GRAPE CREEK, TX—In front of the entire Grape Creek High School senior class and Lady Eagle softball team, senior Rose Bannert made history as the first Grape Creek softball player on record to sign to a college.
“This just shows that you can do anything,” Bannert said. “You’ve just got to keep working and do the best you can and send all your stuff to college coaches and someone is going to pick you up.”
Bannert was an instrumental part to the Lady Eagles’ run of four-straight playoff appearances which began in 2015.
“I can’t take credit for this because I’ve only known her for a year,” smiled head coach Cara Thiel. “But I think what this does for the program, as a whole, is it says, ‘Hey, if this is something you want to do, let’s do it.”
Just as the three years previous, Bannert proved to be as integral to one of the best seasons on record for Grape Creek in 2018, which ended in the Bi-District round of playoffs against Alpine.
As a senior, Bannert boasted a team-best .637 batting average, .995 slugging percentage and 24 RBIs offensively. In the circle Bannert was even more dominant, striking out 59 batters in 17 games to help the Lady Eagles to a 16-7 overall record in 2018.
“Coming in as a new coach, it was nice to have some stability especially at the top of our lineup and pitching; somebody who’s played a lot of softball,” Thiel said. “That was good to kind of come in and rely on somebody like [Rose]. She did a great job for us pitching, defense and hitting. She’s going to be hard to replace, definitely, but I think she set the foundation for working hard because she was very coachable and she listened. That’s where she laid that leadership role for the other kids.”
With the Thiel showing up for her first year, Bannert admits that buying into Thiel’s new methods were tough at first.
“We were getting used to each other,” Bannert said. “Once we got the hang of it, everything started going smoothly.”
Cisco College, a junior college in Region 5 of the NJCAA, has a history of continuing the careers of softball players from the Concho Valley.
Former Lake View Maiden Amanda Ramage took the Cisco Lady Wrangler route which led her back to San Angelo as a member of the back-to-back Lone Star Conference champs and the No. 6-ranked Angelo State Rambelle softball team.
Cisco is coached by 21-year veteran Joel Prickett. During that time, Prickett has coached 25 NCAA Division I transfers and 40 NCAA Division II transfers. Prickett also boasts a 603-401 record in his 16 years as a head coach.
The Lady Wranglers finished their 2018 season with a 16-36 record.
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