Inside Pitch: 2023 Extra Elite 100 1B/OF Chloe Lesko… “My One Big Takeaway from Growing through Softball Over the Past 14 Years”

Chloe Lesko is a 2023 Extra Elite 100 honoree who has blogged for Extra Inning Softball for almost two years. During that time, she has shared with us her journey while playing for the So Cal Cruisers and also while at Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo, California) High where she’s been a 1^st Team All-CIF power-hitting first baseman and outfielder the last two seasons.

The senior also shines in the classroom while taking college level and AP classes which resulted in her getting her attention of top programs nationwide. Last Fall, the So Cal standout committed to the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and will be part of the school’s highly reputable business program.

Check out some of Chloe’s earlier blogs including: “My Love for Softball Will Forever Never Stop,”  The Importance of Team Togetherness,” “Getting Mental” and her “Theories of Hitting”—and read up today on what believes is the one key learning she’s taken from softball that she hopes to apply in her adult life moving forward…

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I have practiced, played, and loved the sport of softball ever since I was four years old. With my 18th birthday around the corner, I am now entering the last ever fall season of my travel softball career.

The world that softball has given me is filled with thousands of friendships, countless memories, and unforgettable bruises (each with its own story behind its colors!).

So much goes into the sport that we girls dedicate our lives to: the hours spent learning how to perfect that certain swing, the thousands of balls thrown into the Bownet to practice our accuracy, and the oftentimes not-spoken-of dark periods spent reviewing film and asking ourselves, “What can I do better?”

As I’m about to become a collegiate athlete, I’d like to remind my fellow softball players, older and younger, that these times we spend on and off the field are not only creating our childhood memories, but also preparing us for what we’re about to face after softball and after college.

The most important detail I take away from the sport of softball and hope to apply in my “big girl” life is the ability to be coachable. Being coachable on the field is simply being able to listen and apply the critiques and lessons of our mentors to our play.

However, being coachable off the field is so much more. Being coachable is the ability to allow yourself to fall so that you can get up and rise to the next level. It’s the ability that every young athlete, not just softball players, can build on as a foundation for success.

Being able to learn is one of the greatest gifts we have as students of the game and students of life because, one day, the title “coach” will turn into “boss;” “teammate” will turn into “coworker” and the term won’t be “coachable,” it will be “adaptable.”

I’ve reached a point in my life where it is officially less than one year until I move away for college and start the next chapter of my life both academically and athletically.

I never even realized how fast time was going until I wanted to make it stop. At this time, I feel both incredibly grateful and deeply saddened—grateful for all the opportunities and all the memories but saddened knowing that my time on the field is more than halfway over.

My senior year is filled with all of my last “firsts.” I have already accomplished both my last “first day of high school” and my last “first high school softball practice.” This time of transition is simply surreal, and I could not be more excited to see what comes next in my future.

In the meantime, whether young or old in the game of softball, I encourage all to be coachable—both on and off the dirt—and enjoy the time you spend playing the game you love while it lasts.

— Chloe Lesko