College Bound

January 21, 2010

Alyssa Cousins

Commits to University of Iowa

I am pleased to announce that AC aka Alyssa Cousins has verbally committed to play for coach Gayle Blevins and the University of Iowa which is in the Big 10 conference! AC had several offers including full offers from North Texas and Lafayette, but in the end she went with her heart and is pursuing one of the finest academic degrees in the country in the Big 10 conference. She will compete at the highest level against some of the best universities in the country, the Big 10 is even has its own sports network on cable. I am very happy for AC, she is a great example of what dreams can come true with hard work, dedication, patience and a commitment to being the best. Many of you have seen with your own eyes what a great story this has become. AC started playing for Texas Fusion on our 14U team in 2007, after one year we decided it would be in her best interest to move up to the Gold team. She came to the Gold team as a "project" player with great potential. She had to sit and watch alot of the upper classmen the first year that she played on our Gold team. She continued to hit with me every week and take catching lessons from Steph. We decided to help her become the best catcher that we could. As she grew more comfortable in that environment and playing for us, we really started to see her grow and develop into one of the best catchers in the country. I also made her work her way into the line up very slowly. I would let her hit in showcases and she would hit well at times, and seemed to always led the team in HR's every weekend that I would let her hit. We just kept working and working and trying to make her better and hungrier. Last summer when we lost both of our catchers, AC stepped up and became one of the anchors of our defense and one of the fiercest players on the field. This fall she hit full time and became one of the leaders on our defense and at the plate. She has a lot of room to grow, as all of our players do, but she has came a long way and worked as hard as anyone to earn this great scholarship from legendary coach Blevins. AC is also one of the brightest and hardest working students in the classroom, I can't go into alot of details academically because I really only work with her as a softball player. But it is not uncommon for her to be reading or studying in between lessons or games. She is a very driven person and a great leader for our program, on the field, in the classroom and in life!