KK Mathis heads to JMU softball with Gatorade POY honor
CINCINNATI (BVM) – KK Mathis has been impressive throughout her entire high school softball career at Lakota West, and she saved her best for last this past season. It’s been a long journey on the road to becoming a state champion and Gatorade Ohio Softball Player of the Year, but Mathis has enjoyed it every step of the way.
Mathis first stepped foot on the softball diamond about 10 years ago, with her love of the game stemming from watching her older brother, Brock, play baseball. A star at Fairfield High School, Brock went on to play college baseball at Oklahoma State, and most recently in Tallahassee with the Florida State Seminoles.
“Growing up, I was always around my brother playing baseball,” KK said. “I’ve looked up to him ever since I was a young kid watching him play. I just always wanted to follow in his footsteps.”
Through her youth, KK played softball locally in the Cincinnati area. She eventually began a travel career, first joining a nationally-ranked Ohio Stingrays club, then moving on to play for Beverly Bandits. After realizing how seriously she wanted to take softball while with the Bandits, KK moved on to play for the Ohio Hawks Fastpitch Organization, and most recently, Tennessee Mojo Fisher.
The 5-foot-9 pitcher and first baseman admits she wasn’t always the best one out there amongst the high-level competition. However, her work ethic set her apart, as did her leadership and competitiveness on the field.
“I always want to win,” KK said. “I’m always going to try to find a way to win. Even if we’re down, my positivity is still up there because I still believe in my team. I would say my leadership and my competitiveness is what sets me apart from other players.”
Those same skills and attributes have translated to KK’s high school career. Moving to attend Lakota West half way through her freshman year, KK wasn’t sure if she would make the varsity squad in her first season with a competitive Firebirds program. She did, however, and by the end of the season, KK had become a staple of Lakota West’s rotation.
“I had to earn my spot, I had to work hard for it,” KK said. “By the end of the season, that’s when I finally got in my groove and I was pitching every game … It gave me a lot of maturity under my belt.”
KK never got the chance to build on a strong freshman season after her sophomore season was canceled. However, not having a season was actually a good thing for the softball standout.
Being shut down due to a stress fracture injury in her back, KK was slated to miss the entire 2020 season anyways, and it allowed her to rest and fully recover without missing any action.
“It was a blessing in disguise for me because I wasn’t even going to be able to touch the field,” KK explained. “I was completely shut down, I couldn’t do anything.”
As she got healthier throughout the summer and the rest of the offseason, KK was fully prepared to take the field again at Lakota West for her junior year, looking not only to win, but just enjoy being back with her teammates.
“My goals going in were to play the best ball I can and to go out there and have fun,” KK said. “This game can be so hard mentally and physically, and you can lose sight of why you play it. For me, I just wanted to have the joy of the game and to love it. Going out there and playing with a smile on my face was the No. 1 goal for me. When you go out there and play the game you love happily, good things happen.”
Good things indeed happened during KK’s 2021 season, as she helped lead Lakota West to a perfect 18-0 record in the Greater Miami Conference and a state semifinal appearance as the Ohio Division I softball player of the year and conference athlete of the year.
Over the course of the season, the pitcher and first baseman hit an impressive .519 with 13 home runs, 50 RBIs, 41 hits and 29 runs. In the circle, she earned 20 wins for the 30-2 Firebirds, striking out 191 batters with a 1.47 ERA.
While proud of the accolades and tremendous individual success, the sting of losing in the state semifinals never went away for KK or her teammates.
“The pain that we felt on that field right after we got beat was like no other,” KK said. “We all used it as a drive and fuel … We’re not used to losing. That fueled all the seniors.”
Returning several players from that team in 2022, Lakota West was motivated and seen as one of the top teams in the country, ranked in MaxPreps’ top 25 throughout the spring. They knew they had what it took to get back to state, and for KK and those in her 2022 class, it was about giving the Firebirds everything they had left.
“I just wanted to go out and have fun, it’s your last year and you have to make the most of it,” KK said. “I was giving it all I had, trying to make sure that every game I played, I left it all out there on the field.”
Lakota West impressed throughout the season, again making it back to Akron. This time, a more relaxed Firebirds team was ready to achieve its goal.
“We were 10 times more comfortable,” KK said. “We knew what the atmosphere was going to be like, we knew what we were walking into … Last year we played scared, this year we played like we wanted to win.”
