For those of you just getting into college softball this season, there is someone you should know about. Her name is NiJaree Canady. And she is #1 person I follow this season.
Nijaree’s story starts in Topeka, KS, where she was a high school softball prodigy and led her team to back to back state championships and she won two Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year awards.
Out of high school, Nijaree committed to Stanford citing both softball and academics as the primary drivers behind her decision.
As a freshman at Stanford, she was named the national freshman of the year and led the Stanford Cardinal to the WCWS semifinals. As a sophomore, she was named the player of the year by three different major softball publications. Nijaree ended her sophomore season with a 41-10 record, 0.66 ERA, 555 strikeouts in 366 innings.
Now here is where it gets interesting. In 2024, Nijaree entered the transfer portal and shocked the entire softball world by signing an NIL (short for Name Image, and Likeness) deal with Texas Tech, who have never before appeared in the WCWS, for just over $1M.
In 2025, now with Texas Tech, NiJaree posted another video game stat line of a 1.11 ERA and 319 strike outs in 240 innings pitched. And she led Texas Tech to its first every WCWS and its first ever WCWS final again in state rival Texas.
Overall, Canady’s 2025 playoff performance was electric. She started 10 of 11 games in the playoffs, pitched 53 innings, notched 48 strike outs and only 22 earned runs.
However, some of the wear & tear on Nijaree’s arm started show by the decisive game 3 of the WCWS Final, where she gave up a highly uncharacteristic 5 runs in 2 innings, and Texas went on to win 10-4.
2026 is Nijaree’s senior season, and the pressure is on to live up to her seven figure NIL deal and bring home a national title for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have loaded their roster with a several top tier transfers from the portal, but anything less than a national title this season is going to feel like a disappointment for Nijaree and Texas Tech. The 2026 playoffs are going to be insanity—or better yet, in-Canady.
