A Meeker High School softball player has been selected for the Oklahoma Native All State Girls Softball Team.
Kaycee Babek, a senior, will play at the Oklahoma Native All State Association game in June at Okmulgee.
Babek, 18, is the daughter of Jeff and Jennifer Babek and has attended Meeker Schools since she was in Pre-K, she said.
She also played basketball in addition to softball. She is a member of the Choctaw Tribe. Asked her reaction when she learned about her selection to the Oklahoma Native All State team, she said, “I was really so happy because I’ve been working so hard for stuff like this.”
Babek said her coach, Brad Seaborn, who is also Meeker’s Athletic Director, turned in her name for possible selection to the ONASA team. “I had to provide my resume of academic and athletic achievements,” she added.
Babek said she played shortstop this year and her junior year and during fast pitch her senior season she sported a .449 batting average. She said shortstop is her favorite position to play.
“I played third base my freshman and sophomore years,” she noted.
Though she played both fast pitch and slow pitch, she quickly replied, “I like fast pitch better definitely,” when asked which she preferred.
“It will be fast pitch in the All-State game in June,” she said.
She played T-ball, but began playing softball seriously when she was in the fifth grade.
“I played all the way through junior high and high school,” Babek said.
She is headed to Northern Oklahoma College in Enid following graduation. She signed in November last year, she said. “I’m excited, though I don’t know which position I will play,” Babek stated.
Babek explained, “I’m still waiting on the details of the June event,” noting she doesn’t know much about it.
She does, however, know many of the other players selected for the All-State team. “I’ve played against some of them this year and I also play with some of them on a tournament team,” she added.
“It’s good that I know some of them,” she believes.
Asked about any particular games she recalls this year she might consider highlights, Babek pointed to a slow pitch contest this spring. “We were four runs down, and we had a runner on base. I came up and slammed a home run that cut it two, then a little later in the game we had two runners on and another team member hit a three-run homer and we won the game.
“That was against Chandler,” she said.
Babek pointed out she’s enjoyed her athletic career in high school at Meeker.