Jags’ Flannery pledges to Oregon

It simply made sense to Katie Flannery.

Flannery committed to play softball at the University of Oregon in early October, deciding to spend her college years in Eugene, Oregon, playing for the Ducks’ highly successful program.

The Spain Park High School standout junior visited the Oregon campus over spring break and really liked what she saw. Once she realized the Oregon coaches liked what they saw in her as well, her decision was made.

“After talking to Oregon, I realized they really wanted me,” she said. “It was a deciding factor.”

Flannery is the No. 11 player nationally in the Class of 2023 and the top-ranked corner infielder in her class, according to the Fastpitch Network.

The recruiting process is tough for high school students. They are not allowed to be contacted by coaches until Sept. 1 of their junior year. When the clock struck midnight and the calendar turned to September, Flannery’s phone lit up.

“Honestly, it was really stressful,” she said. “Now that it’s over, I’m thankful it’s over. But I am looking back on the last two months as some of the best two months of my life. I loved it.”

She took the following day off from school, returning calls and texts from various coaches. Her lone official visit was to Minnesota, but once Oregon offered, she was all in.

“At Oregon, I thought, ‘I really like it here.’ It’s so nice. It’s what I wanted. Everything is right there together,” she said.

Flannery has played for the Birmingham Thunderbolts organization for many years, so traveling across the country is the norm. It did not faze her to think about traveling across the country to spend her college years.

“My plan was already that I wanted to go out of state,” she said. “Playing travel softball for a top organization, you travel already. I grew up on road trips and planed, and I liked it, and I already liked traveling. When I went out to Oregon, I liked it, and it was really pretty. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like.”

Oregon’s head coach, Melyssa Lombardi, was an assistant at Oklahoma for 21 years and part of four national championships. She has gotten her program rolling now in Eugene, leading the Ducks to a No. 3 ranking at one point during the 2021 season, in which Oregon finished 40-17 and advanced to an NCAA Regional.

For a program of that status to want Flannery, it justifies all the sweat and hard work she has poured into the game.

“All my hard work I’ve done since I started playing softball when I was 5 or 6, it all matters and is on the table right there now,” she said.

Oregon has been known for many years for the outlandish number of uniform combinations their teams can wear, particularly the football program.

“They treat their athletes really well there,” she said.

In her first two years at Spain Park, Flannery was part of a team that went 21-0 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Last spring, the Jags went 35-7 but were knocked out in the area tournament.

For her final two years, she has big plans. Flannery hopes to help the Jags claim their first state title in program history and wants to produce in a major way along the way.

“I want to leave a legacy here,” she said.