2027 Star Alyssa Langford Proud Of Choctaw Heritage

Alyssa Langford isn’t just representing her immediate family, her school, or her travel ball team when she steps onto the softball field. The Oklahoma native is representing the entire Choctaw Nation.

Langford is a member of the Choctaw tribe through her dad’s side of the family.

“I take a lot of pride in that,” she said. “I’m very grateful for it, because it’s just something that has helped me a lot with getting to where I am.”

Langford, a 2027 recruit, was born in Durant, Oklahoma and attends Kingston High, the same high school her father attended. Her mom put Langford into as many sports as possible at an early age, including T-ball at age 3.

“I’ve just always had a love for sports, and I always like to be busy doing things,” Langford said. “I just like the rush of the games and being able to experience everything with people.”

Along with playing softball, Langford is a member of the Kingston High track and field team. She does pole vault and all three sprint relays. She began pole vaulting as a freshman and was runner-up in state last year with a vault of 11 feet.

“I didn’t know what I was doing when I first started track in seventh grade. I tried high jump first and then I tried long jump. My mom was always telling me I should try pole vault, and I always told her that I’d never do that. I thought it was too scary,” Langford said. “And then one time, I just grabbed a pole and just did it for fun, and I enjoyed it. I started going to lessons and getting better at it and it kind of stuck.”

Langford began playing travel ball when she was 12 and currently plays for Athletics Premier 2027. She started out as a catcher and pitcher, but eventually landed at shortstop.

“I just really enjoyed playing there, and I’ve stayed with being a shortstop and utility player,” she said. “I’ll play anywhere that’s not pitcher and catcher, but my main position is short or middle infield.”

Along with travel ball, Langford has attracted attention from college coaches through her Native American heritage.

“Being Choctaw gives me a lot more opportunities and support. It provides a bunch of athletes with showcase opportunities and camps to help get exposure with colleges and everything,” she said. “They have all these opportunities that don’t cost anything where you can go out and show what you can do.”

Langford possesses a strong work ethic and is “very competitive in a good way.”

“I try to build people up. If we’re down, I’ll try to give people tips and everything,” she said. “I feel like being competitive is a good thing that you need in sports, because you need to be able to have the urge to win, but not get down on yourself or lose your cool.”

In Oklahoma, high schools offer the chance to play fast pitch and slow pitch softball. Langford was encouraged to try slow pitch by her fast pitch coach in order to get more reps.

“At first, I will say it was not very fun. I don’t like slow pitch personally, because I like to be fast paced, and I like to be able to get stuff done,” she said. “I like to be able to have a game where I don’t have to think, and I feel like in slow pitch, I have too much time to think, and am just waiting and waiting too much.”

Langford is the oldest of three children. Her siblings are in pre-K and third grade, and she loves spending time with them when she’s not busy with her own sports or academics.

“I like being a big sister a lot. I like looking after kids. I like to babysit a lot,” she said. “I also help out with my little sister’s basketball teams. If any coaches need assistance, I’ll go over there and help them out with that. It’s very fun to have little kids running around and just being able to play with them.”

Langford considers former Oklahoma All-American shortstop Grace Lyons as a role model and aspires to make a similar impact on younger players as she gets older.

“I like how she puts Christ first and what she does to pick people up,” she said. “That’s just like what I kind of want to be when I play at that level and start getting into it.”