A true scholar athlete

A softball star who became a key varsity contributor in two other sports was named 2025 Creston Outstanding Female Athlete.

Ava Adamson, daughter of Ben and Nikki Adamson, received the award and many honors during the senior awards program May 7 at Creston High School.

One of the 2025 valedictorians with a 4.0 grade point average, Adamson also received the 2025 Governor’s Scholar award and was one of 22 students named to the Hawkeye Ten Conference All-Academic Team. Adamson was selected Academic All-State by the Des Moines Register.

Besides ranking as one of Creston’s all-time best hitters as the Panther catcher in softball, Adamson was also a varsity starter in basketball and tennis and a member of the Peppers dance team.

She has also been active in 4-H student government, National Honor Society and The Crossing, a student-run business that sells Panther gear and other items.

“Ava is such a well-rounded student-athlete for four years in a variety of sports and activities,” Creston tennis coach Kevin Cooper said.

“I went through high school trying to experience all of the things,” Adamson said. “I’m not great with free time. I knew that staying out for the different sports would make me a better athlete in the long run. Softball is my favorite, but I knew staying out for basketball and tennis and going out for dance would help me stay in shape when I wasn’t playing softball. Those other sports taught me things and let me meet so many different people.”

As a talented young softball player, Adamson appeared to be preparing to be a college softball player. She received offers and made campus visits, but in the end decided to enroll at the University of Iowa and major in business, with a possible second major in political science.

While sitting out fall club softball with an injury as a sophomore, Adamson gained a different perspective about life, and her future.

“Until my sophomore year I fully thought I’d be a softball player in college,” Adamson said. “When I got hurt, I got to experience other things on the weekends. I was with my friends at the football games, I could go to movies with them instead of being at a tournament. It was a fun experience to enjoy other things. I grew to understand there’s more to life than softball. I wanted to go to school for the school, and if I played softball, fine. But some of the schools I visited I realized I wouldn’t even have considered if it wasn’t for softball. I realized I wanted the big school experience, and rush to a sorority. I really liked the University of Iowa, and I realized I couldn’t play softball there.”

SOFTBALL

Adamson is winding down her athletic career as one of the top softball players in the state. She and teammate Jersey Foote were named to the all-state third team last year and All-Hawkeye Ten Conference first team.

Adamson is having another stellar season as the varsity starting catcher. (Adamson filled in at shortstop for the injured Mila Kuhns a bit last year, but has primarily been a catcher during her career.)

Adamson, who has never hit below .400 as a varsity player since sharing the position with senior Anna Mikkelsen her freshman season, entered this week batting .494 with eight home runs and a team-high 38 runs scored. Even though she bats leadoff, Adamson has driven in 24 runs. (Statistics from Monday’s doubleheader against St. Albert are not included in this report.)

She ranks second on the team in doubles with 10 and leads the lineup with three triples. A superb baserunner who rarely is subbed out for a catcher’s courtesy runner, Adamson has 15 stolen bases in 17 attempts.

“Ava is currently third in career home runs and is in the top 10 in career hits, RBIs, runs scored and nearly every major offensive category,” Creston softball coach Dave Hartman said. “She is hitting nearly .500 and challenging for the top batting average for a full regular season if she stays hot down the stretch. She’s struck out only six times, and still hits for power and average. Ava is clearly one of the best hitters in Creston High School history.”

Hartman said Sara Keeler hit .609 during the COVID-shortened season in 2020, when the Panthers qualified for the state tournament. Haylee LaMasters had the next two best batting averages of .536 and .519 in 2015 and 2014. Adamson’s current .494 mark would rank as the sixth-best in program history.

Adamson batted an even .400 in both her freshman and sophomore seasons. She made a splash as a freshman by hitting four home runs in a game against Carroll Kuemper Catholic. She has already matched her single-season high of eight home runs, sitting third all-time with 25 home runs. Foote is second with 31 behind Grand View first baseman Nevaeh Randall, who finished with 47 career homers.

Last year Adamson hit .442 with eight home runs, 37 runs scored and 26 RBIs. Creston has won at least 20 games in each of her three previous seasons and currently sits at 24-6, ranked 13th in Class 4A. Before Monday’s games, Creston led the Hawkeye Ten at 16-0, facing second-place Clarinda (19-8, 9-2) in a home doubleheader Thursday.

“We’re playing well and beating some good teams,” Adamson said. “I’m trying to bat over .400 every season. I never set a goal for home runs. I just want to hit deep, hard hits. As a leadoff batter I’m just trying to get on base and set the tone of the game.”

In a game against Lenox this season, Adamson hit a home run on the first pitch of the game for her first game leadoff homer.

Despite standing only 5-5 and lean, but with wiry strength, Adamson is a feared power hitter for opposing pitchers. She said technique and timing are the keys to her home run success, rather than brute power.

