Well before Addisen Fisher set foot in the hallways or onto the softball field of Bend High, word began to circulate that there would soon be a freshman with superstar potential. And it can be a crapshoot of how those athletes will fare once they step up a level.

And yet, Fisher exceeded all the expectations during her four years playing for the Lava Bears.

“I had never heard that term before ‘generational talent,’” said Lowell Norby, Bend High School athletic director, “especially with one of our athletes. And she truly is.

“If she never touched a softball, she would be an unbelievable representative of our school and our community,” Norby added. “You couldn’t ask for a nicer kid to get a better reward.”

Tuesday morning, with her teammates, family and friends in attendance at the Bend High softball field, Fisher was surprised with an announcement that she was named the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year, 10 days after helping the Lava Bears win their first state championship.

“There were two things that I hadn’t done yet,” Fisher said. “And that was to win national player of the year and win state with my team. Those were the two biggest things that I really wanted to do this year.”

For four years Fisher has been a comet, dominating on the softball diamond like no player from Central Oregon or the state of Oregon has seen. In her four-year career, she struck out 845 batters, had a microscopic 0.34 earned run average, threw 11 perfect games, 24 no hitters, while hitting .587 and smacking 43 home runs.

Player of the Year honors at the conference and state level were routine. Three times she has been named Oregon’s Gatorade Player of the Year — no softball player from Oregon has done it more than twice. She became the top softball prospect in the nation and is just a few short months from joining the UCLA softball team.

Fisher joins rarefied air, becoming the fifth Oregonian to win National Gatorade Athlete of the Year honors since its inception in 1985 in their sport. She joins Sandy’s Art Skipper (track and field, 1989), Lake Oswego’s Kevin Love (boys basketball, 2007), Gresham’s Sam Crouser (track and field, 2010) and Springfield’s Mercedes Russell (girls basketball, 2013).

Fisher was perhaps the last person to find out she had won the award. Several people who were aware of the award had kept it a closely held secret.

Coach Carey Shaughnessy was first informed that his star pitcher won the award just as the team boarded the bus to Eugene to play for the state championship game on June 1. Fisher’s parents nearly spilled the beans Monday evening at Bend Burger Co. when discussing plans for Tuesday.

But her spidey-senses really went off when her best friend’s location wasn’t showing up on Snapchat before the ceremony.

“She never turns off her location,” Fisher said. “So I kinda had a feeling something was up.”

Gatorade staged a surprise at Bend’s softball field where the whole team met to take a photo with the new state championship banner.

As the photos were being taken, Fisher’s mother, Heather, crept up behind the team, hoping to get the scripted announcement to come out of her mouth correctly, with a large — and surprisingly heavy — trophy to present to her daughter.

“I love softball, and it was her journey,” Heather Fisher said. “We were amazed to watch it all unfold.”

Still, the young Fisher was shocked. She nearly fell to her knees and immediately started crying when she saw her mom holding the trophy. She’d worked hard to achieve this goal since seeing future UCLA softball player Megan Faraimo win the award in 2018.

“This is something that I have dreamed about,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t think of a better way to end my high school career.”

Fisher also got to chat via Zoom with Rachel Garcia, an Olympic softball player, who like Fisher was the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year in 2015 and who eventually was the pitcher during UCLA’s national championship season in 2019.

What Tuesday’s celebration was more about was a chance to reflect on what a remarkable rise to the top it has been for Fisher. Like the time she was in Southern California at Premier Girls Fastpitch camp. While pitching, the college coaches running the camp stopped what they were doing to watch Fisher, who had yet to start high school.

Or when a coach during her youth told her that she could be “the next Jenny Finch,” referring to arguably the country’s greatest softball player. Fisher answered back: “I’m going to be the first Addisen Fisher.”

And through it all, Fisher managed the pressure and burden of expectations in ways few could.

“The only thing that matters is your expectations for yourself and how hard you work,” Fisher said. “I think that was the biggest part of staying confident because I was working so hard and continuing to get better.”

For four years Fisher has been a comet, dominating on the softball diamond like no player from Central Oregon or the state of Oregon has seen. In her four-year career, she struck out 845 batters, had a microscopic 0.34 earned run average, threw 11 perfect games, 24 no hitters, while hitting .587 and smacking 43 home runs.