Since Dec. 23, 2025 and up through yesterday (Jan. 2, 2026), we’ve reviewed the top stories of 2025 in softball at all levels—from youth to club & high school to college, pro and international.

Below are the Top 10 Stories of the Year (2025) listed in 10 to 1 order going back to the week of Christmas through New Year’s Day.

Click on the headlines below to be directed to each article.

Tomorrow, we’ll finalize our 2025 by looking at the Other Stories Considered among the 1,097 stories published last year on our site!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

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Click on the links below to go directly to the article…

No. 10: The Creation of the Armor Elite Fastpitch Organization

Date Published: Dec. 23, 2025
Why Chosen: Three championship-winning club coaches –  Brittany Lewis, previously with Mojo, Chad O’Neal of Georgia Impact and Josh Lynch of the Atlanta Vipers – united to form one “super club” program that already is making noise heading into 2026. The plan: to field 50 teams and with 20 teams in each region with two in each age group: a Premier and a Regional. 

No. 9: Puerto Rico beats USA in U15 World Cup & Makes Title Game, Melendez Family Key

Date Published: Dec. 24, 2025
Why Chosen: It’s rare for the USA to lose in any age group in the World Cup other than a team not from Japan, but this year Puerto Rico topped the Red, White and Blue in the U15 World Cup in Milan Italy. Making it more interesting is that two sisters from California, Nylah (2028) and Naimi (2029) played on Team Puerto Rico to upset the American squad.

No. 8: Club Dynasties Highlight Year Including One Championship Winner That’s Just Two Years Old!

Date Published: Dec. 25, 2025
Why Chosen: Many well-known travel ball organizations including the OC Batbusters, Texas Bombers and Athletics Mercado dominated once again this year, but the biggest story in 2025 from the club ranks is that a second-year program, Arizona Rising – Appel led by Steve Appel, won the PGF 18U Premier National Championship…. not too often you see a relative “newbie” team emerge so quickly to be the best in the nation.

No. 7: 2028 Los Angeles Olympic News with USA Change of Coaches & Change of Venue

Date Published: Dec. 26 2025
Why Chosen: Softball in the Olympics has been a hit or miss affair – after not being included in the 2012 and 2026 Games, the sport returned in 2020 with Japan taking Gold in the Tokyo Olympics so with Los Angeles the host in two years, any development for the U.S. and is key and that included Patty Gasso taking over head coaching duties from Heather Tarr. Additionally, the softball venue will not be in So Cal but in Oklahoma City,  more than 1,300 miles from the center of the 2028 Games.

No. 6: Horrible Accidents in Oklahoma Cause Heartbreak

Date Published: Dec. 27, 2025
Why Chosen: In life, especially over the course of a year, it’s inevitable that there will be deaths and tragedies, but what happened in September was shocking in that two vehicular accidents within weeks of each other in Oklahoma led to one softball player dying, 10-year-old Kella Cruickshank of Gametime Stars and several others were seriously injured in a bus crash, though fortunately none would pass away. Still, it was a stark reminder that life is fragile and should not be taken for granted.

No. 5: Transgender Minnesota Softball Player Marissa Rothenberger Sparks Debate in Club & High School Fastpitch

Date Published: Dec. 28, 2025
Why Chosen: In the spring and summer of 2025, a major controversy took place in Minnesota prep softball when Marissa Rothenberger, a 6-foot junior pitcher for Champlin Park (Minn.) High, helped her team win the Minnesota 4A State Championship. The controversy that caused a lot of heated opinions and emotions on both sides of the issue is that Marissa was born Charlie Dean Rothenberger and at age 9 began transitioning to a female. Many strongly felt that it was an unfair advantage for a former male to be playing with females and this issue looks like it won’t be resolved any time soon.

No. 4: Sophie Campbell’s Inspiring Story of Battling Epilepsy To Excel on the Field

Date Published: Dec. 29, 2025
Why Chosen: An inspiring story of overcoming odds and obstacles is always welcomed and this heart-warming story of a talented 2028 softball player was one of the best of the year. Sophie Campbell from Rosedale, Va., had a terrifying incident happen three years ago when she collapsed to the ground having a seizure due to a form of epilepsy. Since then, however, she had surmounted her health issues to not only continue her softball career, but to excel as one of the best in her class.

No. 3: The Texas Longhorns End The Oklahoma Sooners Dominating Run

Date Published: Dec. 30, 2025
Why Chosen: In 2024, the Oklahoma Sooners won a fourth straight NCAA D1 title and the team that lost that series was the Univ. of Texas. The Longhorns, however, were the 2025 preseason favorites and, despite having a target on their backs, won its first ever softball championship behind the strong bat of Mia Scott, who hit a grand slam in the deciding third game of the championship against Texas Tech, and the shut-down pitching of Tegan Kavan. What made the Longhorns title all the more impressive is that it came across All-American Red Raider pitcher NiJaree Canady. 

