H.S. SOFTBALL: Leffler exits Schuylkill League as an all-time great
· Yahoo Sports
The term generational in today’s sports landscape gets thrown around frequently. A word used to describe the best of the best, a rare level of player. That being said, if you were to describe now former Pine Grove outfielder Callee Leffler in one word, the only word that would do her justice is generational.
Visit moryak.biz for more information.
Now a Florida State Seminole, entering just her second week in Tallahassee, Florida, Leffler is the definition of the term.
Raising Callee
Often, with great athletes, the first signs that they are potentially different in sports can be seen in their earliest days.
With Callee Leffler, the story is no different.
Her dad, Ryan Leffler, also the coach of Pine Grove’s softball team, remembers it well.
When Callee was just around the age of five, he took his daughter down into the basement of their family home. He placed the ball and tee in front of her and gave her the bat.
Callee, with her lefty swing, made contact. Over and over and over again.
“She hit the ball cleanly off the tee every single time — didn’t miss a single one,” Ryan Leffler said. “I walked upstairs to my wife, Theresa, and said, ‘She just did something I don’t think I could even do, just picking up a bat and swinging.’”
While Ryan or Theresa may not have known it at that moment, it was a moment that would ultimately lead young Callee down the path of softball stardom and now to Florida State.
It’s pivotal to note that Callee has been around the game her whole life. When Callee was born in 2008, Ryan had already been a part of the Pine Grove Area softball coaching staff as an assistant. In 2014, Leffler was named the program’s leader, taking over for Alan Felty. He also leads the Central PA X-plosion Softball travel organization.
Callee was by his side throughout the journey, consistently around his program, his players, taking in everything that she could.
“It had a tremendous impact on her life and her softball career,” he said. “I was very fortunate to have a lot of great athletes come through the X-plosion family and the Pine Grove family. Those former players made a huge impact on her life just by letting her watch how they played the game and being around such great young ladies.”
When Pine Grove’s 2019 softball team went undefeated, claiming the program’s first state championship, Callee was there for the entire ride.
“She was the manager and was right there with them the whole time,” Leffler said. “Being around the game for that long definitely made an impact.”
As she continued her softball journey, it was clear to Ryan by the time she was 10 or 11 that Callee played and understood softball well above her age level.
“Growing up, she just always had the ‘it’ factor,” he said. “She had a naturally beautiful left-handed swing that stood out. By the time she was 10 or 11, she was completely outperforming expectations — the mental part of her game, tracking down fly balls in the outfield, and just doing everything right every single time.”
It was around that age that Callee attended her first major softball camp.
“At her first major camp in New Jersey when she was 10 or 11 — which we used just to break her in and get her over the hump — there were all Division I colleges there,” Leffler said. “That’s where we first met Florida State Coach Lonni Alameda. Callee absolutely killed it. She hit a home run and a triple, and just stood out in front of everybody. From that day on, we knew she could play at the highest level, and we just kept pushing and working hard.”
Coach first, dad second
It’s not uncommon in high school and travel ball sports for the coach of a team to have their child on the team.
It’s often a point of contention in youth and high school sports for a multitude of reasons. For coaches, accusations of playing time and favoritism can quickly arise. For players, the feeling of added pressure to perform as well as having their performance dismissed in the name of nepotism often occurs.
Admittedly, it didn’t come easy for Ryan Leffler either.
“At times, it wasn’t easy. I always have to tell myself, ‘I’m a coach first and a dad second,’ whenever I’m in the dugout,” he said. “On the softball side of things, I try to treat all my kids equally. My job is to teach them the game, and I don’t want to cheat them or let them fail at anything. Whatever needs to be done, fixed, or talked about, we reopen it and work through it.”
“Callee did a very good job respecting me as both a coach and a dad in terms of how we handled our conversations,” he added. “We had our dugout conversations, and then we had our conversations outside of the dugout. But overall, I try to treat all my players like they’re one of my own so that they get the help they need.”
For Callee, the pressure of being the coach’s daughter was felt early on.
“Being with my dad, he sets the bar really high for me and still does to this day,” Callee noted. “I just remember like feeling obviously a little bit of pressure… but just trusting my preparation. The people around me, they didn’t let me come in unprepared.”
While Callee’s talent made it clear she was not a usual case of the “coach’s kid,” it didn’t stop her peers from letting her know how they felt.
“People in school used to chirp me, ‘you get this, this, and this because your dad’s a coach,” she said.
The chirping from her peers ultimately only pushed Callee to work harder.
“I think that definitely did make my work ethic jump up a little bit and make me want to prove to them, I am who I say that I’m going to be.”
While many athletes have the physical talent, few have the mindset required to be a truly great athlete.
“A lot of people don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes,” Ryan Leffler said. “The kid is probably hitting 11 months out of the year. We have a batting cage in our yard that gets utilized very often. If she’s not feeling comfortable in the batter’s box, she will go out and get as many reps as it takes.”
The work ethic goes far beyond the batting cage and into the weight room.
“She also does a lot of weightlifting on her own when the team isn’t lifting,” Leffler noted. “She puts in a massive amount of extra work that people don’t see. She sets strict weekly goals for herself to keep getting better.”
Realizing her potential
While those watching Callee could see her potential from an early age, it wasn’t until much more recently that the Schuylkill League great realized just how good she was.
“I think when I was around like 14 or 15, because I was playing up,” she said. “I’ve always played up, so I was always playing 18U at that time. Being around the competition I was facing at that age and sticking with it made me realize, ‘okay, I can go somewhere with this.’”
