OKLAHOMA CITY — Texas’ 2025 softball roster features seven All-SEC selections, three Collegiate Player of the Year top 25 finalists and two National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Americans. But few, if any at all, of the No. 9 Longhorns grew up quite like junior catcher Reese Atwood, who spent her childhood on a South Texas ranch guiding hunting trips and breeding whitetail breeder bucks.
“I got to hang around the deer a lot — my job was to track the babies down and ear-tag them,” Atwood told ESPN this week. “I grew up with a lot of responsibility, always working from a young age. It gave me a work ethic and a knowledge that it takes hard work to do things right.”
Life on the ranch was just a part of a small-town upbringing in Sandia, Texas — population: 326 — that helped shape Atwood, the All-American slugger at the center of Texas’ latest Women’s College World Series run.
After a breakout sophomore season, Atwood is again pacing Texas. She leads the Longhorns in home runs (21), RBIs (86), walks (41) and total bases (153), and she earned All-SEC first-team honors…
