The Prep Rally: Best in the West series will highlight the all-time best players in western Arkansas as selected by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Cameron Smith couldn't believe what he learned about high school softball in Arkansas shortly after he moved from California in 1992.
"When I found out girls were playing slow-pitch (softball), I thought, 'Have I landed on the moon or what?,'" said Smith, a former pitcher on the professional fast-pitch circuit. "The next thing you'll tell me is your high school football team is playing flag football."
Smith became a driving force behind Arkansas' change from slow-pitch to fast-pitch at the high school level. Like the conversion from 6-on-6 to 5-on-5 in basketball, high school girls in Arkansas proved adept at making the transition in softball.
That is reflected on the all-time list of best players in western Arkansas as selected by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. From Jessica Reed in 2004-2006 to 2020 graduates Hallie Wacaser and Kally Stout, high school stars in the area have continued their careers at college programs like Arkansas, Tulsa, and Florida State.
"Times have certainly changed," said Jason Shirey, a former head coach at Fayetteville and an Arkansas assistant from 1997-2000. "One of my first recollections coming to the UofA was being told we wouldn't emphasize recruiting Arkansas kids because the talent level lagged so far behind. The college coaches now, at all levels, in this state are benefiting from the increased talent level.
"There's still a way to go in reaching the competitiveness of some of the surrounding states, but that gap has closed significantly."
Wacaser is headed to Florida State after helping Team USA win the championship last fall at the Pan American games in Barranquila, Columbia.
"She obviously has God-given talent, but she takes that to another level because she's so into what it takes to be elite," Bentonville West coach Anthony Cantrell said of his former star, who hit .511 in three seasons with the Wolverines. "That word nowadays gets thrown around quite a bit. But she's truly elite."
The Prep Rally Best in the West team is filled with all-around athletes like Stout, a first baseman and outside hitter in volleyball at Farmington. Stout batted .439 with 10 home runs as a junior for the Cardinals, a Class 4A power that regularly schedules and defeats larger schools in the state. Stout led Farmington to a 25-3 record in 2019 before guiding the school's volleyball team last fall to a 21-5-1 record and state tournament appearance.
"Kally's the best I've had here in 24 years, and we've had a lot of great players," Farmington coach Randy Osnes said. "She has all the tools. She's got speed, she's extremely athletic, and she has one of the smoothest swings of any kid that I've seen."
Like most winning teams, this team is strong up the middle at catcher, pitcher, shortstop and center field, where Jessica Reed batted .483 with 18 home runs and 92 RBI in her career at Fayetteville. Catcher Haley Cornell and pitcher Maddy Prough formed a particularly dynamic battery at Bentonville, a softball power in Arkansas' largest classification. Prough went 60-7 at Bentonville while mostly throwing to Cornell, who batted .432 with 13 home runs for the Tigers.
"Haley, she was definitely my rock," Prough said. "If I was having a bad game, she could just tell. She knew how to calm me down and get straight again."
Morgan Neal was a shortstop at Springdale Har-Ber before transitioning to second base at Tulsa, where she played for four years and was voted onto the school's all-time team by its softball fans. Jenna Wildeman was a top hitter and a menace on the basepaths who had over 100 steals at Bentonville. She currently plays at Central Arkansas.