Fayette senior softball standout Leah Thies inked her national letter of intent to play softball at State Fair Community College in Sedalia next season at a signing ceremony held at the high school among family, friends, teammates, and coaches on Tuesday, Nov. 25.

Thies started at catcher the last two years at Fayette as well as on a travel ball team. State Fair coach Michele Rupard said she is expected to make an immediate impact. “We anticipate her coming in and competing for a starting spot right away.

“She came to a couple of camps, and that’s where we got to know her,” she continued. “What attracts me most is that she is hard-working and she has a ton of upside. She’s athletic, and she’s got a great arm behind the plate. She has those things that you can’t really teach in a short amount of time in a two-year program. And she communicated well, which is something that most 18-year-olds don’t do anymore.”

Rupard said the team will have two returning catchers next year, but she isn’t sure exactly how they will pan out.

As a former college catcher at Central Methodist University under coach Pat Reardon, Rupard knows what to look for when recruiting new talent. She said it was not only Thies’s strong arm behind the plate that stood out, but a number of intangibles. “She manages the game very well, which is something that’s kind of a lost art these days,” she explained. “Some kids just call pitches. She actually pays attention to all of the nuances in the game, and you can see her mind working, thinking about what’s next instead of just focusing on what’s happening now. She has a lot of those intangible skills that I look for.”

For Thies, playing at the next level while studying agribusiness made State Fair a perfect match. She initially chose the two-year college for the school’s agriculture program. The softball team made the sealed her decision. “State Fair had both components, a good softball program and an agriculture program. I had to choose it,” she said.

Thies’s coach for the last two high school seasons, Bri Busker, also a former college player, said she thinks her senior catcher is up to the task of playing at the next level. “I think she’s completely ready for it. She’s a leader on the field and a hard worker. She’s going to fit right in. She’s going to do her job. She’s really coachable. State Fair got a good one. I’m so proud of her.”

Regardless of whether Thies becomes the Roadrunners’ next starting catcher, she will undoubtedly see plenty of varsity innings. Coach Rupard said Thies’s game awareness will pay off at the plate as well. In her final year in a Falcons’ uniform, Thies had 19 hits, of which 11 went for extra bases with 20 runs driven in. She finished with eight doubles and three home runs, hitting .275 on the season, and was walked 16 times.

“If she’s not behind the plate, that’s where we see her fitting in,” Rupard said. “She can see the game. She understands the game. She’s more mature for her age on the field than some others.”

Thies said she’s thankful for the opportunity to continue her softball career. She started playing in seventh grade, not only for the middle school Falcons, but with the travel team, Havoc, based in Moberly.

“They’re all so amazing,” she said about her Havoc coaches. “They welcomed me from seventh grade. They’ve really made me truly love the game.”

She also thanked her high school coaches. Mike James retired after Thies’s sophomore year, and Coach Busker took over the program starting her junior season.

“Coach James coached me for a really fun two years, and Bri is one of my favorite coaches,” Thies said.