They arrive like meteors to make an immediate impact in high school sports and they quickly become household names.

With the hype machine that is social media today, they also have to try to block out the hype, find balance and keep grinding to reach the next level.

This is the final part of a six-part azcentral sports series called: Who’s Next?

For Emily Darwin, picking up a softball came naturally. Growing up in Texas, she started playing in her backyard at a young age with her dad, Jeff, who played professionally.

Jeff was a pitcher like his brother Danny, who played 21 years in the majors and nowadays is a pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds. Early on, Jeff could see that Emily got the pitching genes as well.

“We’d go out like every single day, whenever he had the chance,” Emily said. “That was a really big push for me.”

Emily and her family moved to Arizona when she was in third grade. Word about the Texan got around fast.

“I still remember the call,” said Bert Cardenas, an assistant softball coach at Benson High School. “I was coaching with high school already, and people started asking ‘Have you watched this girl play? Have you watched her pitch?’ “

Cardenas soon got a chance to see Emily up close. He started coaching her in the fifth grade, and this past spring, he was reunited with her as a freshman on the varsity team at Benson.

With junior pitcher Katie Sherman as Benson’s starter, Emily spent most of her time at first base. Still, she went 8-0 on the mound, tallying 92 strikeouts along the way.

But the numbers she was putting up at the plate were more impressive. Her 73 RBIs led the entire state. On top of that, she had the third-most home runs in Arizona with 17.

And those home runs came in big moments. In the 2A state title game, Emily’s two-run shot in her first at-bat set the tone. Benson eventually won 7-3 over Camp Verde to repeat as champions.

After the season, Emily was named one of eight nominees for the azcentral Sports Awards softball player of the year.

Freshman year not a surprise

For coaches, Emily’s output wasn’t a surprise.

“Not necessarily, no. … It’s always been what we’ve gotten out of her,” said Brittney Batten, who was promoted from assistant to Benson’s head coach this offseason. “She’s always really come up big when you’ve needed her to come up big. I guess we were a little surprised at how much she matured in the role she had to step into.

“She’s a freshman – we were expecting her to have a little struggle with that transition, but she didn’t.”

The jump to the high-school stage made Emily a little nervous – she admitted to feeling nauseous before the state final – but years of practice had her ready to perform.

Emily was playing machine-pitch softball at age 5 in Texas, with the robotic pitchers already cranked up to 35 miles per hour. She was naturally athletic and had a clear role model.

“I just want to be like my dad,” Emily said. “We’re really, really close. He’s been my coach for as long as I remember.”

These days, Jeff is a volunteer assistant coach with Benson’s program, giving him a front-row seat to his daughter’s games. Her home runs in the playoffs were especially memorable.

“It made me feel proud, with a smile on my face,” Jeff said. “I was a coach, so I had to go back to coaching. I gave her a high-five like any other player, but deep down inside, you feel real proud.”

A three-sport athlete

Emily’s accolades extend beyond the softball field. She is a three-sport athlete, rounding out her year with basketball and volleyball.

“She really loves everything that she does,” Cardenas said. “She is so involved in so many things around the campus. We’re such a small school, that she can get spread pretty thin.”

Cardenas and Batten note that Emily is involved in her classes and volunteers on top of playing sports year-round. Still, there’s something that pulls her back to softball.

“I just get this really good feeling when I hit the ball,” she said. “I don’t feel the same way I do with softball as I do with any other sport.”

And going to a small school has its benefits for Emily, as well. Anyone around the Benson softball program is quick to cite how close-knit it is. Girls start playing together in Little League, so by the time they get to high school, chemistry is natural.

“The girls on the team are all really nice,” Emily said. “We’ve known each other since I moved here, and we’ve been playing together. So it was actually a really, really fun season.”

The positive team dynamics should continue next season for Benson; the two-time defending champs graduated just two players. A loaded lineup will help Emily, who is already determined to surpass her 17 homers.

Coaches anticipate that opposing teams may try to pitch around her, but they also think she’s up to the challenge.

“We’re really excited to see how she grows in the next three years,” Batten said. “What she did this year is only beginning to scratch the surface.”

RELATED STORIES

Previously in the Who’s Next series

The full stories can be found at highschools.azcentral.com.

Shadow Mountain soccer standout Aiden Abbitt: This 16-year-old standout began playing soccer just about as soon as he could walk. Whether he is playing, watching or discussing it, breaks from the beautiful game are few and far between.

Chaparral swimmer Ashley Strouse: One of Melissa Strouse’s prized pictures is of her daughter Ashley in the swimming pool when she was 2 years old. She was “floating peacefully in the water,” Melissa said. Now Ashley Strouse attacks the water with fierce determination, using every inch of her 5-foot-11 frame to get to the wall before anybody else.

Saguaro football player, track & field athlete Kelee Ringo: After a standout sophomore season during Scottsdale Saguaro’s state-record fifth consecutive state championship run, the college scholarship offers began to pour in. Ringo is now a five-star recruit, the No. 1-ranked cornerback in the 2020 class in the 247 Sports composite rankings and azcentral sports’ top recruit in Arizona.

Xavier Prep golfer Ashley Menne: She is certainly a golfer to watch, but Menne would humbly prefer if you didn’t make too big of deal out of that. “The better she plays, the less you talk about it,” said Paul Smith, her golf instructor and swing coach. “You don’t really pat her on the back too much, you just sort of keep quiet, because you don’t want to jinx it. So you just let the score, let the clubs do the talking.”

Perry basketball player Dylan Anderson: With his 7 foot, 2 inch wingspan on display, Dylan Anderson, wearing a shirt that says, “Strive For Greatness,” holds out two basketballs during a photo shoot. Anderson, 15, is already 6-10, 200 pounds. He only began playing basketball two years ago. But the anticipation has begun.