Tatum Billings to play softball in Washington
- Klas Stolpe
- Sep 4
- 5 min read
2025 JDHS graduate signs to Bellevue College
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
Tatum Billings, a 2025 Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé graduate, signed a national letter of intent Thursday to play softball for the Bellevue College Bulldogs in Bellevue, Washington.
“I initially chose Bellevue because it was close to home and it had the major I was looking for,” Billings said. “A lot of the other schools I applied to did not. It kind of just happened that they were recruiting for softball and so that ended up being good, but it wasn’t my initial thought to play softball when going to Bellevue.”
Bellevue College is one of 37 teams — divided into North, East and South conferences — playing in the Northwest Athletic Conference, the governing body of two-year colleges in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. The Bulldogs placed third in the North Conference last season, qualifying for the regional playoffs. They posted a 24-8 conference record and were 29-15 overall.
Billings has been preparing for play since the end of last season.
“Usually in the mornings, at least three times a week, me and Mariah Schauwecker (former state champion teammate) and my dad will go out to Adair (Kennedy Memorial Field) and hit for about an hour,” she said. “And do some fielding. We also go to the weight room and run. It is kind of just our own little practice, working on different fundamentals.”
Billings plans to pursue a degree in nuclear medicine technology.
“It takes me to the medical field to become a nuclear medicine technologist,” she said. “I’ll be working with radioactive products and positron emission tomography (PET) scans and different machines and helping people with different diseases.”
That pursuit was cemented when she toured Bellevue and saw the program.
“I was way more interested in it than my past major that I was initially going into — radiology,” she said.
Billings played four seasons for the Crimson Bears varsity, becoming a starter her senior season at third base and shortstop after overcoming an injury the year prior.
JDHS returned to Division I last year and qualified for state as the second-place team from the Railbelt Conference. They placed fifth at state. In 2024, JDHS represented the Southeast Conference in Division II but did not make state. In 2023, they won the DII state title and in 2022 did not make state. (From 2014-2024 JDHS played DII or small school classification. They played DI or large school from 2005-2013. From 1996 to 2004, Alaska had just one classification.)
JDHS returns to the Southeast Conference this season with Ketchikan and Sitka, and all will play in the DI large school classification.
“I am definitely going to miss knowing the teams that I grew up with my whole life,” Billings said. “And the mountains and probably just everyone here, and it is finally getting nice just as I am leaving.”
JDHS softball coach Alexandra ‘Lexie’ Razor noted the excitement of Billings continuing her softball career.
“Tatum is a well-rounded utility player that can provide Bellevue with many different options defensively,” Razor said. “Tatum is also a solid offense player that is aggressive on the base path and loves to put down a bunt to move runners around. Tatum loves the game of softball and competing with teammates. She has many things that she is bringing with her to Bellevue, and I am excited to see how things go for her this upcoming year.”
It was Razor who first contacted Bellevue softball coach Annie Lockwood.
“She strongly advocated for Tatum and her athletic ability and what an incredible teammate she is,” Lockwood said. “From there, I reached out to Tatum directly and she then sent me some great film of her playing, and it was a no-brainer that we wanted her to be a part of our program. Tatum will be a great utility threat for us on the field and her speed on the bases will be an asset to us as well.”
Lockwood said the Bulldogs are “a family first, and we love to have fun. We believe in hard work and having a deep respect for the game. We want to be the smartest players on the field and that is something we pride ourselves in at our practices. We are constantly learning and pushing ourselves to be the best players and teammates we can be for one another.”
Lockwood was a multi-sport athlete at Arizona’s Paradise Valley High School. She was a three-year starter in the outfield at Arizona State University, playing in four NCAA tournaments — advancing to the Women’s College World Series three times — and was named to the WCWS All-Tournament Team when ASU won the title in 2011. She has been an assistant coach at ASU and at the University of South Dakota, and a head coach at Skyline High School (Arizona), Redmond High School (Washington) and Skagit Valley College.
Lockwood said the biggest factors for a high school player entering college are to “be patient with yourself and trust the process. This will be a huge change coming from the high school world and she will be learning a lot. It is easy to get discouraged and feel like you are behind the curve, but one day it magically all starts to click and that is when it gets really fun.”
The Bellevue College Bulldogs open their season in February and play through mid-May, culminating in the NWAC championships.
Billings said, “I think I’ll definitely bring some energy to Bellevue and just be loud, like how I was on the high school team.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at kstolpe@juneauindependent.com
