High school softball has an important legacy in Southwest Florida.
The formidable Collier County squads of the 90s laid the groundwork for success for decades to come in the area.
From 2001 on, several teams reached championship glory, including Naples, Community School of Naples, Bishop Verot, Fort Myers, and Evangelical Christian School. Plenty of talented players populated those teams as well as other notable athletes that contributed to the area’s many successful programs over the years.
As a result, selecting the top 25 softball players of the past 25 seasons was quite the challenge. To be eligible for this list, a player had to be on a Southwest Florida high school softball team for at least one season between 2001 and 2025. Consideration was given not only to how they performed at the high school level but college as well.
Here are our selections, presented in alphabetical order.
Amanda Atun, LaBelle
Atun was awarded The News-Press Player of the Year in 2005 — two years after her sister Laura — for her junior season in which she posted a 0.50 ERA with 162 strikeouts. She also batted .493. Atun played college ball at Florida Southern.
Makenzie Buss, Cape Coral
The three-time News-Press Player of the Year finalist and 2015 Player of the Year batted .553 and slugged 1.016 for her career and hit 23 home runs and drove in 113 runs. In the circle, Buss, who played at Jacksonville University, posted a 57-28 record with a 2.04 ERA and 385 strikeouts.
Annette Castaldo, Bishop Verot
The 2013 News-Press Player of the Year threw 423 innings in her career, where she owned a 39-22 record with a 1.49 ERA and 438 strikeouts. She was a lifetime .368 hitter with four home runs and 41 RBI. She played collegiately at Union University.
Melissa Geissler, Bishop Verot
Geissler’s arm helped lead the Vikings to their first state final game in 2004. To reach the final, she came out on top in an 18-inning epic where she was crucial to Verot’s 2-0 victory. She went 15-6 on the season with a 0.29 ERA and 179 strikeouts while holding batters to a .116 average. She played collegiately at FGCU.
Keaunna Green, ECS
Green’s contributions to the Sentinels helped the team reach the Final Four every season of her high school career, including state title runs in 2024 and 2025. She played multiple positions defensively and batted .523 with 140 stolen bases and 175 runs scored for her career. In Green’s senior season, she recorded hits in all 28 games. She is committed to play at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Brittani Houghton, Fort Myers
Houghton was a four-time LCAC All-County softball team selection. She was Fort Myers High’s defensive MVP in 1998, its offensive MVP in 1999, and the Green Wave’s overall MVP in 2000 and 2001. At Stetson University, she was voted to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America third team in 2005 and was inducted into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. She was inducted into the LCAC Hall of Fame in 2024.
Abigail Hynes, North Fort Myers
Hynes put together an impressive career for the Red Knights, batting .510 with more than 40 hits in each season. As a senior, she hit .609 with 53 hits and 13 home runs and was named Southwest Florida Player of the Year. She is playing at Saint Leo University.
Ryan Iamurri, Naples
Iamurri was a big contributor in her four years at Naples High School, helping the team’s run to their 2008 state championship. She was a First Team All-State performer during her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. As a senior, Iamurri batted at a .541 clip with a .629 on-base percentage while adding 55 runs, 27 RBI, and 20 stolen bases. She went on to play at Alabama and won the national championship with the Crimson Tide in 2012. She is on Alabama’s coaching staff.
Cheyenne Jenks, Naples
Jenks played at Naples from 2002 to 2005 and went on to become an All-American at FGCU, the first for the college in any sport. She helped the Eagles to three ASUN championships and was the unanimous ASUN Player of the Year in 2009, hitting .473 with 23 HRs and 73 RBI. She was inducted into the FGCU Hall of Fame in 2023
Julia Knowler, Fort Myers
Knowler was a dominant two-way player for the Green Wave. She notched 150 hits and 124 RBI in her career while posting a 24-10 record in the circle with 293 striekouts. She helped lead Fort Myers to the Class 5A state title in 2021 and was named the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year that season. Knowler has the distinction as the only player to be named Southwest Florida Player of the Year three times. She is playing at Clemson.
Josey Mayer, Fort Myers
The four-time News-Press First Team All-Area selection and two-time Player of the Year finalist batted .452 for her career with 15 home runs, 116 RBI, and 97 runs scored. She slugged .731. Mayer graduated from Fort Myers in 2015.
Jackie Owen, North Fort Myers
In her four-year career with the Red Knights, Owen compiled a 65-20 record in the circle and earned News-Press All-Area selections each year, including Southwest Florida Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010. She left North Fort Myers holding more than 100 school records. She played collegiately at Daytona State College and at FGCU.
Maddy Peres, Ida Baker
Peres was nearly unhittable during her sophomore and junior seasons en route to News-Press Player of the Year awards in 2011 and 2012. She posted a 0.86 ERA in 2011 with a 23-3 record and 248 strikeouts in 170 innings and a 0.06 ERA with a 15-2 record and 206 strikeouts in 110 innings.
