Pahrump Valley softball star is heading to Lamar
DeeAnna “DeeDee” Egan has finished off her chapter at Pahrump Valley High School and will be taking her talents to the “Centennial State”, Colorado.
Egan was born and raised in the Pahrump Valley. She is the youngest of five children in the Egan household.
DeeAnna started playing softball at the age of five in the Pahrump Youth Softball Association.
Softball was one of the many sports DeeAnna played growing up. She also dabbled in basketball, volleyball and karate.
Egan began playing softball after watching her older sister, Jordan, play in PYSA.
“Being able to go out there and play and be with other people,” Egan said of the draw to softball. “It made a difference because it made you want to be better for yourself and be able to learn how to accomplish anything, push yourself past barriers that you thought you could not go past.”
In the beginning, DeeAnna was moved around in various positions, including third base, pitcher and catcher.
Finally, when Egan was about 10 years old, her travel ball coach, Rich Lauver, decided to stick her at the catcher position full time and she’s been there ever since.
“Each person had a specific position they were good at,” Egan said of her travel team. “We had a couple of flexes, but he designated girls for certain positions so that we were able to be a well-functioning team.”
Lauver coached the Pretty Vicious travel-ball team that Egan played on. Being just 10 years old, DeeAnna, who was set to play in 10U, was pulled up to play on the 12U team, which offered a higher level of competition and helped her skills improve.
The team disbanded in 2018 because they didn’t have enough players to fill a team.
Egan’s freshman season for the Pahrump Valley Trojans was the 2018-19 school year. This was the only season she got to play with her other sister, Taylor, due to the coronavirus ending their 2019-20 season early.
In her freshman year, DeeAnna and the rest of the Lady Trojans went on to win the 3A state title in a 13-10 victory over Fernley High School.
After jumping out to a 6-0 lead after the top half of the third inning, Pahrump Valley found themselves trailing 10-6 going into the sixth inning.
Pahrump was able to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning and eventually won the game in eight innings.
“It was great,” Egan said. “Especially the people I won it with. That was the group of girls I grew up playing with on Pretty Vicious. The best part was celebrating with my family after the fact and seeing how proud my father was. He always hoped one of his daughters would have the experience of winning state, like he had when he played football in high school.”
DeeAnna went on to play four years of varsity level softball for Pahrump Valley. Unfortunately, due to the virus, the 2020 season was cancelled following the Trojans’ opening season tournament.
The 2022 season didn’t quite go as planned for the Lady Trojans, however, it wasn’t all bad for Egan.
DeeAnna was one of four members of the team who were named to the 3A Mountain All-League team this past spring.
Her other teammates who made the team were seniors Ciara Stragand, Toni Cross-Smith and junior Ava Charles.
“It shows that our team had a lot of talent. We just didn’t get enough time to be able to put it together,” Egan said of having four Trojans on the all-league team.
DeeAnna said this season taught her a lot in terms of leadership. The Trojans finished with an overall record of just 10-19, but they were able to fight their way to the southern regional semifinals.
One of the things she learned was that even though you may be in a tough position, the only way to move forward is to push and try to inspire the people around you to move forward with you.
Next season, DeeAnna will be playing for the Runnin’ Lopes of Lamar Community College, which is part of the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Egan chose LCC for multiple reasons, one of those being the closest to home out of the schools that offered her a scholarship.
DeeAnna chuckled a little bit when she informed me that she would be competing against not only another coach who tried to recruit her, but that she would also be competing against two players from her most recent travel team in Las Vegas.
While at LCC, DeeAnna will be pursuing a degree in criminal justice. Her top choice for using her degree would be to become an agent for the FBI.
Contact Sports Editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.
