West Burlington-Notre Dame high school softball coach David Oleson knew there was something special about Maddie Thomas the first time he saw her with a softball in her hand.

In her first varsity start as a pitcher for the Falcons, Thomas allowed just two hits and walked two in a 9-0 victory over Fort Madison.

It was the start of a sensational softball career for Thomas.

On Wednesday, Thomas made sure she will play for another four years after high school when she committed to play softball for Central College, an NCAA Division III school in Pella, starting with the 2026-27 season.

For Thomas, it was the perfect fit.

“The athletic training program is really good. The team. The atmosphere. The coaches. And Pella itself. It’s very pretty,” Thomas said. “I just want to get better as an athlete and really work hard on my grades. Just putting all my work into that.”

“I could tell right away as an eighth grader she wants the ball. She wants to play,” Oleson said. “I put her in the mix right away as an eighth grader. I threw her against Fort Madison. They were a good, quality team and she held them to two hits and we ended up winning. She threw all seven innings.”

Thomas fashioned a 2-2 record with a 5.25 ERA as an eighth grader. Last season she was 7-9 with a 2.24 ERA.

For her first four years with the Falcons, she has a 27-19 record with a 5.10 ERA. In 259 1/3 innings, she has allowed 342 hits and 189 earned runs and walked 156 batters.

Thomas has blossomed as a hitter the last two years. She has 14 home runs and has become a mainstay in the middle of the batting order for the Falcons.

“Since her sophomore year she’s hit five or six home runs a year. She rarely strikes out. She always puts the ball in play,” Oleson said. “I’m really counting on her arm this summer.”

“My coach really helped me,” Thomas said. “He taught me a lot. He showed me that I really could be playing at the collegiate level. Our athletic trainer here let me job shadow her a while back. That really helped me pick athletic training. I had a lot of fun here.”

Thomas will join a Central College team which went 26-13 last season, including 9-7 in the American Rivers Conference. The Dutch qualified for the NCAA Division III regionals, where they went 0-2.

“It will be fun. It will be a lot harder because there will be so many more people,” Thomas said.

Thomas is the 30th player Oleson has sent on to the college level in his 20 years at the helm.

Oleson said Thomas’ leadership on the team has been immeasurable.

“She’s a good kid, a good leader. She helps out with the younger kid and never complains,” Oleson said. “She’s one of those kids you just love to have on your team because she wants to be contributing. She doesn’t complain. She’s just a really good kid to have on your squad.”