When she was in high school, UW shortstop Sis Bates and her father would make a six-hour drive nearly every weekend just to attend softball practices. That dedication has molded the Husky junior into one of the best players in the country.
The Bates family’s dedication can be measured in minutes and miles.
For her final three years of high school, Sis Bates — Washington’s junior shortstop and the reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year — starred on a competitive softball team based out of Huntington Beach, Calif., called Firecrackers-Rico.
The catch was that Bates lived in Ceres, Calif.