Former RCHS third baseman Talee Sims, seen here during her senior season in 2024, still holds the county record for career home runs with 37.
I published a story earlier this week that said that Handley’s Breydan Watkins set the county’s career home run record among varsity softball players when she hit her 36th career long ball this past season.
Turns out that was not correct.
When I originally looked back on the career numbers of RCHS’s Talee Sims, who graduated in 2024, I did not find the two home runs that she hit in 2019 as a seventh grader. That means that in my original story I incorrectly stated that Sims’s career number of 35 was one behind Watkins’s total. With those two home runs that I missed Sims’s actual number is 37, one MORE than Watkins.
So Talee Sims still sits atop the list, and Watkins’s outstanding career leaves her in second place.
However, I think everyone involved can agree that having one of those players in front of the other is akin to deciding which stack of $100 bills you want to spend first. The bottom line is that both of those young ladies put together outstanding careers that not only led to some amazing individual numbers, but also helped elevate their respective programs in their level of overall competitiveness.
Sims just finished her sophomore season at Alabama State (where she hit .374 with 41 RBI in 53 games and hit a home run against Oklahoma early in the season), and Watkins is still deciding on her softball future but has a chance to make one college coach very happy if she decides to continue on at the next level.
It’s important to get the story right, and recognize the correct record holder. It’s also important not to diminish in any way what both of those players accomplished in their high school careers right here in Randolph County.
