- Utah Valley freshmen Megan Sterzer and Ella Miller spent the summer on the Utah Talons' operations crew, learning the routine of professional softball from the inside at Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
- This story sits inside Utah's softball lane and connects to the larger statewide sports picture.
- The story is backed by 3 sources and a visible last-verified date.
July 8, 2026
July 11, 2026
4 min / 805 words
3 official links
Utah's newest professional team gave two Utah Valley freshmen a front-row education this summer. Wolverines Megan Sterzer and Ella Miller worked with the Utah Talons — the state's Athletes Unlimited Softball League franchise — as part of the game-day operations crew, preparing the field, helping with pregame drills, and watching elite softball up close at Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
For two players just a year into college softball, it was a rare kind of access: not a clinic or a camp, but a summer spent inside a professional operation. And it fits a bigger shift in the state, where the arrival of pro softball is giving college players a visible next step and a real sense of what the top of the sport demands. It is the kind of development story that makes Utah women's sports worth following beyond the box score.
Who they are
Sterzer is a Taylorsville, Utah product and an outfielder who made an immediate mark in her first college season — she was named a D1Softball Mid-Major Freshman of the Week in February 2026 after going 8-for-13 with a home run, a double, and eight RBIs at the Rebel Classic. Miller, a Bountiful, Utah native, is a right-handed pitcher and infielder. Both are exactly the kind of young in-state talent UVU is building its program around.
What they actually did
This was hands-on, not ceremonial. Sterzer and Miller joined the AUSL operations crew, handling field preparation and assisting with pregame work while the Talons ran their season. That put them on the field and in the flow of a professional game day — close enough to see how the best players prepare, recover, and carry themselves between the lines.
The Talons made a strong backdrop for the lesson. The franchise won the AUSL's inaugural championship in 2025 and sat at 13-5 with seven games remaining as of the July 8, 2026 article, playing its home schedule at the University of Utah's Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
What they took from it
The value showed up in what the two players said they learned. Miller came away focused on the day-to-day discipline of the sport, describing the experience as insight into "the typical life and routine of a pro athlete as well as the work ethic it takes to get themselves to the highest level."
Sterzer's takeaway was mental. Watching professionals practice, she said, "showed me how important mental toughness is" — especially in how they responded after a bad rep or a rough day, bouncing back instead of dwelling. Both players also came away struck by how approachable the pros were, and how much could be absorbed simply by being around elite softball every day.
Why a pro team in Utah changes the picture
The reason this experience exists at all is that professional softball came to Salt Lake City. The Athletes Unlimited Softball League placed one of its six franchises in Utah, and the Talons began play at Dumke Family Softball Stadium — the first time college players in the state have had a home-market pro team to learn from. For a sport that has historically sent its best players out of state or out of the game after college, that is a structural change.
It matters most for players like Sterzer and Miller who are early in their college careers. Instead of imagining what the top of the sport looks like, they spent a summer inside it: seeing the preparation, the recovery, and the professionalism up close, then carrying it back to their own program. A clinic teaches technique for a weekend. A season on the operations crew teaches what a career actually requires.
What Utah softball gains
A year ago, a UVU freshman had no professional softball team to shadow in her own backyard. Now she does. The Talons give Utah's college players a tangible model of the sport's ceiling and a nearby proving ground, and they give women in the state's softball ecosystem — players, staff, and future coaches — a place to build careers around the game. Sterzer and Miller spent this summer learning what that top level looks like. The point of the experience is that they now know it is reachable, and close.
Key facts:
- Who: Utah Valley freshmen Megan Sterzer (Taylorsville) and Ella Miller (Bountiful)
- What: Worked the Utah Talons' AUSL operations crew — field prep, pregame drills, and time around professional players
- Where: Dumke Family Softball Stadium, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
- The Talons: 2025 AUSL inaugural champions; 13-5 with seven games left as of July 8, 2026
- Takeaways: Miller on the routine and work ethic of pro athletes; Sterzer on the importance of mental toughness and bouncing back
- Sterzer's freshman year: D1Softball Mid-Major Freshman of the Week (Feb. 2026), 8-for-13 with a home run and eight RBIs at the Rebel Classic
