Apparently, everything IS bigger in Texas… including the travel ball organizations.

The Bombers Fastpitch travel softball program is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year and founder and org head Scott Smith couldn’t be prouder of how the program has grown over the years to celebrate is Silver Anniversary in 2026.

Today, the Bombers Fastpitch organization has 290 teams in 38 states and he understandably says:

“I’m super proud of that.”

Impressively, the New Braunfels, Texas-based org has grown 20 percent over the last seven years in what has been a steady climb adding both teams and players.

Today, Coach Scott—who also directs on the field the premier 18U team in the entire organization—has the fastpitch org humming with a dashboard of 3,874 club competitors and, stating the Bombers are “still onboarding, I believe we’ll end up with 4,500 players.”

Having served his country loyally with 28 years in the U.S. Army, the father of two never dreamed he’d be one day fronting one of the most successful travel ball organization in the history of fastpitch softball.

“I was on active duty in the Army,” Smith recalls, “and my daughter Jade was on a 10U team. Two other coaches started two teams for 10 and 12-year-olds and I knew baseball, but not much about softball.”

“After a year with the 10U team, they decided to leave and said to me: ‘It’s yours!’”

“I didn’t want one team,” Smith laughs, “let alone two!” 

Jade would continue to advance in softball under the watchful eye of her dad and would eventually play her freshman college year at the Univ. of Illinois, before transferring to the University of Texas – San Antonio to finish her career

She’s gone on to do sideline reporting for ESPN, been behind the camera and is now doing graphic design for Media Haus, a creative design company she owns which is located in New Braunfels also.

“Anything the Bombers do graphically,” her father notes with pride, “that is Jade doing that.”

This week, Line Drive Media’s Brentt Eads caught up with Scott to talk about the amazing summer the Bombers had—winning a pair of Alliance Nationals championships and ending up just one game away from winning another—as well as what he thinks of the state of fastpitch softball today…

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Line Drive Media: Have you recovered from the summer season yet? What are you working on now and facing for the rest of the year?

Scott Smith: It was a quick turnaround, for sure. It was a lot of fun; we played so deep into the summer that right after the Alliance Nationals we went straight into tryouts. We’re in team building mode and making roster adjustments, mostly on the Academy side.

There wasn’t much time to catch your breath. We’re ramping up for our September 12 Academy camp—all in one location—to kick off the 2027 season. It’ll be in Sugarland, Texas and there will be 40 teams for the Academy and Junior Academy. The camp will have players 10-years-old up to seniors in high school.

It’ll be a full-blown two-day training camp with simulated games as we will be evaluating new and older talent and putting a lot of data into our database.

LDM: You must be very happy with how the Bombers organization did this summer. What stands out to you that you’re most proud of?

SS: I’m super excited about the entire organization as we had successful finishes with teams all over the country. I’m also super proud at how we’re carved out a niche for players to compete at any level as all championships—at all age divisions—are important.

At the highest level, at the Alliance Nationals, we were fortunate that at 12U we had one team finish 5^th and another 7^th in Tier 1 and at 14U we won the championships behind Coach Kristi Malpass. At 16U, Dale Serie coached the team to the championship and at 18U we lost in the third game of the best of the three series.

We had won it at 18U in 2024 and lost last year to the Aces and this year fell just short, but I couldn’t be more proud of how the team played. We’re putting out a team there that is consistent and has played in multiple championships, including at Nationals.

This year’s team was a reset as we went young with four sophomores starting. Also, pitcher Caroline Stanton went early to the University of Florida, and we thought last fall we’d have her so we could go younger and pull up 2028’s to the 18U team. Now, we’re just young and I thought we got there to the championship a year early, but it was a good lesson for our players.

LDM: Let’s go back to the beginning, 25 years ago… What’s kept you going as long as you have in softball?

SS: I’m crazy! (laughs). To be honest, I tell people that I don’t know any way other than to compete. I love the competition and made a post after we lost sharing that we’ve lost in four of the last six national championships, but I’d lose 100 more times for a chance to win one more time.

I hate to lose but you don’t have a chance to win if you are afraid. I have that drive to win and am blessed by being surrounded by players who want to win. I’m blessed and don’t take it for granted. We work hard and develop players to make sure we have a chance. We’re not just hoping—we are preparing to win a championship!

It’s a testament to the hard work that the coaches put in and the quality of players we have in the program

LDM: Let’s talk big picture about the sport now… what are your thoughts about where softball is today?

SS: It’s probably in as good of a spot as I’ve ever seen it. Look at the AUSL—the pro league—and what a great product that is.

In the past when USA Softball would bring in college players to play against older players, there was not big difference, but now we’re really seeing the sport moving to where we have legitimate pros and there’s becoming a bigger gap between the college and pro players. And they’re starting to be compensated now, at the pro level.

Travel ball resources are so much better today and the product we’re sending to the colleges is better and it’s making the college product better. Softball has been a product of evolution and today this sport is a big deal.

You look at Megan Grant with Portland in the AUSL. She’s like Bo Jackson and that’s cool that we have that happening in our sport.

LDM: Where do you feel softball has improved over the last decade and where do you feel it’s hit some rough patches?

SS: It’s improved in player development and how athletic the players are today. It’s scary how athletic some of them are now, the development side is so much better.

As to areas where softball has struggled, I’m an optimist so I have a hard time saying anything from a negative perspective, but I don’t like that it feels as if there’s a transfer portal element in travel ball.

It’s incumbent on us, the travel ball coaches and directors, to create an environment where players feel they don’t’ have to jump around to improve. At the same time, it’s the world we live in so we need to try to embrace it and be better.

