Reese Atwood carries Texas lessons and softball’s legacy into the AUSL

Reese Atwood is fresh off a standout four-year career at Texas, where she won two national championships, and now she’s taken that experience straight into the AUSL. If you’re looking for a player who respects the game and the ones who came before her, Atwood is that person.

Ask the Sandia, Texas native what the game has given her, and she doesn’t start with the accolades or the wins. She starts with the people.

“I think honestly the greatest thing I’ve taken from softball is just the relationships that it’s brought me,” Atwood told Southeastern Softball Wire. “I feel like every one of my best friends plays softball at whatever level it is. The community itself is so strong in a sense of support and just being able to celebrate each other. You feel seen, you feel heard, all the things you need to be successful, and I think that’s what the softball community has offered me, and why I absolutely loved it.”

That community didn’t build overnight, and Atwood knows it. She carries this position with honor. Greats such as Cat Osterman, who she grew up watching, laid the foundation for newer generations to build on.

“I think it’s incredible to just see the people that I always looked up to and know how they did things, and I think it just trickles down from generation to generation of softball players,” Atwood said. “All of the alumni, all the players that came before us did things the right way, so it has made us see that on TV or have interactions with those people and be like, that’s what I need to represent when I’m representing the softball community.”

Atwood has a strong love for the game. She’s done it all her life, and at every level she’s made a point to express joy in playing the game of softball. Atwood feels it is a disservice to the game if she did it any other way.

“I think for me, it’s just playing the game with so much joy that the people around me sense how much love I have for the game,” Atwood said. “That’s how a lot of the softball community is. I hate it when I watch other sports, and it just looks like the players hate being on the court or on the field or whatever it might be.

“That’s what makes softball so special, the energy that these women bring to the game and just how much love and joy they have for it. It is our responsibility to continue to show the youth how fun it is, how great it is to be able to play in the AUSL or playing collegiate softball, to play softball in general.”

That respect was shaped more in Austin. Four years as a starter and two national titles gave her the resume, but when Atwood talks about Texas, she speaks on the support and care of the leadership.

“My experience at Texas was nothing short of a dream come true. I will always bleed burnt orange from that,” Atwood said. “Coach White is somebody that I will cherish my relationship with for the rest of my life. He was just such an incredible coach, but I think being an incredible human and being personal to his players and just having a sense of understanding and love, that supported me off the field, that honestly got me through the four years of being at Texas.”

That foundation is what Atwood leans on now as she makes the jump to the pros. The turnaround was quick, but she said the support has carried over from college to the AUSL. She is seeing firsthand and validating what others have said about the league.

“All the resources that they have given us are very similar to what I had in my college experience,” Atwood said. “Honestly, I didn’t necessarily expect that because the league is so new, but I think they’ve done a really great job in just making sure every player is fully acquainted with everything they need.”

Settling in off the field is one thing. Settling in behind the plate with a brand-new staff is another, and Atwood had to do it on the fly. She missed the team’s week in Florida, due to winning a national championship, and walked into a short turnaround. But Atwood is a pro and handles things in stride.

“I think it’s difficult from the start, but just like trusting the process and just being prepared for whatever comes at you,” Atwood said. “At practice today, I was catching bullpen, just to get used to them.”

For a catcher, that adjustment usually comes with the added weight of calling the game. The Blaze have taken that off her plate for now, with the coaching staff handling pitch calls while Atwood and the rest of the catchers get comfortable with the staff.

“They’ve decided to call pitches for us, which has made it 10 times easier, so we can just focus on framing and just communicating with the pitcher, trying to see the tendencies that they have,” Atwood said. “What their best pitches are, where they like to locate them. So it’s just learning as we go.”

It’s a different rhythm than the one she left in Austin, where she spent four years catching the likes of Teagan Kavan, Citlaly Gutierrez, Mac Morgan and Estelle Czech. But the job, she said, comes down to the same thing it always has.

“Honestly, my main job is to make sure every pitcher in our staff is comfortable with me behind the plate,” Atwood said.

For Atwood, the move from Texas to the AUSL hasn’t changed who she is. She plays with joy, she values relationships, and she holds onto the standard that players before her set. That’s the way she came up, and it’s the way she plans to keep going.