Kobi Crossley

Chickasaw citizen Kobi Crossley first picked up a softball at the age of four and has never looked back.

Mike Crossley, her uncle and fastpitch and baseball coach for Newcastle High School, says he knew right from the beginning that his niece was going to have a great talent for the sport. Kobi always played with an older age group – but when she did practice with those her own age, she did so with the boys.

"The guys I played softball with never took it easy on me, and I definitely didn't want them to take it easy on me, either," she says.

It may be a tough game, but Kobi loves everything about it. Her uncle describes her as fearless, fighting through adversity and leading by example.

He says that her Chickasaw heritage is represented through the strength of her family – she was brought up that way: to be tough, to play hard and to excel.

Kobi is a member of the Canadian Valley All-Conference Softball team, which accepts only high school seniors, and has also participated in the Jim Thorpe Native American Games and in the Lori Piestawa National Native American Games in Phoenix.

As the only senior, recently led her Newcastle High School softball team to the state championships. Fresh off the win, she signed and received a full scholarship to the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma. Kobi said she plans to major in psychology and hopes to one day be a counselor and a coach.