How a whirlwind 24-hour process led to a college softball home for this Metamora prospect

Kaidance Till has made a decision on her future.

The Metamora junior — one of the nation’s top high school softball players in the Class of 2025 — gave her verbal commitment to play for Ole Miss on Sunday. This comes just hours after departing Oxford, Mississippi, following an official visit.

However, the whirlwind backstory behind her making the Southeastern Conference school her home upon graduation in two years is one of little sleep, solid advice and narrowing down her options.

September arrives

Once the clock struck midnight on September 1, Till's phone lit up with phone calls, FaceTimes and text messages. She quickly got her first taste of college recruiting.

Per NCAA rules, college softball coaches aren’t allowed to contact potential prospects until Sept. 1 of their junior season.

Till is coming off a super sophomore campaign where she was named the Journal Star player of the year. Her summer was spent with Virginia Unity's Johnson/Ross travel team for which she hit seven home runs with 34 RBIs.

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With September here, the all-Mid-Illini Conference first-teamer began fielding scholarship offers and setting up official visits to decide where she would play at the next level.

Here is a timeline of events on Sept. 1 ― the first 24 hours of recruiting — for the two-time Illinois Coaches Association first-team all-stater.

12:00 a.m. — Colleges begin their contact

As soon as the calendar turned to Sept. 1, Ohio State was the first team to call Till. The entire team was at Buckeye Field in Columbus, Ohio, with a personal message for the left-handed hitter. Ohio State finished the 2023 season at 33-20, falling in the Big Ten Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

For the next hour and a half, nearly 30 colleges contacted Till. Some of those schools include Florida Gulf Coast, George Washington, Indiana, Central Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Boston College, Northwestern, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Penn State, South Carolina, Stanford and Michigan State.

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1:30 a.m. — Till heads to bed

An adrenaline-packed 90 minutes resulted in calls scheduled later that morning with Ole Miss, Northwestern, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State and Michigan State. Till and her parents, Brock and Heather, went into the process very well-informed, speaking with the family of her travel teammates about what questions to ask and what to expect over the course of the recruitment.

“I’d say we were pretty prepared,” the youngest Till said, noting most coaches wanted to start building a relationship. “We were pretty like comfortable talking to coaches because the coaches didn’t make it weird or anything when they were talking.”

9:30 a.m. — Call with Ole Miss

Till got up at about 8:15 a.m., staying home from school on that Friday. Ole Miss, which went 32-28 and made the NCAA Tournament this past spring, scheduled a morning FaceTime call. The Rebels and Mississippi State had graded her as their top infield prospect.

“Like anybody, she just wants to go somewhere where they really want her,” Brock Till said, “and she feels like they got a chance to win. SEC is, obviously, one of the top conferences in the country, if not the top.”

Ultimately, Ole Miss set up an official visit with Till for the weekend of Sept. 15-17. She committed soon after.

“I am excited,” she said before the visit. “It’s pretty crazy. They’re showing a lot of interest which is super exciting. I’ve worked so super hard for this and I’ve always wanted to go into the SEC.”

3:35 p.m. — Wrapping up a long day

Once the calls were finished, Till had made some tough decisions throughout the day about what schools she said weren’t a good fit for her. She appreciated the interest from Illinois and Michigan State, for example, but those two Big Ten teams didn’t make the cut.

Northwestern, however, were still on the list after that first day. The Wildcats have made six Women’s College World Series appearances with their last coming in 2022.

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After that first day, Till talked about her timeline for choice — which ultimately came just a couple of weeks after her recruitment opened.

“I don’t want to commit too soon,” Till said earlier this month, “and I do want to have my options open, but if they come at me right away (with an offer), and I’m liking it and everything, then yeah, I would think about going.”

She expected to make future official visits to Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and Ohio State, as well as maybe South Carolina and one or two others. In the days following the Sept. 1 onslaught, Michigan and North Carolina also contacted her. From an educational standpoint, business or psychology seem to be the preferred majors for Till.

“School is, obviously, an important part of it,” she said. “I’ll just have to learn how to balance it out.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: NCAA softball: Recruiting process top prospect from Metamora, Illinois