ALL-AMERICAN: Nadine Arredondo awarded ultimate title to end high school career

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National Fast Pitch News All-American Nadine Arredondo is the 2017 Big Country Offensive Player of the Year, according to the All-Big Country softball team published online Saturday by the Abilene Reporter-News. | The Flash Today photo by BRAD KEITH

By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com

STEPHENVILLE (June 21, 2o17) — Nadine Arredondo will go down as one of the most decorated athletes in the history of Stephenville ISD.

And as of Wednesday, she will forever be known as an All-American.

Arrredondo has been named an honorable-mention selection to the Fastpitch News High School All-American team after a senior year in which she blistered opponents to add to her school career home runs record, break her own single-seasons home run mark and establish new records for career and single-season runs batted in.

“She’s the most powerful player I have ever been blessed to coach,” said Stephenville head coach Rus Mayes. “She can turn on a ball and drive it out of the park in a hurry, and she was a great third baseman for us, too.”

More than that, Mayes knows well what kind of character is possessed by the May graduate.


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“Her character is what drives her. She is upbeat and always motivated,” said Mayes. “Nadine wanted to be involved in every sport she could yet she has such a special ability to compartmentalize and hone her focus onto the task immediately at hand, and that’s why she excelled in everything she participated in this spring and throughout her high school career.”

Like powerlifting, making it to the 2017 Texas High School Powerlifting Association Girls Championships. And track and field, reaching the 2017 UIL Track & Field State Meet in the discus and just missing double-qualifying in the shot put by placing third at the Region I-4A meet.

Her senior softball numbers were almost unreal, Mayes says, chuckling as he scrolls through the stats: .517 batting average, 12 home runs, 53 RBI, 39 runs scored and 44.4 percent of her 55 hits in 30 games going for extra bases. She finished with 26 career home runs, the 14 entering her senior year already a school record. The new career RBI record belonging to the All-American slugger is 118, and she scored 100 total runs in her career.

“Most coaches dream that just one time during their career they could have a Nadine Arredondo,” said Mayes. “I’ve been blessed with the chance to have her, and it was just an honor to get to be her coach.”

Arredondo is the fourth All-American athlete at Stephenville since the turn of the century. Jevan Snead was an Army All-American quarterback in 2005, Chase Varnado was named a MaxPreps Mid-Size All-American defensive end in 2012 and Jarrett Stidham was an Under Armour All-American quarterback in 2014.


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