Softball
Favorite athlete: Serena Williams
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Hit two home runs in one at bat- I hit a FAIR first pitch homerun that was called foul, and then the very next pitch I took it yard.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: We were on the way to an away game, and the back door of the bus wasn’t fully closed. As we pulled off, I leaned against the door and fully fell out of the bus. They had to stop and reverse to come get me.
Music on playlist: I listen to a lot of old school R&B/rap, with a mix of J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Kanye West.
Future plans: I want to be a mechanical engineer with a heavy focus on cars.
Words to live by: “You will never know your limits unless you push yourself to them.”
One goal before turning 30: I’ve always wanted to visit Japan before I turn 30.
One thing people don’t know about me: I always wear fun-print boxers under all of my softball pants instead of sliding shorts. I have cotton candy boxers, money bag ones, and even banana ones. I wear fun socks every day to school too! Bigfoot on a skateboard, piggies in teacups, giraffes in pool floats. It’s just something small that adds some fun to regular outfits, or makes the team laugh before a big game!
By Mary Jane Souder
Ameerah Wheet has an unmistakable passion for softball.
So it’s hardly a surprise that the Council Rock South senior is enjoying every minute of her final high school season playing for a Golden Hawks squad that is off to a hot start. The speedy center fielder bats in the heart of the lineup, and her contributions to the Hawks’ success have been obvious.
Listening to her coach tell it, Wheet’s value does not begin and end with her prowess in the field and at the plate.
“Ameerah is extremely fast,” Rock South coach Dan Schram said. “She’s one of the fastest kids I’ve ever coached. She plays a great outfield, she’s an offensive force, and most importantly, she has become such a leader, cheering the team on.
“We played a game last week without her because she was on the senior trip, and there was such a lull on the bench, not having her yelling and cheering for her team.”
The only time Wheet finds herself on the bench is when her team is batting, but the significance of her presence on this year’s squad is unmistakable.
She acknowledges that her future in the sport might be more clearly defined if that passion had not temporarily taken a back seat.
“I was going through a lot last year, and softball was the least of my concerns, so I really wasn’t doing the reaching out, the emailing and all that for the recruiting process that I should have been doing my junior year,” Wheet said. “I really just got a late jump on it.”
That late jump is not preventing Wheet and her coach from actively pursuing her options in the sport – and she does have options, but those options don’t necessarily mesh with her academic goals.
An outstanding student, the Rock South senior has her sights set on majoring in mechanical engineering and attending one of the top Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). She has been accepted at her number one and two choices, North Carolina A&T and Howard, but there’s the not-so-little matter that she very much wants to continue her softball career at the collegiate level.
“It’s hard to find a good HBCU with my major as well, and with that, there’s not that many schools to look at, so we’ve been trying to get in touch with North Carolina A&T and with Howard, but in reality, it’s late in the game,” Wheet said. “There’s not much they can do because their recruiting process is basically done for ‘23s, but we’re trying our hardest to get a school that I like with my major as well.”
Wheet has offers for softball, but those schools don’t have her major.
“I don’t want to feel that I’m settling in any aspect whether it be education or athletics,” she said. “The schools that I could play softball at - there are some HBCUs, but it feels kind of wrong to choose softball over academics.”
She has not ruled out the possibility of trying out as a walk-on.
“That’s basically what we’re looking at for North Carolina A&T – that’s my top school right now, and Howard is a really close second,” Wheet said.
Schram, for one, believes she has a bright future in softball at the collegiate level.
“Her big thing is – she’s a tremendous student,” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “She wants to play softball, but she wants her academics to carry her to the best place possible because she knows her career is going to come first.”
For the love of the game
Wheet has competed in sports for as long as she can remember, but softball has always been number one.
“My brother (Ryan) always played baseball, and it was one of those things – if your big brother plays, you’re going to play,” she said. “I watched him play t-ball.”
Born and raised in Trenton, Wheet actually got her start in soccer, and it wasn’t until she moved to Holland in Lower Bucks County that she began playing softball.
“I did run track as well, and I played basketball, I played field hockey, I played a bunch of other things, but softball was always my main sport,” Wheet said. “Middle school was basketball and field hockey.
“I did track in high school in the winter seasons, but that’s the same season as softball, so I had to choose one, and I always chose softball.”
Until, that is, her passion for the sport was all but buried. Not because she no longer loved softball – she did, but there was a stretch early in her high school years when Wheet battled some serious doubts in both the high school and travel setting.
“It was pretty much that I didn’t feel like my heart was in it anymore,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was being seen as a player.
“I ran track. I’m quick, so in track, I made it no problem. I was doing the 100, 200, 400 and I was getting seen, and I was like ‘Why am I playing softball and I feel like I’m being put by the wayside?’”
