Natalie McCool tried a couple of sports before she found one she really liked.
“I’ve tried basketball and wrestling, but they weren’t really for me,” said McCool, 12.
When she was 8, during COVID, she tried softball.
“ I needed something to do and my mom signed me up for softball,” she said. “I had fun playing and practicing with my friends so I have just been playing ever since.”
She’s come a long way in four years.
McCool qualified earlier this year to play in the United States Specialty Sports Association 2025 Girls Fast Pitch All American Games July 28 – Aug. 2 at the USSSA Space Coast Complex in Melbourne, Fla.
She was one of five players in the 12 and under division from the West Coast Region to qualify for the competition, and one of two from Oregon selected to play in games in Florida.
Fla., after qualifying to compete in the 2025 Girls Fast Pitch All American
Games there.
She and a team of fellow-qualifiers from six regions all over the nation played two days of pool play and then competed in a single-elimination tournament on Day 3 and 4. The event also included a skills competition and home run derby.
Her team, which had one practice together before competition with teammates and coaches who had just met, went 2-4 for the event, as McCool went 10 for 14 at the plate and, playing catcher, threw out two runners at second and caught one off first base in those six games.
She also had an unassisted double play at first base when she caught a line drive and then touched first base to get the lead runner out before the runner could tag up.
In the skills competition, McCool won the overhand velocity throw competition for her 12U age group, with an overhand throw clocked at 61 mph – in field temperatures that averaged 95 degrees, with humidity exceeding 70% most days.
McCool started her softball career in Sweet Home, playing with the Huskies travel club team.
“I practiced a lot, initially, with my parents and Papa,” she said. “My Papa Gerald Nakamura used to coach my mom’s Kidsports softball teams. Papa Gerald helped me a lot in the beginning and continues to be a great support. He and my Grandma tell my parents to be quiet and just let me play.”
After a year with Sweet Home, she moved to a team in Eugene, then to SOAR, a travel team based in Canby, where she plays with the U14 team weekends from September to early November and in the spring and summer.
“I was looking for a higher level and just more people to meet and see and just branching out my opportunities,” she said. She specializes in catching and playing third base.
“I like catching because you are involved in every pitch,” she said. “I’m leading the infield and letting my teammates know where to throw the ball. I’m working on my back picks to first and third base right now. Playing third is also fun because you get a lot of hard-hit balls at that spot.”
She’s not the first athlete in the family. Her dad, Mike McCool, was a nationally ranked wrestler at Crook County High School in Prineville and her mom, Colette McCool, played golf at Sheldon in Eugene, then at Pacific University.
Mike McCool is the founder and owner of McCool Millworks in Sweet Home and Colette McCool works at Vestas Wind Systems, supporting the Offshore Procurement for the Empire Wind Project 1.
Natalie, though, is self-driven beyond the family influence.
“I practice every day in my backyard,” she said. My dad set up a hitting cage for me with a pitching machine, and tee. I also go to hitting and catching lessons at Bomb Squad in Salem.
“My travel team SOAR practices twice a week in Canby. I just recently joined Steelhead Fitness so I can do my winter workouts closer to home.”
She also is entering the eighth grade at Sweet Home Junior High.
“I want to play for Sweet Home High School varsity softball, and then college,” she said. “It’s so hard to get noticed and recruited, so right now I just focus on having fun and the process to becoming a better athlete and just see where it takes me.”
She said she saw the USSSA opportunity on social media and “I just knew I could compete.”
“I practiced every day in my backyard and at the high school fields. Also, my hitting coach Alex Ledgerwood, at Bomb Squad, thought I could compete.”
Getting to the USSSA qualifying event earlier this year in West Linn turned out to be, maybe, the biggest challenge.
“My mom and I drove to the tryout after school on a Friday,” she said. “We almost didn’t make it due to traffic and getting lost in PDX. We found the field and I just jumped out of the car and went for it.
“I wouldn’t be able to try out because registration ended, like 15 minutes before, but the lady running the whole trial was nice enough to let me try out.
“I went out there with no warmup, and I thought I was gonna do horrible, since I didn’t even get a single, like, arm stretch in or anything. And I did great.”
USSSA is a national organization that hosts events all over the country for baseball and softball, Colette McCool said.
“Every year tryouts across the U.S. are held to identify high level talent for both sports. Kids are measured on speed, agility, throwing velocity, bat speed and position evaluations.”
The top performers selected met at the USSSA Space Coast Complex, a baseball stadium and 13- diamond multi-sports facility in Viera, Fla., an unincorporated area outside Melbourne, where, McCool said, a number of pro baseball teams hold their spring camps.
Natalie said the trip was about more than just the opportunity to play softball with girls from all over the U.S..
“I also really enjoyed visiting the Kennedy Space Center,” she said. “I have strong interest in engineering and robotics, so getting to see all of the droids and robots that have been designed and used in outer space was pretty cool.”
Natalie says she likes “being outside with my friends” playing softball, and hitting is her favorite part of the sport.
“I love the sound and pop of the ball off my bat,” she said. “I also love to throw base runners out on the base paths. I also really like traveling to other places and seeing different parts of the state and country with my family.”
Her immediate goals, she said, are “to represent my family, teammates, and coaches well by being a great teammate at the games.
“Second, I want to see how I compete with kids from across the country. Being in Sweet Home, Oregon, sometimes you don’t realize there is so much more out there.”