Carlson: How OKC Spark signed former OU softball star Keilani Ricketts with a rare pitch
NORMAN ― When Keilani Ricketts boarded a plane bound for the United States a little over a year ago, she wondered if she was leaving behind not only Japan but also her professional softball career.
It was late 2021, and the powerful lefty had just finished pitching another season in Japan’s renowned pro league. But while overseas, she had discovered she was pregnant. She and husband, Sean Tumanuvao, would be having their first child in May 2022.
She played through the early months of her pregnancy, but when the former OU superstar finished the season and headed home to Norman, she wasn’t sure she’d ever play again.
“I didn’t want to announce a retirement or say that I was retiring just in case an opportunity came up where I wanted to play,” Ricketts said.
And such an opportunity did arise ― right in her own backyard.
Ricketts signed with the Oklahoma City Spark, the Women’s Professional Fastpitch team set to launch its inaugural season in June. While she is the sixth player and third former Sooner to ink with the Spark ― Jocelyn Alo and Lynnsie Elam are already on the roster ― Ricketts is the franchise’s first mom player.
Spark owner Tina Floyd hopes Ricketts isn’t the last.
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The issue of motherhood in women’s sports has burst onto the national scene. Olympic sprint champion Allyson Felix has led the conversation in recent years, advocating for maternal health, paid maternity leave for professional athletes and childcare for mom athletes while they’re competing. Several leagues, including the WNBA, NWSL and Athletes Unlimited, have taken big steps forward in providing for mothers.
Floyd is serious about doing all she can do for moms who play for the Spark.
“Why would we not want to offer some sort of childcare for our athletes?” Floyd said Thursday at IntenCity Sports Training Academy in south Norman as Ricketts’ signing was formally announced. “In other sports, women are having children and coming back and playing, and you don’t see that in softball as much. So we want to lead the way with that.”
It was a huge factor in getting Ricketts into a Spark jersey.
She gave birth to Elizabeth Louisa Tumanuvao last May, and for a couple of months, Ricketts thought little about softball.
“I was just enjoying being a mom,” Ricketts said. “I’m not gonna lie ― it was kind of great not playing and being able to enjoy the summer since I’m always playing and traveling throughout the summer.”
In those early months, Ricketts wasn’t sure she wanted to play again.
“Postpartum, it was a lot tougher,” she said. “I’m like, ‘OK, you’ll bounce back. It’s like any kind of injury,’ but it’s different parts of the body. It’s a little bit different. You’ve got hormones to deal with, too.
“At that time, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could play softball again.’”
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Ricketts would have been OK with her career ending, too.
But last July, WPF announced Oklahoma City was getting a team. That got Ricketts’ attention, and a few months later when Floyd reached out to gauge Ricketts’ interest in joining the Spark, she was intrigued by the possibility.
“But now as a new mom,” Ricketts said, “I just had to think about it a little bit and just gather a little bit more information.”
As much as anything, Ricketts needed to know how baby Elizabeth, nicknamed Lizzo, fit into the equation.
Floyd didn’t shy away from the conversation. She, too, is a mom, and even though she and husband, Robert, have four kids, they run their own business and she recently finished her doctorate. She wants her players to have the chance to live their dreams, too. All of their dreams. If that includes motherhood, so be it.
To that end, the Spark started a nonprofit foundation, Emerge Strongher, to help defer part or all of the costs of childcare for players.
“We’ll find the nanny. We’ll find whatever makes you feel comfortable,” Floyd said of her conversations with Ricketts. “And if I have to put Lizzo … on my hip and take her, I love her so that’s not a problem. But we want to make sure females have that opportunity to come back and play and that something they’re not worried about is that their child’s being taken care of.
“We got this.”
'It’s not a soapbox. It’s a passion for me.'
Ricketts will be the first beneficiary of the Spark’s efforts, so she and Floyd talked about all sorts of childcare issues. Would Ricketts need a babysitter during practice? What about childcare on the road? Might her husband, Sean, travel with the team? What if his schedule kept him from going?
Floyd didn’t want any of that to be a barrier that kept Ricketts from playing.
“I want that to be the standard,” Floyd said. “It should be a standard that women do not have to take a backseat just because they have a family.
“It’s not a soapbox. It’s a passion for me.”
Ricketts is grateful for that.
She remembers her first year in professional softball. She joined the USSSA Pride in 2013 right after finishing her college career at OU. She was one of the team’s youngest players and had several teammates in their 30s.
Ricketts thought they seemed old.
“But then when you think of male sports … that’s a great age to be pitching,” she said. “I’ve seen so many female athletes at the international level and overseas in Japan, they’re in their prime when they’re in their late 20s and 30s.”
Ricketts believes what Floyd and the Spark are doing will be important piece of the puzzle if professional softball in the United States is going to grow. Many in the sport want to give players a professional avenue to continue beyond college, and while players in their 20s will make up the majority of players of any league, keeping veteran talent will be important.
Part of keeping them is giving them opportunities to have children and care for them while still playing.
“As a female athlete … when you’re in your 30s, you start thinking about having a family,” Ricketts said.
“Why can’t we think about both?”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why OU Sooners softball legend Keilani Ricketts signed with OKC Spark
