Meeting Adrian Peterson? Signing with Japan's pro league? What hasn't Kelly Maxwell done?

Oh, and winning that national title. The OU ace has had an eventful few weeks.

Screenshot from Bill Horn’s video of Kelly Maxwell meeting Adrian Peterson.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Patty Gasso pulled Kelly Maxwell aside a few hours before OU was set to face Texas in the first game of the national championship series.

The Sooner coach had important news for the pitching ace.

"Adrian Peterson's coming," Gasso said.

"No, he's not," Maxwell said with a laugh.

"Yeah," Gasso insisted, "he's gonna come to D-BAT."

Gasso had known since last summer that Maxwell wore No. 28 because of Peterson. The legendary running back had worn that number as a Sooner, then in the NFL, and Maxwell and her family had been OU football fans for many years.

(Maxwell told me she kept her OU fandom on the down low when she was at OSU; more on that in a minute.)

Still, Maxwell didn't believe there was any way Gasso had set up a meeting with Peterson. Not at the Oklahoma City practice facility where the Sooners worked out during the WCWS. Not on the day OU started the championship series.

"Then sure enough, here he walks in," Maxwell told me the other day.

"I'm like, 'That's crazy.'"

Video of the Sooner superstars meeting has been viewed nearly 285,000 times on Twitter. She marvels that the football star took time out of a quick trip to Oklahoma to meet her.

She’ll forever be grateful.

The whole thing was just part of a whirlwind few weeks for Maxwell. Yes, winning the national championship was great. Sure, being named the MVP of the WCWS was special.

But that's not all she's been up to.

For starters, Maxwell will return to Devon Park this weekend, playing for USA Softball's Women's Elite Team. The squad has exhibition games against Great Britain's national team at 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday, warm-ups for next week's Japan All-Star Series.

Maxwell is definitely in the pipeline to be considered for the 2028 Olympics, the next time softball will be in the Games.

(And yes, the softball competition will be held in Oklahoma City.)

I asked Maxwell if she will try to make the U.S. Olympic team.

"I don't know," she said. "I go back and forth. I've had conversations with various people on whether I should keep playing, whether I shouldn't."

At the top of her why-I-shouldn't list is veterinarian school. Maxwell is applying to programs now and will learn in February where she's been accepted.

She isn't sure how going to vet school while training for the Olympics would work.

"How do you practice when you're a full-time student and pretty much your whole day is taken up by class and studying?" she said. "How well can you stay in shape and keep training? And with the summer, I don't know if I'll have to be in clinicals or anything like that."

She admitted that she would like to give all her attention, energy and focus to vet school.

But ...

"The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing," she said. "I don't want to regret not doing it. So, I'm still ... "

She sighed.

"I don't know."

More immediately, though, Maxwell plans to continue playing. She recently signed a contract to play professionally in Japan starting later this year.

"I'm excited for that," she said.

Maxwell will play in the Japanese Women’s Softball League for Toyota Shokki, the team once led by former Oklahoma State ace Michele Smith. Maxwell will join two fellow Americans on the team, former Arizona State ace Dallas Escobedo and former Cal standout Makena Smith.

The league has a lengthy mid-summer break, and Maxwell will join Toyota Shokki for the second half of the season, leaving the States in late August and returning in mid-November.

"I'm like, 'Might as well,'" she said of playing overseas. "I'm young."

Talking to Maxwell, it struck me how at ease she seemed compared to this past year. I've covered her since early in her OSU days, so comfort might be expected. But I'm guessing the weight of the past year truly was significant.

Deciding to leave OSU.

Deciding to play at OU.

Becoming the ace on a team trying to four-peat.

But then there was this: Maxwell was playing for a school she has loved since she was little.

Many members of her dad's side of the family attended OU, and she's had family in Norman — her dad's aunt — for as long as she can remember. When she was young, her family would travel from Texas to Oklahoma to visit and go to OU football games.

There are family photos of little Kelly wearing crimson and cream, watching games on Owen Field.

Adrian Peterson played in some of those games.

A few years after he left for the pros, Maxwell started playing travel ball. That’s when she learned the number she'd always worn, No. 27, was taken.

(Why No. 27? "Jennie Finch," Maxwell explained. "I grew up watching her.")

Her coach, an OU fan himself, knew the Maxwells were OU fans, too.

"Why don't you wear No. 28?" he asked Maxwell. "One up from 27, and Adrian Peterson's number."

Maxwell started wearing No. 28 then and has worn it ever since.

A few times during her time at OSU, she was asked why she wore No. 28.

"Oh," she would say, "no specific reason."

She didn't want to admit she was wearing No. 28 for the orange and black because of a legend for the crimson and cream.

"But it really was true," she said.

Still, Maxwell never dreamed she'd get to meet Peterson one day. Even though Gasso had warned her that Peterson might show up that day the championship series started, Maxwell wasn't prepared.

"I was definitely just in shock," she said with a laugh.

She doesn't remember much of what either of them said, but one thing Peterson said about their shared jersey number stuck with her.

"You wear it well," he said