Wheet’s brother, meanwhile, was excelling playing Division 1 baseball at Fairleigh Dickinson University, but softball no longer felt like a good fit for Wheet, who was not looking to be in the spotlight but simply wanted to be seen and supported along the way.
“Softball wasn’t a good fit for me at all,” she said. “I felt like I was only playing softball because my brother played baseball. I never felt like I made my own decision.
“At that point, I pretty much said, - I don’t feel like softball was a choice that I made. I felt like I was pressured into it more than just loving it when in reality, I just love the sport, but at that point, I pretty much lost the love for it.”
How did she get it back?
For starters, she moved to a new travel program, the Blue Angels.
“It was more of a friend atmosphere,” said Wheet, whose current travel team is Nightmare Fastpich. “I was playing with my friends. As soon as it felt like I was playing in an atmosphere where I was comfortable – I didn’t have to fight for a spot.
“They gave me the spot I deserved because they could see the player I was. It felt like I had a family out of my team. As soon as I was comfortable with my abilities and I realized I shouldn’t be working twice as hard as everybody else to get a spot I deserved, I didn’t put the stress on myself anymore.”
It was around the same time – prior to Wheet’s junior season - that former Bensalem coach Dan Schram took over the helm of the Rock South program.
“I met coach Schram, and we just hit it off,” she said. “I was going through a lot of family-wise things outside of softball, so I literally at that point couldn’t be stressed about softball. I had so many other things that I was stressed about.
“I was battling a lot mentally and dealing with that and then coming into school and making classwork work and then trying to come to softball – softball was the very least of my concerns. I was literally just playing how I knew how to play. I was playing off my ability and playing without stress. I didn’t do amazing last year or anything, but it was definitely a mental breakthrough.”
Armed with a newfound confidence, Wheet let her play on the diamond do the talking.
“All I had to do was play and trust myself with confidence, and this year that’s what I’m doing, and it has worked great,” she said. “Coach Schram really pushed me to do that. He knew everything that was going on, and it was a fact of ‘Ameerah, you know you’re a good player, so why aren’t you proving it to other people,’ and since then, it been just great for me.”
As a junior, Wheet, according to Schram, was considering not going out for the team.
“She took a chance on it, came out 11th grade year and she has been a rising force for the team,” he said. “We get along great. She’s like a daughter to me.”
A bright future
If Wheet took softball out of the equation, the Rock South senior would have more than enough to fill her schedule. Through her junior year, her course load was filled with honors and AP classes. She is a member of the National English Honor Society and Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society.
She is involved in community service and is active with her church. She’s involved in clubs at Rock South, but last year, some issues in her personal life that included the loss of a grandmother she was very close to in addition to some uncertainty in her family life made life seem almost unmanageable.
“It was hard to get through school, let alone softball,” she said. “Mentally, it was just really a big strain on me. I was taking a lot of honors and a lot of AP classes. I finished and I got straight As and one B, but in my head, I knew I can do better.
“It was one of those things – I knew I should be getting a 4.5 or 4.6, and I was settling for 4.2. That was my mindset, so I talked to my counselor, and it was basically a matter of – ‘Okay, you can push yourself, do AP classes this year and hope you don’t burn out, or you can take an easier course load and just get yourself back to where you need to be.’
“Set yourself mentally, go back to having fun moments in your life, and that’s really what helped me get my love back for softball because I wasn’t stressing too much about school. I stopped working on the side. It was a lot of stress relief for me.”
This year has been a breath of fresh air for Wheet.
We’ve been working on the family life at home,” she said. “I have a high GPA, I didn’t take easy classes my first three years, so taking a lot of easier classes this year, it really brought back my love for the sport. It allowed me to focus on the good aspects of it. It wasn’t so much of a stressor for me, it became my stress relief again, and it changed everything for me.
“I don’t feel I’m wrung out, I don’t feel like I’m trying to make ends meet with my time. This year has been so much better for me, for sure. I’m not running back and forth. Time flies anyway, but time really flies when you’re trying to cram for a test every Monday and Friday. It was just too much on me. Now I’m really ready to dive in and make sure I’m getting both a great education and playing my best softball in college.”
Choosing a college that will give her both the academics and softball she is looking for is the only unfinished business in Wheet’s life right now, but she has an advocate and supporter in Schram, a firm believer that she is destined for success at the next level in the classroom and on the diamond.
“I’m trying to help her with schools,” the Rock South coach said. “She’s gotten passed over because not many of the travel teams really deal with HBCUs. She’s really overcome a lot, and I’ve watched her come into her own.
“Ameerah hits for power, sprays base hits, lays down beautiful bunts, steals bases, has a good arm and makes big plays when we need them. Her speed is untraceable. She has all the tools, and she’s a great kid.”
