Kailey Wyckoff staying grounded as the face of Texas Tech softball

"Did you know that I hate the color brown?"

Kailey Wyckoff knows the benefits of distractions. She's become a bit of an expert in the art since establishing herself as the face of the Texas Tech softball team, a cornerstone of the rebuild under second-year coach Craig Snider. A breakout debut led to Wyckoff earning Big 12 freshman of the year, becoming the second Red Raider to earn an individual award in program history.

With that stellar first season comes more eye balls, for her and the program. Wyckoff is well aware of this, fielding numerous interview and autograph requests in the months leading up to her sophomore campaign.

Added pressure and expectations are something she and Snider have discussed ad nauseum in recent months. Each said they understand what's at stake for Wyckoff. She's been listed among the best players in the country, overall and at her regular position of catcher. One-on-one chats are the norm now for player and coach, checking in to make sure Wyckoff is keeping her head above water.

"I keep telling her," Snider said, "it's not really about repeating last year. Just staying in your process and doing what made you successful last year. People are gonna picture you differently now, and that's OK. Learning that piece is also important."

Her teammates, though, still see the same Wyckoff they laid eyes on when she arrived in Lubbock less than 18 months ago.

Mimi Blackledge wasn't one of them. A true freshman on this year's team, Blackledge got a full dose of Wyckoff's tactics after giving up a home run in Tech's fan day scrimmage.

"I walk up to her and was like, 'did you know that I hate the color brown?'" Wyckoff said. "She was like, that's really funny. I was like, OK, and then she strikes the next person out.

"I just try and distract myself, and I think it is a mechanism that works for a lot of people."

'Everything happens for a reason'

How Wyckoff got to Texas Tech is a bit of a winding road. After initially committing to Fresno State, a coaching change made her reconsider he options.

One option was to head to Stephen F. Austin with her best friend Izzy Denton, who was going to play volleyball for the Lumberjacks. They signed their National Letters of Intent as they did most things: together. But SFA had a coaching change in May 2022. Two schools, two coaches she aspired to play for and neither panned out.

Wyckoff again went looking for an answer. She had plenty of options, earning offers from the likes of Clemson and Ole Miss out of Katy High School. While she petitioned to be let out of her NLI, she and her mom took a trip to Lubbock to see what Snider, who was hired in June, was building.

Texas Tech had her major of choice (animal science) and Wyckoff said Lubbock reminded her of her hometown.

"Once I started to talk to Coach Snider," Wyckoff said, "then I knew that I wanted to come here."

Wyckoff's commitment and signing were met with little fanfare. There was no press release announcing her arrival, and Wyckoff herself didn't post anything about it on social media until she arrived to campus for the fall semester.

"Everything happens for a reason," read Wyckoff's Aug. 2, 2022 post on Instagram.

Snider knew he landed a talented player late in the recruiting process, and it took little time for her teammates to realize it as well.

'Holy moly'

Wyckoff came off as quiet to teammates such as Alanna Barraza at first. Some of that was the stress of figuring out the life of a college athlete. Wyckoff said she struggled balancing her school work and softball responsibilities when she first arrived.

It took less time for Wyckoff's play to catch her teammates' attention. Texas Tech opened the season with three-straight tournaments on the road. In the second, at the University of Texas-El Paso, Wyckoff made a name for herself by hitting 9-of-16 with four home runs, six runs batted in and two doubles in five games.

"That was when everybody was like, holy moly," Barraza said. "This is a good person to have on our team. We were all super impressed, and she kept it going through the whole season."

Wyckoff took off from there, finishing the year top 10 in four different single-season categories in Texas Tech history (batting average, doubles, total bases and slugging percentage) and leading the Big 12 in triples. Her conference freshman of the year award was the first Big 12 accolade for a Tech player since Kim Martinez won newcomer of the year in 1997.

"I wouldn't say it was a surprise," Wyckoff said of her freshman season, "but I also wouldn't say I expected it either. I was just playing, honestly. I was just having fun, playing well. My teammates and I saw everything that was happening, but I don't think I really processed it until the end, like the very end of the season. I just try not to think about those things while it's going on."

'A cornerstone for our culture'

Despite the new-found stardom, Barraza hasn't noticed any changes in Wyckoff since the end of last season.

"She's very humble," Barraza said. "The exact same person that she was when she first stepped on campus last year. That's a very, very proud thing that I think she should hold on to."

It would be impossible for Wyckoff to be exactly the same as she was a year ago, but she's doing her best to stay grounded. She's taken up reading — the Red Raiders are currently dissecting the book "It Takes What It Takes" by Andy Staples and Trevor Moawad. Though she's not a Nickelback fan per se, she's still riding with "Rockstar" as her walkup song because it's one she can vibe to as she steps up to the plate.

When she enters the batter's box this year, Wyckoff knows she'll be at the top of everyone's scouting report. There's no sneaking up on opponents this year, so she has to adjust with them. She's added a few pounds of muscle to her 5-foot-7 frame and staying in touch with Snider and assistants Roya St. Clair and Bruce Te Kulve to counter.

Much of the expectation is for Wyckoff to produce the way she did as a freshman, and even top it. Snider, though, knows she's just as valuable to the program outside of the scorebook. How she handles herself in leadership aspects, like calming down a freshman pitcher, is what makes her a foundational piece to Snider's vision for Red Raider softball.

"You start putting pieces together, and it takes time," Snider said. "You wish you could turn around in a year, but it takes time and it's really developing the culture and that piece first. That's what she was a piece of, too. Just a cornerstone for our culture more than anything."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Kailey Wyckoff staying grounded as the face of Texas Tech softball