Stites to play softball at Southern Virginia University

An injury during her junior year kept Jordan Stites from making the Ramona High School softball varsity in 2014. She opted not to play for the Bulldogs this year and thus never played a game on a high school varsity team.

That didn’t deter Southern Virginia University softball coach Kortny Hall from being interested in Stites, who made the decision to play collegiately for the Knights.

“I think it’s a great experience,” Stites said. “It’s a good way to go through college instead of just having to focus on academics.”

National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III programs such as Southern Virginia do not offer athletic scholarships, so Stites will attend on an academic scholarship.

“I’m very proud of her,” said Ramona junior varsity coach Mike Simone. “I think that it took a lot of patience and perseverance on her part because typically it’s more difficult for a player who doesn’t play with her varsity team.”

Stites moved from Vista to Ramona when she was 6 and started playing softball with the Ramona Girls Softball League at the age of 8. When she was 10, her stepfather, Don McKay, was coaching the Blaze travel club, and Stites began her travel career with the Blaze. She also played for the San Diego Rebels, where Simone was a coach, and most recently she played for the Rowdies who practice at Del Norte High School.

Stites spent second through sixth grades at James Dukes Elementary School and then attended Olive Peirce Middle School. As a Ramona High School freshman, she played basketball and softball for the Bulldogs. She also played basketball as a guard when she was a sophomore. She did not play basketball during her junior year and made her varsity debut as a senior in 2014-15.

Stites is an outfielder and first baseman for softball who bats and throws right-handed. She spent three years on the Bulldogs’ junior varsity.

“She’s a very good athlete, got a lot of speed and strength,” Simone said. “Hard worker. She’s got a lot of energy.”

In addition to her high school athletic activities, Stites is active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints youth group. Her church activities included a community service project that repainted outside the Olive Peirce gymnasium as well as a fence.

Stites first heard about Southern Virginia University in August 2014.

“They emailed me and told me they were in need of a first baseman and an outfielder,” she said. “They asked if I could consider coming out and helping and being part of the team.”

She also considered Eastern Nazarene College, which is in the Boston suburb of Quincy, before choosing Southern Virginia. Other colleges contacted her, but she discarded them as choices after reviewing academic matters.

“They didn’t have my major,” she said.

Southern Virginia University is in Buena Vista, Va.

“They were a very good school for my major, which is family and child development, and they’re about 40 miles from my grandparents,” Stites said.

Stites hopes to work with juveniles at a juvenile detention center after her graduation. Her grandparents live in Charlottesville. Her father grew up in Virginia and her mother was raised in Orange County.

Her older brother, Donny McKay, ran cross country and track for Ramona High School. Her younger sister, Kinley McKay, is on Ramona’s track and field team and also cheers for the Bulldogs.

“I probably wouldn’t have made it to college softball without my family,” Stites said.