Hannah Perkins, Fort Myers
The two-time News-Press Player of the Year Finalist boasted a 47-5 career record in the circle with a 0.91 ERA and 490 strikeouts. Perkins helped lead the Greenies to a state championship in 2017. She played at Eckerd College.
Mackenzie Peterson, North Fort Myers
The two-time News-Press Player of the Year compiled a 63-14 record and a 1.04 ERA with 445 strikeouts over 486 innings. A career .361 hitter with four home runs and 71 RBI, she led the Red Knights to a state final four in 2017.
Vivian Ponn, Fort Myers
Vivian Ponn, a 2019 Fort Myers High graduate, helped lead the Green Wave to the 2017 state softball championship. A two-time News-Press Softball Player of the Year and four-time finalist, she hit 35 homers and drove in 143 runs over her career while hitting .507 and slugging .969. Ponn went on to play at South Florida.
Kelly Powe, Naples
Powe posted a near-perfect senior season in 2001, as the pitcher posted a 0.12 ERA and 20-0 record — the first player in school history to reach the 20-win mark. She was massive for the Golden Eagles in the postseason, throwing a perfect game, a no-hitter, and one-hitters in the state semifinals and state championship game to lead Naples to the title. Powe, who was named the 2001 Naples Daily News Player of the Year, went on to play at Rollins College and FGCU.
Samantha Price, Riverdale
Price was a two-way force for the Raiders. In 2006, she was named The News-Press Player of the Year after going 18-5 in the circle with a 1.03 ERA and 147 strikeouts. At the plate, she batted .500 with 16 extra-base hits. She played at St. Petersburg College.
Alex Salter, Estero
Despite having her senior season cut short in 2020, the two-time News-Press Player of the Year finalist went 36-5 in the circle with 0.86 career ERA and 575 strikeouts. She also hit .353 with seven home runs and 72 RBI. She played collegiately at Alabama.
Kris Schaus, Barron Collier
A four-time, first-team all-state selection as a pitcher, Schaus led the Cougars to three state softball final four appearances. She was named the Naples Daily News Softball Player of the Year twice, including as a senior when she went 14-5 with a 0.42 ERA and six saves. At Princeton, Schaus helped the Tigers make three NCAA Tournament appearances, earning All-Ivy Conference honors four times, including Freshman of the Year and Pitcher of the Year as a senior. She set the program’s career record for strikeouts with 833.
Kylie Shaw, ECS
Shaw helped pave the way for the Sentinels’ contender status of the 2020s, culminating with the 2024 state championship. Before leaving early for Florida, she accumulated 185 hits, 87 RBI, 181 runs scored, 108 stolen bases, 10 home runs, and 21 triples with a .556 batting average and .635 on-base percentage. She plays at Auburn, where she hit .325 with 50 hits this past season.
Whitney Stites, Community School of Naples
Stites contributed to the Seahawks’ success at the turn of the century as the team reached the Class 1A state championship game in 2001 and won it all a year later. In that state championship season, Stites collected 20 wins in the circle with a 0.05 ERA while batting .441 on the season. Her play earned several honors, including Class A Florida Daily Farmers’ Miss Softball and Naples Daily News Player of the Year.
Jackie Traina, Naples
Traina was a four-time All-State performer, a four-time Naples Daily News Player of the Year, and a three-time All-American. In 2008, she was named the Gatorade Florida Player of the Year as Naples won a state title. Traina owns Naples’ career and single-season wins and strikeout records, finishing her career with an 85-8 record with a 0.23 ERA, striking out 1,089 batters. At the University of Alabama, she was a four-time All-American and in 2012 helped guide the Crimson Tide to its first-ever national softball title and was named SEC Pitcher of the Year. After college, she played professionally in Japan and competed for Team USA.
Kara Weigle, Naples
The 2005 graduate was a key part of Naples teams that reached state championship games in 2003 and 2004. Weigle hit .522 with 21 bases and 22 runs scored while holding down the catcher position for the Golden Eagles. She was named the Naples Daily News Softball Player of the Year in 2005. She went on to play at Michigan State.
Zoe Yzaguirre, ECS
Yzaguirre’s pitching prowess led the Sentinels to their first state title in 2024. She struck out 255 batters in her senior season and posted three consecutive no-hitters in the playoffs, including the state championship game. She has continued her career at Florida SouthWestern State College where she has been an impact player from day one. After earning Second Team All-Citrus Conference as a freshman, she was named First Team NJCAA and NFCA after going 19-2 in the circle in her sophomore campaign with the Bucs.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Here are SW Florida’s top 25 softball players of the past 25 seasons
Reporting by Dustin B Levy, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dustin B Levy, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
