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It’s a sign of the times when athletes are restricted in visiting college campuses or meeting in person with their future college coaches due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the extension of the NCAA dead period.
That, however, didn’t stop one enterprising verbal commit from getting it done—even though she has never stepped foot on her future school’s campus!
Kayla Chavez is a third baseman/shortstop with one of the top club teams in the country, Athletics – Mercado/Greg and has been a member of the 2021 Extra Elite 100 class in the past.
Last Thursday evening (August 27, 2020), Kayla verbally committed to the University of Minnesota through a Zoom meeting, according to her mother Amanda Chavez, who said, “She committed online since the NCAA extended the dead period, otherwise she would have loved to be on campus accepting the offer. She can’t be more excited to become part of the Golden Gopher family and is looking forward to playing for some amazing coaches!”
One of the benefits of heading to the Big Ten program is Kayla will get to play with club teammate and fellow Minnesota commit Emily Leavitt, who was highly sought-after by top colleges nationwide as well.
Kayla has had a great career at Chino Hills (California) High where she has earned honors such as CalHi Sports 1st Team All-State, Daily Bulleting All-Area 1st Team and Inland Express Girls Athlete of the Year.
An outstanding hitter, she had one week as a sophomore when she went 5-for-5 with three home runs, a double and single in one game and went 2-for-3 with a home run in the second game.
Her 2020 junior season was cut short by the Coronavirus after just 10 games played, but in that time she batted .562 with home runs. This summer, playing in events in Oklahoma, Arizona and Utah with the Athletics, Kayla hit .516 (31-for-60) with six home runs and eight doubles.
As for her recruiting process with the University of Minnesota, Kayla admits it was “a little different due to COVID-19. There were a lot of texts, phone calls and zoom meetings, but the coaches did an amazing job showing off what the university has to offer, since I wasn’t able to visit the campus due to the NCAA dark period.”
In the Zoom call with Gopher coaches Piper Ritter, Carly Wynn and Katie Richardson last week, Kayla made the staff quite happy when she told them: “It would be an honor to play for the program and I am so excited to become a Golden Gopher!”
Scroll down to read more about how Kayla became a Gopher commit!