Former Longwood University softball standout Carly Adams received a surprise phone call recently asking her a simple softball question: “Do you want to play again?”

It’s not typically a professional option for women after college, but Pat Grant was calling Adams as a coach in the newly formed American Softball Association (ASBA), a four-team professional league.

“I didn’t even really need to think about,” Adams said. “When he said, ‘Do you want to play?’ I just was like, ‘Absolutely. I would give anything to play.’”

In the 2018 ASBA Summer League Draft that took place June 6, Adams was selected with the 31st overall pick by a team called Outkast.

Each team selected once per round, and there were 14 rounds, plus five of what are termed on the ASBA website as “On-Call” rounds. Adams went in the eight round.

A couple of weeks prior to the phone call from Grant, Adams had heard about the ASBA and the draft from her younger sister, Calyn Adams, who had been invited to put her name into the draft. The younger Adams is a recent graduate of Mississippi State University.

“I was stoked for her,” the elder Adams said.

Carly noted that with his phone call, Grant quickly made it clear to her why he was calling her.

After she confirmed she would like to play again, she said, “He was like, ‘OK. Consider this your invite to put your name in the draft.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa … what do you mean?’ And he was like, ‘I would like for you to put your name in, because I would love to draft you to play for my team this summer.’”

Adams noted that he was interested in drafting her and her younger sister, and he followed through. Calyn was the 23rd overall pick, taken in the sixth round.

As Longwood stated in its press release about Carly Adams’ selection, the inaugural season of the ASBA will feature an intensive six-week schedule beginning Friday and wrapping up July 31. One to two games will be played daily at Satsuma High School’s softball field near Mobile, Alabama.

Adams was not immediately able to dive headlong into the draft and pro possibilities. She first needed to make sure playing pro ball this summer could be done without sacrificing her roles at Longwood. She serves as an assistant coach for the softball team and also works part time in the University Advancement Department.

As she spoke about her pro opportunity last week, she was in Tennessee recruiting for the Lancers at a tournament.

She noted she was able to make arrangements with Lancers Head Coach Kathy Riley and Longwood to allow her pro opportunity to come to pass. And the university has already benefited.

“I think it’ll be a fantastic opportunity to kind of put Longwood’s name on a different stage, and I’ve already had a lot of opportunities from people here at the (Tennessee) tournament that watched the draft,” she said. “And they were like, ‘We saw you got drafted.’ And they were like, ‘Where is Longwood? Tell me about Longwood.’”

Adams added, “I feel very honored that I get to be the one that gets to talk about Longwood to so many people.”