, I need to be pushing myself.' I realized probably about the age of 10 that I had something special."
Pickens entered high school as a coveted prospect but not a blue-chip one. Between her freshman and junior years, though, she went from about 5-foot-9 to over 6-foot.
And as she grew, so did her profile.
Their sons grew to about 6-foot-3, and Pickens' parents hoped she, too, would reach the thinnest sliver of the height bell curve.
But it's not just her 6-foot-1 frame that allows Pickens to do things most players can hardly dream of.
"She's sort of a freak of nature," said Brandon Carr, a Chattanooga (Tenn.) State Community College assistant coach who's worked with Pickens since last year. "She has a lot of God-given ability, just in her body makeup. She has a lot of leverage and long levers. ... She's one big muscle. Everything is fast-twitch."
Even when adjusting for her height, Pickens' legs and arms are longer than usual. By the time she's releasing a pitch, her pushoff has usually taken her outside of the circle.
Her hand size, too, is an outlier, heightening the effect her grips have on the flight of the ball.
"The whip that I get when pitching from just my length, is a great advantage," Pickens said. "Now that I'm fully developed, I'm able to just fine tune where I am now."
Pickens' combination of measurables, body control and explosiveness turn the basic concepts all pitchers utilize — generating force with the lower body, using the glove-side as a counterbalance, lagging and then whipping the throwing arm toward the plate — into outcomes only the best of the best can replicate.
Her fastball comfortably hits 70 mph in games, and she can touch as high as 74, speeds uncommon even among top college pitchers.
"When she lands, and her body's stabilized," Carr said, "all of that energy goes through her fingertips and the softball."
By the time she was hitting those speeds, she'd become one of the top recruits in the country. Before the spring of her junior year, she committed to Tennessee over a list of about 20 Division I offers, including many of the most prestigious programs in the country.
The results, in high school, have been domination.
Pickens was Gatorade State Player of the Year as a junior after striking out 207 batters and allowing only 12 hits in 85 innings, accumulating a 0.41 ERA. Her ERA this season is under 0.20 and she's hitting well over .500.
She's been bringing it every game," Ferguson said. "You can tell it's her senior year, she's playing confident. ... She's used to that pressure."
From a young age, Pickens displayed a desire to be the best she could be, and performing on bigger stages only amplified it. Her work ethic and training regimen gave her confidence that she could continue to perform, regardless of the opponent.
"I've just never been satisfied," Pickens said. "I just have to trust what work I put into it. Now that I've worked hard enough to be able to do what I do, I trust that I'm going to be able to follow through and help my team succeed."
Her prowess hasn't been limited to the diamond, either.
A four-year varsity basketball and volleyball player, Pickens was the conference's Player of the Year in basketball, having led the Black Hawks to a conference tournament crown. North Buncombe went 52-18 in basketball over her final three years, and the volleyball team rebounded from a tough 2020 season to go 14-6 last fall.
"She's Karlyn Pickens," basketball coach Tami Ramsey said succinctly after the conference tournament. "She's the X-factor. She is a freaking madwoman."
Pickens believes playing multiple sports at North Buncombe benefitted her softball abilities, but that wasn't the main reason she took to the hardwood in the fall and winter.
"Mentally, I'm always in game mode. I'm an athlete at heart," Pickens said. "Being able to do that all year long is great to experience."
Those close to Pickens, though, remain amazed by how she meshes her tenacity with an outgoing and relaxed personality. Fusetti remembers when an 11-year-old Pickens used a treadmill to propel pieces of popcorn into her mouth, catching teammates off guard during a weight room session.
"Her lightheartedness is huge," Fusetti said. "She's a leader on the team, with her sense of humor in the dugout and everything."
And while comfortable in the spotlight, Pickens isn't one to hog it. Her coaches emphasize her focus on helping teammates improve and thrive, and viewing her successes as a product of those around her rather than hers alone.
Those bonds also played a role in Pickens' continued pursuit of other sports, and her choice to remain at North Buncombe and Carolina Elite rather than seek out bigger programs, or enroll early at Tennessee.
"I was really surprised at Karlyn's very approachable nature. A lot of elite-level athletes don't have much of a life, per se. Their social interactions are a little bit crazy," Carr said. "She exhibits a lot of those [mountain town] values. Community first, teammates first."
In the near future, Pickens life could look quite different.
She's done plenty to cement her status as a local legend. But soon, she'll be pitching in the SEC, a conference which produced three national champions in the last decade, hoping to lead two-time national runner-up Tennessee back to the College World Series.
Those who have worked with her believe the sky is the limit.
"I think she's going to be the face of softball," Fusetti said.
Pickens said because of how quickly and recently she was still growing, it's only been within the past year that she's felt in rhythm and able to work on the finer details of her craft.
She's continued to hone offspeed pitches to complement her fastball and riseball, and during this high school season has focused on showing even better control.
"I've definitely stepped it up a little bit," Pickens said. "I've noticed from last year to this year, it's evolved a lot."
In the short term, Pickens has caused nightmares for WNC coaches, whose batters are helpless to catch up to her pitches and whose pitchers can't get her out.
But her impact could continue to be felt for years, as evidenced by the young girls and the occasional travel team asking for photographs and autographs after Black Hawks games.
"At one point, I was that little girl that looked up to somebody and thought, 'This is the coolest thing in the world,'" Pickens said. "For me to have an impact, or just the littlest impact on someone to encourage them or brighten their day, that's what I'm here for. That's what makes it so special."
The SelCom consistently goes almost verbatim with RPI numbers when it comes to seeding. For us to get top 8, we will have to go on a roll in the SECT, and have some teams ahead of us lose some games. Oh and went can’t lose any games we shouldn’t lose, which I don’t see happening. We will probably lose at least a game at Ole Miss and a game (if not more) to Auburn.
One thing is for sure, we WILL be matched up with an SEC team for Supers. It would’ve happened last year with Mizzou, and happened in 2019 with Florida, 2018 with Georgia, 2017 with Texas A&M and would’ve happened in 2016 with Auburn. It’s maddening and obnoxious, but like I said elsewhere, the SelCom for softball is among the worst in college sports.
OrangeBeachVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2019
- Messages
- 3,031
- Likes
- 6,509
anecwnrjcns12
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
- Messages
- 978
- Likes
- 1,858
I definitely think it's to keep down the number of teams in OKC. Usually there's at least two SRs that have seeded SEC teams matched up in the Supers.
It doesn't always just happen to the SEC, though. The SelCom loves conference matchups in the Supers period. I remember one season in particular they had a ton of conference SR matchups. Like two SEC, two Pac-12 and one Big XII. It was ridiculous.
RebKell
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2021
- Messages
- 3,254
- Likes
- 4,798
orange beard
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2022
- Messages
- 2,007
- Likes
- 2,912
orange beard
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2022
- Messages
- 2,007
- Likes
- 2,912
VN Store
