From the ranch to the diamond: How Texas' Reese Atwood became the must-watch hitter at the WCWS

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 this season. On May 2, Atwood became the first Texas player to eclipse 200 career RBIs with a two-run home run against Kentucky.

Hitless with a walk and a sacrifice fly RBI in five at-bats across Texas' first two WCWS wins, the Longhorns are still waiting for Atwood to lift off. If anything, the sleeping giant in the heart of the lineup only makes the Texas offense scarier as the Longhorns enter Monday's national semifinal against No. 7 Tennessee (noon ET, ESPN) sitting one win away from the program's third WCWS finals appearance since 2022.

"Reese has been the one leading our production," Texas coach Mike White said. "We go as she goes, typically. Reese is one of those kids where you never want to take a break and go to the concession stand. You always watch her at-bats because you never know what she'll do next."

How did Atwood rise from the ranch to status as the must-watch hitter in the middle of the Longhorns' batting order? Lots -- and lots -- of miles in the car.

GROWING UP IN Sandia was more than just keeping track of the deer and tending to the chickens, goats, geese and smattering of exotic animals at home. It also featured plenty of long drives for the Atwood family.

Atwood began playing softball at 6 years old in a league in Corpus Christi, Texas, more than 40 minutes from her home. As she rose through the local select softball ranks, those treks up and down Interstate 37 continued and grew more frequent. Atwood's high-level hitting and fielding lessons often required an hour-plus ride.

"We were driving every day after school for practice, lessons and games on weekends," her dad, Geoff Atwood, said. "Somehow, as parents, we made it work. We figured out how to make it happen."

By the end of middle school, Atwood was a gifted catcher with a standout bat and a dream to play at Texas, the budding softball powerhouse three hours from home in Austin. Yet, within the limited recruiting exposure of the travel ball scene in Corpus Christi, Atwood said at the time she believed her future was more likely at the junior college level within the state.

"No one was ever going to the big college programs [from Corpus]," Atwood said.

For their daughter to break through, the Atwoods understood more car time would need to be logged.

After middle school, Atwood joined the Houston-based travel program Hotshots Premier, which was nearly four hours from home. For the next four years, her parents shuttled her around for games and practices. When Atwood was in a hitting slump, she'd get in the car with her dad and go see Hotshots coach Nathan Nelson for an emergency hitting lesson. The distance never mattered.

"I'd pick her up from school at 3:30 and I'd drive almost four hours for a one-hour session," Geoff said. "She'd be doing her homework in the back of the car and we wouldn't get home until midnight. That's how committed and in love with the sport Reese was. As a parent, I was going to do everything I could to help her fulfill her dreams and support her."

Alongside teammates she'd later face in college and against higher-level competition, Atwood's game soared with the Hotshots.

Florida's Ava Brown, Oklahoma's Sam Landry and Kasidi Pickering, Tennessee's Taylor Pannell, and the Texas Tech trio of Alexa Langeliers, Chloe Riassetto and Victoria Valdez are among Atwood's former Hotshots counterparts in the 2025 WCWS field.

Under Nelson, Atwood became a three-time national champion and hit .456, with 47 hits, 13 doubles, nine home runs and 34 RBIs in her final summer with the program. By Atwood's senior season in high school, she was the top-ranked catcher and No. 5 overall prospect in the 2022 class, per Extra Inning Softball's 2022 Extra Elite.

"I always held onto that dream of playing at Texas," Atwood said. "But I didn't have it put in front of me until I started playing nationally for a Houston team."

White, now in his seventh season leading the Longhorns, spotted Atwood's talent across a series of high school scouting camps. Her potential behind the plate, White said, was clear, reminiscent of former Florida catcher Aubree Munro, a two-time national champion with the Gators in 2013-16. Atwood's bat was raw but loaded with promise.

"We really thought that with her height and leverage we could really turn her into a high-level Division I hitter," White said. "And fortunately we were correct on that assumption."

ATWOOD STARTED 58 games between catcher and first base, and led Texas with 11 home runs as a freshman in 2023, then took it to another level as a sophomore last spring with 23 homers and 90 RBIs.

In 2025, she ranks 14th nationally in home runs and 22nd in slugging percentage with more RBIs than any other hitter in the country, thriving only three hours from home and even closer to a family ranch south of San Antonio. "I get to see my family a lot," Atwood said.

Three seasons in Austin have developed Atwood into one of the sport's most accomplished hitters and helped her mature into a core leader. With Atwood hardened by a WCWS finals defeat to Oklahoma last spring, White said he noticed a more comfortable and vocal leader when she returned in 2025.

Reared on the ranch, Atwood fits right into the edgy, hardworking mindset forged among the Longhorns this spring.

The fresh mentality showed up in a 3-0 WCWS opening win over Florida last Thursday. It appeared again Saturday when the Longhorns cleared a yearslong hurdle with a 4-2 victory over four-time defending champion Oklahoma.

On Monday, Texas faces Tennessee as it eyes its next breakthrough, seeking more than a return to the WCWS finals for the third time in four years and pushing to move one step closer toward the first national title in program history.

"We've built this culture of desire this year," Atwood said. "We're going after the thing. We don't care what happens."