BRYAN \u2014 The year was 2024. Bryan\u2019s softball team had its best season in program history as the Golden Bears reached the state final for the first time ever.<\/p>\n
While the Golden Bears finished runner-up to state champion Canfield, the program has never been on a higher stand in history, claiming the Northwest Ohio Athletic League crown outright and a regional title all for the first time during that season.<\/p>\n
And a key factor in Bryan\u2019s success that season and in recent years came from one of the main leaders on the mound in Thea Staten, where Staten said she never knew a time where she wasn\u2019t on a softball field and always had a passion for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom played college softball, and she coached a high school team when I was growing up so once I was born, I was there every single day,\u201d Staten said. \u201cI grew up around softball my whole life and I wasn\u2019t really a pitcher, I liked third base a bit more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then one time, I was frustrated because we were losing, and my grandpa told me, that if you\u2019re a pitcher, then you\u2019re in charge of the game and ever since then, that clicked and that\u2019s why I love pitching because I can control the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staten\u2019s profile couldn\u2019t be more stacked with accomplishments and achievements which includes being a part of three district crown and two NWOAL title teams.<\/p>\n
For the Golden Bears, she tallied a program-best 305 strikeouts in 2025 as a junior and had a record-setting ERA of .424. She blasted eight homers, recording 37 RBIs and totaled 83 bases \u2014 all school records \u2014 as a sophomore.<\/p>\n
Her accolades even extend to 2023 where, as a freshman, she set a program-best 23 wins and a winning percentage of 92 (23-2) along with belting 11 doubles. She also racked up over 800 career strikeouts, 90 RBIs and 50 career wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a pitcher, I could control the game, I could make it fast, I could do what I want, but when you\u2019re an infielder, you\u2019re just kind of like sitting there waiting for the ball to get hit,\u201d Staten said. \u201cI\u2019m involved with every pitch and I can control what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first three years she has been in high school, she has received the honor of being named to the All-Ohio first team and was tabbed the NWOAL player of the year as a junior and a sophomore along with being named an All-NWOAL first teamer her freshman year.<\/p>\n
She also has decided to further her softball career into the college level, traveling out of state and signing to play at Division I North Carolina State University this fall and major in criminology.<\/p>\n
But regardless of her accomplishments and achievements, Staten said she couldn\u2019t have become the player she is today without the love and support from her parents, who helped her work on her passion for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents had a huge role with this,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate enough that they have drove me all over the country and have spent so much in helping me become the player I am today. I play travel ball all over and I would go to two different pitching coaches, where I have one in Ypsilanti, Michigan and one in Bowling Green and they would drive me there twice a week on school nights before I could drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of her travel ball outings, she also said she has a nutritionist and a personal trainer who help keep her fighting fit and further improve her abilities on the diamond as she said she throws every pitch but her favorite is the change-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a nutritionist named Jeremy Phelps who works with the MLB and I have a personal trainer, coach Hicks, that does all my agility, recovery and all that,\u201d Staten said. \u201cBecause its not just the pitching, its like how I\u2019m taking care of myself which takes a lot of work, where after practices I go home and run, lift, pitch on my own. There\u2019s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that people don\u2019t see that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilary Staten, Thea\u2019s softball coach and mother, has watched her daughter grow into the dominant leader on the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe looked up to the players I was coaching as a youngster and wanted to be them,\u201d Hilary said. \u201cShe saw what they were doing, she saw the work they put in and she saw their dedication to the sport and she wanted to be that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she was willing to put in the work. She has grown so much as a player, with everything from knowing her body to knowing what\u2019s off about her pitches, how to fix it, self-criticism, how to talk herself through difficult situations, how to maintain composure and emotion at times where there\u2019s high emotion, all of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilary Staten also said how while Thea spends a ton of her time working on her game, the payouts are worth it every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile she sacrifices a lot of time and energy to train and improve her skills, the game gives back to her in meaningful ways,\u201d Hilary Staten said. \u201cOn the field is where Thea truly thrives. It\u2019s clear that the field is her safe haven \u2014 a place where she feels comfortable and confident. It\u2019s also where she finds a true sense of fulfillment and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thea herself said she plays year-round softball to keep herself sharp and ready to play at any given time or date.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my younger travel ball days, I was out of Toledo, and then I started going out of Michigan, and then now my travel team is out of Illinois so in the summer and fall I play with them there,\u201d Thea said. \u201cln the summer I go to California, Arizona, Colorado, Chicago and Missouri which are like the main tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then in the fall I go to like Tennessee, Georgia, California, Arizona and then I have practices in Chicago, so like the main seasons for travel ball with summer and fall because you can\u2019t play spring ball and play high school ball in the same season. In the winter, we only have a few practices because the girls from the team are all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
With her final season in motion for the Golden Bears and establishing herself as a prolific athlete for the program, Thea hopes to inspire the youngsters to become pitchers while enjoying and loving the game as much as she does as well as working to reach their potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I inspire so many people to be pitchers because pitching is honestly so fun but it\u2019s not for everyone,\u201d Thea said. \u201cPitching is hard work and I don\u2019t think a lot of people understand it so I give lessons to little girls and I teach them what I know so I can inspire people to love the game as much as I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilary Staten couldn\u2019t be more proud of her daughter and believes that her decision to play at NC State was truly meant to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud of her accomplishments and the determination she has shown in pursuing her softball goals and she has worked incredibly hard to turn her dreams into reality, and it\u2019s been amazing to watch her journey,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m so excited to see Thea play Division I college softball\u2014something she set her mind to at a very young age. I have no doubt that the NC State softball program will be the perfect fit\u2014and absolutely worth the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRYAN \u2014 The year was 2024. Bryan\u2019s softball team had its best season in program history as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2510,2315,2309,2336,5,2313,2325,2417,2413,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,17160,2307,2320,2327,2321,1210,185,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-653965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-athletic-sports","10":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","11":"tag-ball-games","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","14":"tag-baseball-teams","15":"tag-champion-seasons-in-baseball","16":"tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","17":"tag-major-league-baseball","18":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","19":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","20":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","21":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","22":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","24":"tag-mlb","25":"tag-mlb-playoffs","26":"tag-mlb-postseason","27":"tag-ncaa-division-i-fbs-football-teams","28":"tag-outdoor-sports","29":"tag-pitcher","30":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","31":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","32":"tag-softball","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-team-sports","35":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}