Mackenzie Minnick '22 Recruiting Profile

    When I was seven, my favorite baseball player was Matt Wieters, catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Wieters had inspired me to become a catcher. All I knew at the time was that I was going to be just like him, but I couldn't. That is until I found out about softball. It was a dream come true.  I signed up that fall, and I had no idea what I was doing. I kept working hard though and eventually made it onto a travel team. When I was eleven my family and I had moved up to Tennessee. One of the scariest things for me was if I was going to find friends, and fitting in with my softball team. 

    I live in a small town, and my teammates had been my teammates for many years. We've all grown close to each other. Middle School was coming up, and I was super nervous. I ended up making the team. As a 6th grader, I didn't get to see the field a whole lot until I changed that. I confronted my coaches, and they told me that I had to show them I belonged out there. That's exactly what I did, and I ended up playing in left field. At the end of 6th grade, I had become the starting catcher. I continued to be the starting catcher for the rest of middle school. In 8th grade, our team had made it to state for the first time in many years.   During the state tournament we had an award ceremony were my name was called for Clinch river valley all district team. To this day I thank my teammates for that award because they all helped me to receive that award. It was our award.  Nobody thought we could  make it to the state tournament but we proved them wrong. In our last game in the state, I had gotten hit in the elbow with a pitch It was bruised swollen up It hurt really bad, but I insisted that I could still play. This was going to be my last game as an 8th grader, and I couldn't just sit back and watch. We didn't win, but it wasn't that bad because we as a team did something no one thought we could. I will never forget that season and my teammates. That season taught me that with hard work anything is possible.