Nobody wants to leave an organization or program who are happy and we need to create an environment that people love and excel in.

LDM: What do you think of some of the new elements in our sport such as 5-for-5, NIL, transfer portal and other. How do those impact what you’re doing at the club level?

SS: It’s having a big impact, it really is. It’s start to show itself and it will be harder to have high school kids get recruited because of the lack of availability of scholarships at some places.

The top elite players will get recruited like they always have been, but it will be a big challenge for players at the mid-major level on the verge of being a Power 4 player. Never in our sport has the development of a travel player been more important.

I think the ability to back up a player’s recruiting process with data and results will be more important than ever. We just can’t miss and are leaning heavier into that now—a bigger path in credible, verifiable data. It’s important to show not just that a pitcher can throw 65 mph, but why she’s able to and what’s behind that.

As for 5-for-5, allowing for player to have five years of eligibility to compete, it’s great for collegiate athletes and is giving them more opportunities. It will impact the pro level for a year, though; we may not have a pro draft next year.

LDM:  What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

SS: I think seeing the joy in the players. I love competition—that’s in my DNA—but I really, really can’t stop thinking about our walk-off in Nationals to win Game 1. It was on ESPN and I get choked up thinking about, seeing the joy in that.

I also love seeing our players sign on signing day. Competition is something we get to do and we’re very blessed to do in at a high level that’s structured. It’s so rewarding seeing them celebrate each other and all the cool things after all the hard work they put in.

If you don’t enjoy the celebrations when you get the chance, you’re not going to enjoy this sport. When someone signs with a university, we usually see five or six of her teammates get out of school to go celebrate with her!

LDM: Let’s talk Cat Osterman… what a coup to have her involved with the Bombers as Director of Pitching and a coach! How did that come about and how has she made an impact since she started?

SS: Cat lives in the same hometown I live in, New Braunfels, and I knew her when I coached in the NPF with the Texas Charge (Editor’s note: the NPF or the National Pro Fastpitch league was a pro softball league that ran from 2004 to 2021).

Cat moved back to New Braunfels after retiring and looked for a place to train. She asked about training at our facility and I said “Absolutely, here’s a key come… whenever you want!”

She and I got to talking–she missed being on the field so we talked about that—and Cat’s been with us about five years now, out of the gate. She’s over the development of pitching and she’s had a big impact when you look at timing of our growth.

This 18U team is as much hers as it is mine. We’re both Type A personalities and are passionate about winning the game. There’s very good balance between us—she relates to our athletes and when she talks, you tend to stop and listen.

Cat honestly has been a big part of our success. We’re smart in that she’s usually on one end of the dugout and I’m on the other so we’re balanced in that sense and it’s paid off. Cat’s the greatest—like Michael Jordan is to basketball, Cat is to softball.

LDM: What’s left for you to do in softball? What are some of your remaining goals?

SS: I need to keep figuring out a way for us to win. We set it as a goal to win; like Mike Stith (of the OC Batbusters), he doesn’t start the season hoping to win a championship, he prepares his teams to expect that.

My goal is always to create a steady environment where they can excel as softball players and, at same time, grow them into being good humans and players the college want to recruit.

It’s like going to the same grocery store over and over; you like it and you do it the same way day in and day out because it works. We want colleges to say that, when it comes to the Bombers organization, that’s where you go, to get kids who compete.

Also, I want this all—the Bombers Fastpitch program— to survive me. I believe it’s built to be survivable past me. I’m nowhere near retiring from the game I love, but when I do I want to fish and play golf and play with my grandkids—and I’m not sure of the order I’ll do that! (laughs).

I have four grandkids…they’re the best!

LDM: If you were the king of the world and could make one change in softball to make it better, what would it be?

SS: I’d make it where pro players are compensated like baseball players or some sort of magnitude like that. That would be so cool, to inspire young players like in the NFL of MLB.

I love the fact that it’s becoming better in that sense and would love to see it continue to grow and get better for the players and the long-term growth of the sport.

LDM: Finally, without thinking too deeply, what is a softball memory that pops into your mind first when I ask what’s been an experience you’ll always remember?

SS: It should be us winning the Alliance Nationals championship in 2024, coming back to win after we had stubbed our toe in the previous national championship, but it ain’t that—it’s winning Game 1 of this summer’s national championship against the Batbusters.

It’s the circumstance that makes it special… we were losing and had to fight back to tie it in the game in the bottom of the 7^th.

It went to extra innings, they put a runner on second and eventually loaded the bases and we were fortunate to hold to just one run.

In our bottom of the inning, we have our runner on second, we try to bunt but they got our runner out at third.

Typically, you get that person out, you lose the game. We get a base runner at first, but then a strikeout and we’re down to two outs.

Our next hitter, outfielder Avery Tucker, who signed with Ole Miss, is facing their pitcher going to Florida and she has a 14 pitch at-bat before she ultimately draws a walk, moving the first runner to scoring position.

Then, our catcher Abby Lynch-Buxton, who also is headed to Ole Miss, comes up to the plate and with a full count hits a blast for a walk-off home runs and the feeling I got was just incredible. We had everything going against us, but all three games were like that.

After the end of the three-game series and the championship win by the Batbusters in Game 3, Coach Stith came over to me and said:

“Scott, we just put on a show that softball should be proud of!”

Here’s the video clip that Coach Smith referenced, the walk-off home run in Game 1 of the year’s Alliance Nationals by Abby Lynch-Buxton: