Submitted photo Colquitt County’s Greg Connell circles the bases after hitting another home run for the Men’s Slow Pitch National Team.

When Greg Connell finished his college baseball career at Valdosta State in 2004 and first began playing high-level slow-pitch softball, he had no idea how big the sport was.

Or how good he could be at it.

Seven years later, Connell, a 2000 Colquitt County High graduate who still lives here, was named by ASA/USA Softball as its USA Softball Athlete of the Year. He also has been selected to the Men’s Slow Pitch National Team twice and has led the USSSA Conference in home runs and runs batted in four straight seasons.

The Old Scout web site, devoted to major league softball, selected Connell as the second baseman on its 2011 All World Team and named him the Player of the Year.

And he is a spokesman for Worth Sports, whose line includes a Greg Connell signature softball bat. A visit to www.worthsports.com reveals a photo of Connell, bat on shoulder, on the home page. Connell also recently filmed a commercial for Worth, which can be viewed by going to YouTube and typing in Greg Connell.

Connell estimates he is on the road at least 160 days a year playing softball and guesses that he spends about 260 days doing something softball-related.

In fact, he is in Dennison, Texas, this weekend for a tournament before getting a well-deserved two-week break.

Playing for Resmondo-Worth, his primary tournament season is from April to September.

But there are tournaments and events the rest of the year. And when not playing, he spends plenty of time at the Moultrie YMCA, lifting weights and working out with his brother Brandon, also a professional softball player.

“It’s hard work,” he said.

But the rewards have been gratifying.

The highlights of his career include being named to the National Team and receiving the Athlete of the Year Award.

Connell was selected for the National Team once before, but conflicts kept he from playing.

Last year, he played in five of the team’s games at the McQuade Senior Budweiser Charity Softball Tournament in Bismarck, N.D.; the Team Cincinnati exhibitions; exhibitions in Oklahoma City ; and the Border Battle III against Canada in Oklahoma City.

For the season, he was 29-for-34 – an .853 average with 25 runs scored and 27 runs batted in. He also hit 10 home runs.

His best performance came in the team’s opening game against the Gene Were All-Stars, a team of top players from the Dakotas, in the McQuade tournament. Connell went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two home runs and five runs batted in. In the second game, he went 6-for-6.

In the games in Cincinnati, he went 8-for-10 with six runs batted in.

In Oklahoma City, he was 9-for-11 with 11 runs batted in. In Team USA’s 25-3 Border Battle victory over the Canadian National Team, Connell was 2-for-3 with three runs batted in.

Connell said it was “great honor” to be named the USA Softball Athlete of the Year.

“To be picked over the other 14 guys, who are phenomenal players, was just incredible,” he said

Also in 2011, he was named to the all-tournament teams in 10 events he participated in and was named the tournament MVP in the fifth annual Space City Classic on June 3 and in the 43rd Smoky Mountain Classic on July 8.

In 73 games playing for Resmondo-Worth last year, Connell batted .798 with a USSSA-leading 119 home runs and 357 runs batted in.

Connell grew up around slow-pitch softball in Colquitt County, where his father Willie Connell often sponsored teams.

He was a fine baseball player, too, although he did not play his junior and senior seasons at Colquitt County High.

After walking on at Darton College, he earned a scholarship to play for the Cavaliers and then went on to a successful career playing third base and left field for two of Tommy Thomas’s successful Valdosta State teams.

Connell also played for an outstanding 18-and-under softball team out of Tifton coached by Jim Huggins that won three world and five national championships.

Not long after his baseball career ended, he caught on with is first A softball team, Uniflora out of Lake City.

In 2006, he was on his first major team and joined Resmondo-Worth in 2008. That team won the USSSA World Series in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Connell was the conference most valuable player in 2010 and 2011.

The conference includes 44 teams of 11 players each and Connell estimates that between 75-100 have had some professional baseball experience.

Connell forte is his power.

His longest home run, hit at the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park in 2010, traveled an estimated at 575 feet.

“But I average probably between 460 and 470 feet,” he said.

Connell also won the 2011 Stadium Power Tour championship representing Team Worth.

In the final contest of the season on Sept. 18 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Connell hit several into the parking lot to win the championship.

He competed as part of the Long Haul Bombers, powered by Home Run Monkey.com, a collection of the nation’s top softball home run hitters.

And although Connell keeps a busy schedule, traveling throughout the country, his family watches him compete whenever it can.

Wife Stacie is the former Colquitt County High trainer who still is involved in working with cheerleaders at the school. They have two daughters, Addison, 4, and Baylie, 1.

His father Willie and mother Wanda also are fans, as are brothers Brandon and Scotty.

Several the Connell clan are planning to make the trip to Kissimmee, Fla., on April 17 for the season-opening tournament.

And at 30, Connell believes he has a good part of his career ahead of him.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I want to keep doing it.”