Once she arrived at Pine Grove Area High School for the 2022-23 school year, Callee made an immediate impact.
As a freshman, she hit .529 with five home runs, eight doubles, and 11 triples, with 23 RBI.
It was after that spectacular freshman season that she began to garner more attention from college coaches.
As they continued to show interest, Callee continued her dominance across not just the Schuylkill League but also the travel ball circuit.
As a sophomore, she hit .611 with seven home runs and 28 RBI, and followed it up with a junior season in which she posted a .536 batting average, eight home runs, 21 additional extra base hits, and 29 RBI.
Last September, Florida State, Callee’s dream school, asked her to come on an official visit to the program.
“Sept. 1, when I got the call to go on an official visit there with FSU… we were all just… it was surreal,” Callee said. “I think my dad and I, we kind of just soaked it all up because all of the hard work and dedication leading up to that moment was becoming a reality.”
On the visit, Callee got the scholarship offer she dreamed of the most from Florida State coach Lonni Alameda. It didn’t take long for Callee to let Alameda know that she wanted to be a Seminole.
“When I went on my official visit and got the offer, I committed the same day I got the offer,” she said. “We were just in tears because my dream was becoming real.”
The final chapter
While Leffler was already an all-time great Schuylkill League talent before her senior season, it was her final year with Pine Grove that truly set her apart from the rest.
As a senior, Leffler put together a legendary season — a .629/.757/1.714 slash line with a 2.471 OPS, 18 home runs, 15 additional extra base hits, and 50 RBI in 29 games. In 115 plate appearances, she struck out just once and walked 35 times — many of them intentional.
In Pine Grove’s state championship run, she hit seven home runs in nine playoff games, totaling 12 RBI while going 11-for-22 at the plate with 11 walks.
In her final career game, she hit a crucial home run that gave the Cardinals breathing room en route to a 7-1 win over Sharon in the PIAA Class 3A State Championship Game. The game also ended fittingly, as she made the final out in center field.
“Watching her up there was great,” Ryan Leffler said. “She was always looking to do what was best to help the team out in any way possible. To catch that final out of her high school career and go out on top with the teammates she became so close with was incredibly special to be a part of.”
In the end, her career numbers at Pine Grove are those often found in video games.
A .574/.684/1.328 slash line with an OPS of 2.012, 38 home runs and 130 RBI, not to mention 112 stolen bases, 92 walks, 39 triples, 31 doubles, and just five strikeouts.
A humble and team-first player throughout her life, Ryan Leffler believes his daughter hasn’t likely realized the magnitude of her accomplishments.
“I really don’t think she does,” he said. “She is entirely team-first. It was never about ‘I’ for her; she was just determined to go out there and win championships with those girls. So I don’t think she fully realizes the numbers she put up. But I’ve been around this game a long, long time, and I truly believe she’s one of the best I have ever watched play.”
For Callee, it was just par for the course.
“I set a really high expectation for myself, and I do have big shoes to fill for my team, needing to come up big in big-time moments,” she said. “But I think just not making it too big for myself, and just kind of trusting my preparation, my skill, and my talent to lead me to execute everything that I’ve worked so hard for. But looking back at what I’ve accomplished, I definitely am really proud of the hard work that has paid off in the numbers that I put across the board for my high school career.”
While her stats can only be described as legendary, her most proud accomplishment is her state championships with her teammates.
“It meant the world to me to just end my season at Penn State winning another championship,” she said. “I played with those seniors — I played with Hannah (Aungst) and Tailyn (Bohr) since I was little — and to cross off our goals together, it was a milestone in our careers.”
For Ryan, Callee, and the entire Leffler family, the celebration of a second-straight state championship was a quick one. After winning a state championship on Thursday, Callee hit the road with her mom on Sunday and made the 1,000-mile journey to Tallahassee, to join her new team, the Florida State Seminoles.
“Celebrating with the big parade that we had and celebrating with our community, it was a little bittersweet knowing that now it’s all over,” Callee said. “I haven’t really processed that we went back-to-back, to be honest.”
A new chapter begins
Ultimately, Callee Leffler is a once-in-a-generation, perhaps more so a once-in-a-lifetime talent within the Schuylkill League. She leaves the only place she’s ever known, not just as the best player to play within the league, but as an inspiration to the next generation.
While her impact on the diamond will not soon be forgotten, her greatest impact will perhaps be on those who look up to the former Pine Grove star.
Much like those who came before her, Leffler leaves a path to follow for up-and-coming athletes in the area. A real-life example that hard work and determination can help you achieve your dreams, not just athletically, but in whatever life’s path you may choose.
“People only see what you put out on the field, and they don’t see the work that you put into being how good you are on the field,” Callee said. “I think just taking the extra reps and putting in the extra work when nobody’s watching… It’s important to know that it’s a game of failure and you’re gonna fail, but it’s just how you overcome failure and push yourself to be the best that you can be.”
Now, as her story closes within Schuylkill County, the next chapter of her life and career begins in Tallahassee.
“Being a Lady Cardinal will go down as one of the best things ever to happen to me in my softball journey, because I wouldn’t want to do that with any other group of girls and any other group of coaches,” she said.
If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Alameda, one of the greatest college softball coaches of all-time, will have tough shoes to fill.
“I think my dad is one of the best coaches that will ever coach me in my life, and I will stand by that till the day I die.”