In her four years at Texas A&M, Cassie Tysarczyk has played in 214 games and started 196. For an Aggie softball team that has changed conferences from the Big 12 to the SEC, Tysarczyk has been a mark of consistency.
Outfielder and team captain Tysarczyk said she was taken aback by the tradition and environment of Texas A&M on her first visit and immediately made a decision to commit to the University.
“Texas A&M was the second school that I visited,” Tysarczyk said. “I was fortunate to come on a visit my junior year. I was on campus for one day and I fell in love with the campus the second I set foot on campus. I committed on campus the same day I visited.”
Tysarczyk contributed quickly to her new club. She started 53 contests in right field as a freshman and hit five doubles, seven home runs and led the team with 13 sacrifice hits. On defense, she logged the first of two straight seasons with a perfect fielding percentage.
Tysarczyk has been a fixture on the diamond for the Aggies since seizing the starting role in right field. In her sophomore year, she belted eight home runs and 41 RBIs en route to a first team All-Big 12 selection. That season, she recorded a 1.000 fielding percentage. Tysarczyk said her development as a player and person can be directly attributed to her coaches.
“I think that a lot of my [growth] is the coaching staff and our support staff here,” Tysarczyk said. “It’s been very consistent since I’ve been here. I think that our only change is the director of operations. You don’t just come to [Texas A&M] to play softball, you come to be a better person and be an active member in society. It’s really hard to put into words the values we learn by playing under Coach Evans and all of the staff.”
By the end of her junior year, Tysarczyk completed her degree in psychology and is now working on her master’s in sports management.
“Graduate school is really cool,” Tysarczyk said. “I get to make up my own degree plan and pretty much pick the classes that I’m interested in, as long as they’re approved.”
A&M head coach Jo Evans said she admired both Tysarczyk’s talent and mental capacity.
“[Tysarczyk] is very intellectual,” Evans said. “She’s really bright. She’s able to process things and put things together. I hope she becomes a coach because I think she can become a great coach. She has the intellectual capacity and the drive to be able to see what’s going on around her and analyze it to the point where she knows exactly what it is.”
Senior third baseman Amber Garza said she has witnessed the growth of Tysarczyk on and off the field.
“[Tysarczyk] is a hard worker,” Garza said. “She’s very selfless. She’s willing to do anything for you off the field. If you say ‘I need this or I need that,’ Cassie [Tysarczyk] is the first person to come and help. There’s really no other word to describe her but selfless.”
Tysarczyk said the main thing she will miss about Aggie softball is the 12th Man.
“Putting this jersey on every day is something I haven’t taken for granted,” Tysarczyk said. “I know that us seniors can only do it for another three months, so it’s definitely something that I’m going to miss.”