Throw Away The Rock

STARKVILLE – As Mississippi State's softball team wrapped up its fall game at Jones College, Kiarra Sells was questioning herself. The freshman had had a rough game, but there was still second game to play.

"I made so many errors running," Sells said. "It was just mental mistake after mistake."

Sells was struggling, and her teammates could tell. Two conversations though changed her outlook and the rest of her fall.

Strength and conditioning coach Lauren Collier pulled her aside. She took a moment to tell a story about when she had struggled as an athlete and then she pointed out a rock. Collier made Sells pick it up.

"She told me put all your worries and problems and all the things that are going through your head, especially about that game, into the rock," Sells said." And just throw it, so all of it is gone."

After that Mia Davidson-Smith took her for a walk. The all-time SEC home run leader's advice was simple. When Sells is at the plate, she just needed to calm down.

"She said, 'You don't have to do so much. Just see the ball and hit the ball.' That ended up helping me out a lot," Sells added.

To understand Sells, you have to understand how she got to Starkville. She summed up her recruiting process in one word: overlooked.

Coming from Jasper, Texas, a town of fewer than 8,000 people, she was facing the challenging circumstances of a small town in a talent-rich state.

Sells faced a recruiting journey that saw all of her sophomore season camps cancelled by Covid, a recruiter tell her she would never play at the Power 5 level and just one call on Sept. 1 of her junior year.

"I wanted to shoot higher, especially for the girls in my community. That was really difficult," Sells said. "I'm really thankful for that call because it felt like someone is there. I didn't think that I would be able to make it to this level at all. Heading into senior year, still uncommitted, still not being seen at schools that I was super interested in that hurt. It hurt a lot."

Sells had nearly given up on her Division I dreams, figuring she'd take a junior college or Division II route, but the summer before her senior year, she had one last camp where she met MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts. She made plans for just one more camp at MSU and after that experience, Ricketts made an offer.

"I had no idea what that meant," Sells said. "I had no idea. I was so confused. What did she just do? What does that even mean? I don't understand."

Things were still challenging once she got the MSU. Adding to some of her doubts was the fact that she signed later than the rest of State's 2022 class.

"I was worried about a lot of stuff that I shouldn't have to be worried about," Sells said. "The other girls played on the national teams, and if they weren't play on nationally-known teams they were still on bigger travel teams. They were playing with a group of girls that are committed to the big schools. That made me kind of nervous and messed up my confidence a lot."

The game at Jones College was a turning point. She didn't get a ball hit to her in the second game of the day, but she felt more relaxed. She didn't have any worries or second thoughts running the bases. She just ran.

Others noticed. This week in practice, it all came together for Sells.

"Today, it had to be today because I was really relaxed. I wasn't stressing about it," Sells said. "I relaxed a little bit, and I started seeing the ball more. I started executing what I needed to execute. Coach Zac [Shaw] came up to me and was like 'What happened? You are killing it today.' I had no idea what happened, but I kind of like it."

Mississippi State University Athletics

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