Question: do you know how many states play high school fastpitch softball in the fall?
Answer: there are five including Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia which is arguably the most significant of these states. 

Line Drive Softball is excited to launch a 12-week series covering the prep play in the Peach State led by Steve Hickey under the title of Road to Columbus, tracking the pathway to the state championships in Columbus, Ga.

Here’s our first edition of the series which reviews the history of how fastpitch in Georgia became the powerful force in the sport it is today…

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As the national travel softball tournament schedule winds down, Georgia athletes return to high school play and, old timey values aside, even in 2025 the prestige of representing your high school and wearing that jersey still matters.    

For these players, there is a real adjustment from the grinding summer schedule.  Everything is different – goals, dugout cultures, roles on the team, pace of play, coaching philosophies, and parental engagement all shift gears. 

For most teams, they have been doing workouts and practices without their best players that were far flung across the country all July into August. 

Now, coaches and teammates welcome back their best players and finish preparation in their respective corners of campus, all the while in the shadow of the pending footballs season.

If you’re in Georgia, and you know it’s softball season, you are a true believer!   

Though well in the minority of states that play fall fastpitch softball, the top tier talent and breadth of participation in Georgia makes the sport important nonetheless.

Georgia has 463 high schools – 407 public and 56 private – and organizes softball in multiple classifications (A through AAAAAAA, excluding independent schools). 

A quick fact check of participation: each school typically fields a varsity team, and many also have junior varsity teams.   Including the junior varsity level, Georgia boasts of almost 12,000 girls that play at the high school level. 

No one disputes California and Florida as ground zero for almost all things prep sports, but Georgia is no slouch as it consistently tracks third with the most softball players moving on to play in college. 

Let’s repeat that statistic so it doesn’t go unnoticed: the state of Georgia is third behind Cali and Florida in most high school softball players moving on to play at the collegiate level!

What makes that phenomenon?  Weather and resources contribute, for sure, but the culture of Georgia is unique.

While football is king, the Peach State’s status as a baseball factory has never been a secret.  Every season, rising baseball talent is celebrated as local boys or visiting teams pack the stands full of homegrown friends and family. 

Pull the curtain back a little, though, and behind every starting quarterback and shortstop, there is a little girl who wants to compete too.

You don’t have to look much further than the college level; not coincidentally, behind every great college softball team, there’s a great college football team. In recent history, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Florida State prove this point and we’ll soon see if it’s true also at Texas Tech.

There’s much to love about playing softball in the fall weather in the South, and everything pointing towards Columbus, Georgia at the end of October. 

Remember, Columbus was the host city for softball in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

After the Olympics, the facility sat without purpose for many years.  Paint was peeling, netting began to dry rot, and upkeep began to fall behind.  There were some spotty summer tournaments organized there, but there are few hotter dots on maps than Columbus, Ga. now in the summer.  

That positive development happened because the backers of Georgia high school determined to put the top eight teams out of each classification in a super pro tournament down there. 

As a result, the facilities have been reinvigorated and the tournament format of each of the eight divisions, determining its champion, has become the go to destination for fans and college coaches alike.  

What is it like today, the ambience of fastpitch softball?

Sometimes it feels like Las Vegas, when a certain game or match-up captures the collective conch of the park. 

Other times, it feels like the Masters Golf Championship; where the roar from other fields will roll across the park, making everyone crane their neck to see. 

Organizers are wise throughout these Elite 8 match-ups to keep all the same classification teams at the same start times so it’s better to measure future match-ups.  It’s a glorious dense offering of the state’s best talent.   

However, Georgia still struggles with balancing power between historical rural football icons and private and city schools near Atlanta. 

In the battle of power, softball gets swept up and because they are the first sport out each school year and often left to figure things out for all the other sports.  The messiness spills out far from the playing field of the championships but include individual recognition and all state teams.   

The two biggest storylines that can be seen at this early time of the year is how will the five-year war of East Coweta vs. Buford in the highest classification of Georgia be settled. 

Between the two schools, they have four of the last five years’ worth of titles (East Coweta winning in 2020 and 2024, Buford in 2022 and 2023, North Gwinnett winning in 2021).

Returning stars like Jada Savage, a 2026 grad at East Coweta High, and Buford senior Caroline Stanton now have one last chance to write their side of a story featuring this clash of Georgia dynasties.  

The other storyline worth noting is the Wesleyan Wolves punctuating their own dynasty. 

Led by Florida-bound senior commit Shayla Bahr and Ole Miss senior verbal Avery Tucker, Wesleyan will reload and try to punch its fifth title in a row and sixth in eight years! 

Wow. 

Over the next 12 weeks, we will do our best to detail, comment, interview players, coaches, and officials.

We will keep the Peach State in our focus as teams compete to realize their dreams and to be a nightmare to their rivals. 

Until champions are awarded on Saturday, November 1st, check here early and often for updates!

— Steve Hickey for Line Drive Softball