No. 2: Pro Leagues Expand with New Franchises – & More Opportunities – Across the Country

Date Published: Dec. 31, 2025
Why Chosen: If there’s been a disappointing aspect of fastpitch softball over the years, it’s that a pro league could never be sustained to give the best in the sport the opportunity to make a significant income using their athletic talents. That could–and should – be changing as two pro leagues are expanding and giving more softball standouts a chance to play at a high level. Those two leagues are the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) and the Pro Softball League (PSL) and together they will field 13 teams this year in places like Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Birmingham (Ala.) and New York City.

No. 1: NIL Deals Continue to Impact College Landscape & Softball Is Very Much Included

Date Published: Jan. 2, 2026
Why Chosen: Last year’s No. 1 story is also this year’s top story and that is the growing impact of the Name Image Likeness (NIL) situation allowing college athletes (and younger) the opportunity to profit for their sports abilities. In 2024, the seven-figure NIL deal done with Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady shocked the sports world, but more and more players in softball – and all sports, actually – are being compensated. And that has trickled down to the younger athletes including a junior high standout, LG Goldin, who told us this year: “I will officially become a Mizuno Athlete this Summer before I start high school.” 

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As a bonus, here are the Top 10 Stories of the Year for 2024…

No. 10: The Alliance to Hold All National Championships In Indy

Date Published: Dec. 23, 2024
Why Chosen: Announced in September, the decision by The Alliance to host all its club championships, ages 10U to 18U, at the same time Indiana is designed to emulate the successful NCAA softball postseason. A great opportunity to see all the best in The Alliance Fastpitch playoffs at one time and in one place.

No. 9: The State of the Pro Game

Date Published: Dec. 24, 2024
Why Chosen: It’s been a mixed-bag when it comes to pro softball and in 2024 there was more bad news as the Women’s Professional Fastpitch league announced in wouldn’t be playing over the summer. However, heading into 2025, there’s exciting news coming out of Athletes Unlimited with the launch of its league this year as well as the one run by the Association of Fastpitch Professionals (AFP).

No. 8: The Power of GoFundMe in Softball (Dec. 25, 2024)

Date Published: Dec. 25, 2024
Why Chosen: GoFundMe has raised over $9 billion over the last 10 years and the great fund-raising tool has made its presence felt in softball helping several in the high school and college spaces who have suffered and need funds raised for them.

No. 7: The Passing of 2016-17 Gatorade National Player of the Year Taylor Dockins

Date Published: Dec. 26, 2024
Why Chosen: Taylor Dockins stole the heart of softball fans everywhere eight years ago as she emerged as a feisty and dominating record-setting pitcher from Norco, Calif. who was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year. What really was uplifting was how Taylor battled a rare form of cancer to come back to the field triumphantly, but in June 2024, the athlete succumbed to cancer and passed at the tender age of 25.

No. 6: Oklahoma’s Launch of Love’s Field Raises the Bar For Softball Stadium

Date Published: Dec. 27, 2024
Why Chosen: A huge accomplishment and reward for the premier program in college softball right now, the University of Oklahoma, which launched a state-of-the-art softball stadium called Love’s Field that holds 4,200 fans and cost $48 million to build.

No. 5: Duke Softball Makes The WCWS… In Only Its 7th Year of Play

Date Published: Dec. 28, 2024
Why Chosen: Duke has been known forever as a power in college basketball, but the school’s softball program has quickly become a power in college softball as the Marissa Young-led program went 52-9 this year to capture the ACC title and make it to the Women’s College World Series for the first time—an impressively quick ascension to the premier level in D1 softball.

No. 4: Jordyn Bahl Redshirts After Season-Ending Injury

Date Published: Dec. 29, 2024
Why Chosen: Expectations were very high at the Univ. of Nebraska in 2024 as the Cornhuskers had a huge transfer come in: pitcher Jordy Bahl, who had been a two-time All-American at Oklahoma and a contributor to the Sooners’ pair of National Championships. But in the opening game for Nebraska, Bahl went down with a knee injury in the 3^rd inning of the very first game and saw that end her season.

No. 3: The “Killer B’s” – The Bolts & Bombers – Dominate Club Summer Ball 

Date Published: Dec. 30, 2024
Why Chosen: Travel softball has dozens, if not hundreds, of quality programs fielding teams that can win Nationals and top tournaments at any given time. But there were two that were unusually dominant in the Birmingham Thunderbolts led by Rocky Thompson and Texas Bombers headed by Scott Smith.

No. 2: Oklahoma Sooners Make It Four NCAA D1 Championships in a Row

Date Published: Dec. 31, 2024
Why Chosen: There have been some tremendous dynasties in college fastpitch softball including UCLA coached by Sue Enquist and Arizona under the direction of Mike Candrea, who’s also been a USA Olympic Team coach. However, over the last four years something has been done for the first time in D1 history: four straight national titles under Head Coach Patty Gasso who has built a dynasty in Norman, Okla. as the Oklahoma Sooners are dominating on the field and in the recruiting scene.

No. 1: NiJaree Canady’s NIL Deal Raises the Bar in Women’s Sports

Date Published: Jan. 1, 2025
Why Chosen: NiJaree Canady has emerged as the top player in the collegiate game after two huge years for Stanford that culminated in 2023 with her being named the USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year. Still, no one was prepared when she announced a transfer to Texas Techy and an NIL deal over $1 million annually that will open the doors for female athletes everywhere.

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