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STARKVILLE – On her very first trip to the state of Mississippi, Rebekah Adicoff decided it was where she would make her home.
The California native had never been to the South. In fact, she’d never heard of Mississippi State until learning that the coaching staff would be at a tournament her travel ball team was playing in. But once she heard about MSU, it seemed like it might be the perfect fit.
“I ended up in Starkville because I was looking for schools that had an agriculture program,” she said. “Six months before I went to college I visited, and I absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere and told everyone that I was going to school in Mississippi.”
Adicoff had grown up playing softball since she was in the fourth grade. She made the varsity team as a freshman in high school and eventually won a division title in 2019. Her travel ball career began during her sophomore year, but she wasn’t ready to be done with the game when the COVID-19 pandemic ended her senior season.
“I came to school and knew that I wanted to get involved in softball because it was a big part of my life, and I wanted to continue that in college,” Adicoff said. “At first, I thought I would just play intramurals and then I decided to reach out and see what I could potentially do with the actual team.”
After exchanging a few emails with the staff, Adicoff came out to a late fall practice. For her first day, she was asked to help chart the team’s live at-bats as a way for her to learn the players’ names.
She liked it, but things were winding down for the fall. Adicoff went home, but her interest never faded. When the team came back from winter break, she was there and has been there ever since.
Most of Adicoff’s duties are centered around charting pitches and logging the results from a radar gun behind home plate. At practices, she might feed a machine in the batting cages, but when the team hits live off their own pitchers, she’s back to charting the pitch sequences.
Her role has allowed her to travel with the team and visit places she’d never been. Adicoff has a goal to visit all 50 states, and softball has helped fill in her map.
“After this summer I have been to 26 states, and I’ll be 20 years old in a couple of weeks,” Adicoff said. “Thanks to softball I have been able to go to Tennessee and Kentucky. Kentucky was cool because I also applied to Kentucky.”
The Bluegrass State remains her favorite. As an agriculture major, Adicoff wants to work with livestock. She especially enjoys working with horses and children, so being in horse country was a peek at what her future may hold.
“Horses are a great animal to work with kids and show them confidence and things that they don’t know about themselves,” she said. “That’s a huge thing that I love, and that’s usually what I spend my summers doing. I had never seen the state before. It was so green, and there were a lot of horses there. I may end up in Kentucky you never know .”
And if not Kentucky, Mississippi could make just as good a home, especially if she decides to trade horses in for cattle ranching.
“Rebekkah is quite the opposite of what you’d expect a Cali girl to be. She’s not afraid to show up to softball in blue jean shorts and work boots, and I love that about her,” director of operations Jamie Desporte said. “She’s such a sweet girl, and she works hard for our crew. She’s always willing to throw front toss, feed machines, shag balls. You name it, she’s there. We appreciate her and her commitment to MSU softball.”
Adicoff hopes to widen her softball skillset in the coming years. She’s not entirely sure what that role may look like, but she’s happy to take on whatever the coaching staff may give her.
“Rebekkah has fit right into the culture of Mississippi and Mississippi State,” head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “It has been fun to watch her grow more comfortable and confident in her role with the program, and she helps out in many different aspects of the daily operations. There is so much work behind the scenes and behind the team, and it takes people like Rebekkah who are invested and enjoy being a part of it. The team has embraced Rebekkah, and she is a pleasure to have around every day.”
At first it surprised her how much went on outside of the game to make sure the games happened, but by now she expects it. And more than anything else, her best trait may be her willingness to help get the job done.
“I want to be there to help and be helpful,” Adicoff said. “Anything that I need to learn to make their job easier is what I’m game for.”
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