Jenelle Grigelevich '20 Recruiting Profile

    When I was about six years old, my older brother (who played baseball at the time) encouraged me to join a softball team. All the players were new to the game but everyone wanted a specific position. I didn't know what I wanted to do so they asked me if I would be willing to play catcher. I did what they wanted me to do and went behind the plate, gear too big and clanking around. Eventually I grew into the gear and the entire position itself. I love everything  about it.

    Skipping ahead nine years to my freshman year, I had been playing behind the plate almost the whole game, every game, but this year I was told I should shoot for varsity, even if maybe that meant less time wearing the gear that I've grown so perfectly into. I went for it very nervously as I might not be behind the beloved plate looking over the whole diamond at the angle I've been seeing for years, but I did it, and I made it. I was the youngest player on the varsity team. I told the coach I was a catcher and I worked extremely hard in practice to prove that I could not only be a catcher, but a catcher for varsity. I caught for the second half of the first game of the season. The next game I was starting catcher, and ended that game still crouching behind the plate. It was like that for just about every single game of the season after that. I had officially over threw the girl two years older than me for a position that we had both played our entire lives. This was a big accomplishment. The team made it to play-offs for the first time in many years. We lost our first game but that's okay because in that first varsity season was the most I've ever grown as a player, team mate, and individual. I now play on a travel league, go to clinics, and practice as often as I can. I didn't know the journey would start like that or come this far, but I know that it's not ending anytime soon.