The state tournament began a bit rough, as KK gave up five runs in the first inning of the state semifinal game. However, the team stayed calm, chipped away at the deficit and came out on top against North Canton Hoover, winning its 15th consecutive game.
Getting over the semifinal hump, Lakota West did not look back, dominating the state championship game against Holland Springfield, 9-2. In the contest, KK went 3-for-3 at the plate with a home run and a double. In the circle, she limited Holland Springfield to just five hits, striking out six batters.
It’s an @OHSAASports Division I State Championship Final-
Springfield- 2
Lakota West- 9
More pics to follow….#StateChampions pic.twitter.com/biCAT4tN2a— Scott Kaufman (@LakotaWestAD) June 4, 2022
“When we won, I burst out in tears,” KK said. “I’d been praying about this and had been dreaming about winning a state championship ever since I was a little girl. It was such a fulfilling moment and it still gives me tears … We made history for our school and for Cincinnati, it was great for the team, great for the community, great personally, and something I’ll never, ever get over.”
Overall, KK also credits the motivation and leadership of her entire 28-4 Lakota West squad for bringing home the title.
“We had nine leaders out there on the field and that’s very hard to find on a high school team,” KK added. “My teammates pushed me to be better … We all had that one common goal and all worked hard to get there. Everyone wanted to win state so bad that we made it a reality.”
Once again, KK was named conference athlete of the year and a first team all-state player. She batted .600 with 10 home runs, 55 RBIs and 32 runs as a senior, also going 22-3 with a 2.05 ERA and 189 strikeouts as a pitcher.
The perfect cap to KK’s high school softball career did not end there, as days later she found out she was named Gatorade Ohio Softball Player of the Year.
https://twitter.com/kkmathis22/status/1534881439044583426
“Obviously, I really wanted it,” KK said. “It’s such a high honor and it’s an amazing accolade to have. It’s just such a cool feeling knowing that all your hard work pays off. I give God all the glory for it, it was so cool.”
Now, KK will look to write the next chapter of her softball story. She hopes it doesn’t end anytime soon, as she would like to keep playing as long as she can, perhaps even professionally someday. She also already gives softball lessons, and will look to coach in the future. But first will come college softball, which the No.19-ranked recruit in the 2022 class will play at James Madison University (JMU).
https://twitter.com/kkmathis22/status/1424121779438620673
After her successful junior season, KK began getting recruited more and more heavily. She had interest from plenty of local schools, including Ohio State, but it came down to a decision between Boston College and JMU.
“When I met everyone at JMU, it felt like home away from home for me,” KK said. “Finding such a high, prestigious program, finding the right fit and finding the right program for me, I kind of committed on the spot.”
KK had other visits lined up, but the relationship she had already made with JMU’s coaching staff among other factors made the offer too good to pass up. She may have also been influenced by some of the advice she had gotten previously from Brock, who told her what to look for when it came to the recruiting process.
“Learning about the game, he’s taught me so much,” KK said. “Recruiting process wise, he’s told me the ins and outs, the dos and don’ts, what I need to look for in a coaching staff and what I need to look for school wise. He’s helped me out tremendously. Not a lot of kids are fortunate enough to have an older sibling who’s been through it all, but I was blessed enough to have a brother that did.”
In 2021, James Madison went 41-4 and made an improbable run to the national semifinals of the Women’s College World Series, falling one win short of the finals against Oklahoma while becoming the first unranked team to make it that far in the tournament. Under Coach Loren LaPorte, the program continues to be on the rise, and KK is ready to help take the Dukes to the top.
“I got to talk to some of the girls on the team that played in that run, and getting to learn from them is going to be one of the cool experiences I get as a player,” KK said. “Getting back there, winning our conference and winning the college world series is always the goal. In my college experience, I want to win rings.”
The talented softball player will look to become a champion again, just as she ended her high school career. No matter what happens in the future, KK knows she and her team left a lasting impact on Lakota West, one that could impact future generations of softball players to come.
“I hope that they saw the fire that I play with, the drive and the want-to to always give my best,” KK said. “I hope I left these girls just to love each other, have fun in the game and work hard. We showed that if you work hard and you all have one common goal, anything can happen. If you believe in each other, anything can happen.”