“It doesn’t matter how big you are,” Adamson said. “A lot of it is technique form and reps. If you drive the ball well and have back spin on it, you can hit home runs. It’s precision. There’s just millimeters of difference between a popup and a home run, where you connect with the ball. We’ve really keyed on making hard contact this year, and you can see how our team is committed to it. The hard work in the offseason is paying off.”

Through 30 games, Creston has hit 42 home runs, which is tied for first place among all classes with Cedar Rapids Xavier. Nine different players have hit at least one homer, and seven have hit two or more. (Avery Staver leads the current team with 11 home runs. Foote has seven.)

Defensive improvement

Hartman said Adamson’s leadership behind the plate and defensive skills have improved since he took over the program in 2023. He trusts her to call nearly 100% of the pitches as she works with fellow senior Taryn Fredrickson and sophomore pitcher Kennedy Strider.

“Ava is throwing the ball much better from behind the plate and has learned how to call games,” Hartman said. “She has grown in her leadership. Last year she played shortstop out of necessity after Mila got hurt. She was willing to put the team first.”

Adamson said the busy nature of the catcher position and having the responsibility of calling pitches are aspects that attracted her to the position. Wearing the protective equipment and squatting for every pitch on a hot game day isn’t easy duty, but she loves it.

“I like touching the ball on every pitch and having that connection with the pitcher,” Adamson said. “When I was younger I would pick up on the patterns when the coach was calling pitches. But you can see more things behind the plate — where the batter is in the box and what the other coach is saying. I can communicate those things with the pitcher. Taryn and I can go with our mojo after working together for 10 years. We talk in the dugout between innings. It’s a little game within the game. Coach has gotten me throwing more (pickoffs) and that’s a fun part of the game, too.”

BASKETBALL

A quadriceps tendon injury cut Adamson’s senior season of basketball in half, after working her way into a full-time starting role. As a junior she played in 22 games with 13 starts, averaging 5.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.1 assists per game. She had doubled her steals rate while staying steady in other statistics as a senior before the injury.

“Ava played her role well in basketball,” Creston girls basketball coach Tony Neubauer said. “She had a few big games to secure a few big wins. She had 16 points and hit a few huge threes in a comeback win at West Central Valley in November of 2023. She threw a perfect home run pass to Kadley Bailey on an out of bounds play to beat Earlham at home in February 2024, and she had a couple of runout layups to help us win at Clarinda this year. When she was healthy, Ava was one of our best defenders and understood the game really well.”

Adamson said she didn’t see her role as being a huge offensive contributor, but enjoyed the challenge of playing good defense and providing some of the little things to help the team win.

“I like the competitive atmosphere and the teamwork of playing with four other girls,” Adamson said. “It’s a physical, aggressive game but I kind of like that. I was never a really good offensive player, but I tried to do things that weren’t in the stat book ... being aggressive and wearing them down. Basketball kept me in shape. When I tore my quad tendon I had to make the decision to let it heal so I could play tennis and softball. I knew we had girls who could fill in.”

TENNIS

Adamson entered high school not thinking about playing tennis, but older friends from softball who played on the tennis team encouraged her to try it. She became a four-year varsity player with an overall singles record of 28-18, and 20-22 in doubles. She gradually rose the ranks from playing No. 5 singles as a freshman, to No. 3 in 2023, No. 2 as a junior and No. 1 this year. She had a 14-10 singles record playing the best player on every opposing team.

“Morgan Driskell, Halle Evans and Caitlin Bruce all played tennis and convinced me to play,” Adamson said. “I’m happy I did it. It was my ‘fun’ sport. This past year I didn’t play club softball, but the other years I did, and if I had a weekend tennis tournament my school sport always came before club sports. Tennis helps your footwork and hand-eye coordination, and really develops the mental side. You have to be patient and not always try to kill the ball. There’s a team aspect and we had fun as a team this year, but in a match it’s just you out there.”

Cooper said playing No. 1 is a challenging responsibility.

“I always tell people that it’s highly underestimated what a No. 1 singles player has to do,” Cooper said. “They might be playing a state qualifier on any given night. Every team has a good No. 1 player. You have to be a different kind of player to have a winning record at No. 1. You have to be both competitive and resilient on a nightly basis. Ava’s leadership at the top of our lineup was invaluable this year.”

Adamson placed fifth in the Hawkeye Ten at No. 1 singles, medaling for the second consecutive year. She was the leader on a team that improved from eighth place in the conference in 2024 to fourth place this year.

Adamson had a 9-6 doubles record this season, playing with Kennedy Strider. Last year she was paired with Sasha Wurster, who doubled with Hollynn Rieck this season.

“Ava has been a great leader for our tennis team on the court, in the classroom and in the community,” Cooper said.

In the four years with this year’s seniors contributing, Creston has a 93-38 record. Those seniors besides Adamson are Evy Marlin, Mila Kuhns, Sasha Wurster, Taryn Fredrickson and Jersey Foote.

An article on other Creston High School athletic award winners will appear in Thursday’s News Advertiser.