There are many exceptional athletes and students at Casa, but Marissa Brody and Austin Steeves, two seniors at Casa Grande, are stand-out examples that also happen to be the perfect power couple.
For Marissa Brody, she dominated all fields of sports including basketball, volleyball, and softball growing up. It came as no surprise that in this past year Marissa has earned and accepted an offer from Cal Poly Humboldt to play softball, though many believe she could have gone for any sport she wanted.
“Growing up I practiced with my dad and my sister. It was always three doing everything together, we took ground balls, hit in the batting cage, drove to tournaments, and stayed in hotels. My biggest and best memories were traveling around with them at such a young age and getting to play a sport that I was passionate about with my family,” said Marissa Brody.
Softball has been a big part of Marissa’s life from a very young age. With help from her current and former coach Billy Brody, her dad, and competition from Kaden and Aubrey Brody, her sisters. It is to no surprise that she has become extremely successful on the field and in the classroom. Across all her efforts in softball tournaments, ID camps, and academics, Casa Grande is proud to have Marissa as an up and coming Cal Poly lumberjack.
“There were a couple other schools with interest, coming around the country, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, but ever since visiting Humboldt I knew that it is where I wanted to go. I couldn’t see myself fitting in anywhere else. The girls and coaching staff are incredible and so welcoming and supportive and I cannot wait to be a part of the Lumberjack family,” said Marissa Brody.
But her boyfriend, Austin Steeves, is no less impressive. He is the pitcher for Casa Grandes baseball team, and has been on varsity since his sophomore year. Steeves started playing baseball when he was young and has been playing most of his whole life ever since he was able to pick up a bat and ball.
“I always practiced with my dad and he was always there to throw batting practice, hit ground balls, or play catch with me,” said Steeves.
Steeves has now been recruited by Stanford and is already committed, but he still remains undecided on his major. His biggest supporter during his recruiting process was his hitting coach and mentor Paul Maytorena who is also the current head coach of Casa’s baseball team.
“He has helped me ever since before I talked about college. I’ve gotten really close with him to where we can just go eat dinner and talk about the recruiting process and he has been very helpful guiding me the whole way. Now we’re talking about Stanford or the potential of the draft and he’s always pushing me to be better” said Steeves.
Casa Grande is looking forward to seeing this power couple continue their athletic careers as seniors and later incoming freshman at their respective colleges.
