Lily Beals is a talented incoming junior infielder and for Carmel (Calif.) High this spring earned All-County honors after batting .440 with 30 RBIs, 38 runs scored, 44 hits and 20 steals in 27 games.

She’s now fully immersed in club play with the Lady Magic – Tucker team and played last weekend at Top Gun where she batted .421 after hitting .600 at Zoom Into June.

Lily now has a sizzling .538 so far this summer and this weekend she’s at the Goodwill Games where she started off 3-for-3 with three RBIs.

Our first intro to Lily came in February when we learned that she and her father, Stephen, drive everywhere together for team practices, workouts and tournaments—more than 72,000 miles annually!

Click HERE to read that article and HERE to read her most recent blog before this one titled: Lily Beals on Coaching & Being Coached… “Know Which Style Works Best for You (May 16, 2026)

We quickly realized that Lily is a skilled writer (she has a 4.25 GPA, too) and she’s now one of our standout bloggers!

Here’s her latest in which she writes about finalizing her “softball brand” and how she did it…

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One of the things I’ve learned through recruiting is that being a good softball player is no longer enough.

Recently, after flying back from Top Gun Invitational in Kansas City, I was home long enough to wash my uniforms and then head back to the airport for another event. 

Today, athletes are expected to build a brand—it’s just not enough to have good grades, play on a legendary team and post some videos of nice hitting and fielding—you need a brand.

That’s the buzz word everyone uses now: “Brand.”

At first, I didn’t really understand what that meant.

I thought my brand was how I played, how I treated my teammates, how hard I worked and how I responded when things didn’t go my way.

That’s not enough anymore.

So what is my brand? 

Going through NCSA and SportsRecruits (for some reason, I need both), I see everyone posting about themselves, but I wonder is that enough? 

What would make me stand out? And what IS my brand? 

I decided to do some research to finalize brand, thinking that if I talked to people and got their perspectives on me—literally “what they say about me”—that would help me determine what makes up “me!” 

If I was asked to write about myself, it would sound exactly like everyone on my team—“they are amazing hitters,” “make clean defensive plays,” “are fast on the bases,” “have good grades.,” and so on.

So instead, I sent out text messages to those of whom I really care what they think about me:

• my current coach,
• my old coach,
• my high school coach,
• some of my teachers,
• my batting coach,
• and my fielding coach.

I asked them to give me a paragraph to use for recruiting and, wow! What they said about me was probably the most rewarding aspect of my time as an athlete. 

I still get teary eyed each time I cut and paste their responses in an e-mail going out to people in the softball world.

Now that I had my “brand,” there was a lot more work to be done.

As athletes, we’re expected to post constantly. Create content. Build engagement. Grow followers. Share highlights. Update profiles. Send emails. Attend camps. Promote ourselves. The message seems to be that if nobody sees it online, it didn’t happen.

Note: if anyone at NCSA is reading this, it’s just cruel to have the 200 per week limitation and please stop telling me I’m reaching for the stars based on your algorithms!

As a 16-year-old, that’s a strange concept—doing all this work to promote yourself.

I realized that getting feedback from the people who see me every day is the best way to build my brand because these are the people who know the whole story. 

They see the extra work.  They see the good days.  They see the bad days.  They see how I react when I fail.  They see how I treat people when nobody is watching. 

Those opinions matter more to me than anything I could write about myself. 

The funny part is that creating a brand based on what other people say about you is harder.  It does take longer, true, and you can’t manufacture, edit or filter what they say… you must earn it every day. 

I still send the emails.  I still post the videos.  I still update my profiles, and I still do all the things that recruiting requires. 

However, I’ve never wanted my recruiting story to be built on a list of things I say about myself, I want it to be built on the impact I have on the people around me.

I want coaches to see a player who competes, leads, and helps change the energy of a game.

Someone who contributes with more than statistics—a teammate who elevates a dugout, earns the trust of her coaches, and becomes the kind of player every program wants on its roster.

Because when recruiting is over, followers won’t matter.  Views won’t matter.  Algorithms won’t matter. 

The reputation you build with people will, and if I have a brand, I hope that’s what it stands for.

— Lily Beals/Line Drive Media Blogger

If you enjoy Lily’s writing or want to follow her journey, you can do so on X.com: @lilybeals2028 and on IG: lilybeals_2028.