Chilliwack’s Allie Thiessen is taking her bat to Washington State, committing to play fastpitch softball for the Central Washington University Wildcats.
Thiessen is about to graduate from Abbotsford’s Yale secondary school and her fastpitch resume is full of accomplishments.
Playing for the Surrey Storm from 2016 to 2018, the teenager posted a video-game number at batting average (.370). She helped her team to gold medal wins in the 2016 U-16 Gold provincials and nationals.
Thiessen played for the Bellingham Power House team in 2017-18, winning a United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) championship in 2018.
This season she’s playing for Seattle Absolute Blast and will join the team on trips to Colorado, California and Boston next month.
Central Washington head coach Michael Larabee can’t wait to get her in the Wildcats lineup.
“Allie is one of the best fundamental outfielders that I have recruited,” he said. “She has a very powerful arm (mid 60’s with an overhand throw) and she’s very accurate.
“Allie is a true triple threat at the plate. She can lay a bunt down, slap, and she has good gap power.”
Off the field, Thiessen is an honour roll student with a 4.0 GPA who is excited to get settled in at CWU.
“I attended my first CWU softball camp and campus tour in Grade 9,” she said. “I was immediately drawn to the beautiful campus, friendly people and high academics, and it was an added bonus that the campus is only four hours from my hometown.
“Over the years I have developed a relationship with Coach Larabee and Coach (Mike) Meyers. I’ve watched the softball team be successful both on and off the field in academics and winning conference championships and knew that was a team I wanted to be a part of.”