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Kaylyn Belfield started playing softball in Tee-Ball, but she really fell in love with the sport after spending a summer with her dad, Phillip Belfield, and his 23U summer team.
“I would be in the dugout with players like Krystal Smith (Kentucky) and Abbey Cheek (Kentucky), Carly and Calyn Adams (Longwood/Mississippi State), Holly Baker (Tennessee) Hailey Smith (LSU/Louisville), Nicole Beal (Radford), Macey Jones (Penn State) and others,” Kaylyn said. “I really looked up to these girls and knew I wanted to play college softball like them.”
Thus began Kaylyn’s softball journey, which started off with her committing to North Carolina State, de-committing when the coach resigned and eventually committing to Lipsomb University.
It’s been a pretty wild journey for Belfield a 2022 outfielder/middle infielder for Stars National-Belfield who is #53 in the 2022 Extra Elite 100.
“It was the summer after my 7th grade year that my recruiting journey started.” Kaylyn said. “I had a really strong tournament at PGF Nationals and I think that really helped me, after that tournament I had a bunch of schools contacting my coach and setting up calls and visits.”
“I think I took 11 visits that fall of my 8th grade year and I had four offers from the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Southern Conferences. I talked with my family about it, then I made a decision to commit to NC State University under Coach Shawn Rychcik. He made me a great offer, loved slappers and I wanted to study animal sciences. I was really devastated when he resigned.”
Kaylyn decided to re-open her recruiting and the journey continued.
“That next summer I was getting a lot of interest from more schools again, so that was exciting,” Kaylyn said. “The rules had changed where coaches couldn’t talk about recruiting, so that did make it very tough compared to the year before.”
“For the next few years, I was invited to a lot of camps. I have been to many schools all over the East Coast, Southeast, North and even out to Oklahoma. Those experiences helped me understand what I really wanted in a school, a softball program and a coaching staff.
“I kept working hard knowing that the summer of 2020 would be fun and important. Then COVID hit, then the eligibility ruling came from the NCAA allowing current players an extra year, then the dead period was extended so coaches could not come out to our tournaments. My team played really well, we had such a fun and exciting summer.”
The offers came at a fast and furious pace in September.
“When September 1st came, it was crazy,” Kaylyn said. “I received my first call that morning from an SEC school at 7:30 am. From that point forward I had 10 more calls that day with schools.”
“Over the next few days there were 23 different schools that I had calls with, some held weekly calls, or would just want to talk every few days. These schools were from the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and many others. I had three or four offers in the first few days, but I wanted to wait to really find the best fit, I didn’t want to make a change again, like what happened when I was younger.
“Although I wanted to wait, it was also very hard to manage all of the calls and texts from coaches with one of my toughest semesters in school, getting ready for my ACT and also practicing and working out every day. So, because of all of that I wanted to make a decision as soon as I felt I knew the right choice. I felt I did lose some options due to the eligibility ruling, but I still felt very blessed to have so many schools interested in me.”
Lipscomb softball came on to Kaylyn’s radar and appeared to have everything Kaylyn was looking for.
“I was really interested in Lipscomb from the first call that I had from Coach (Kristin) Ryman,” Kaylyn said. “Also, a teammate of mine, Tori Womack, had just committed to Lipscomb in the summer so my dad, our coach, got to know Coach Ryman well through her process. As the weeks went by, I would look up videos on social media, on YouTube and look at websites of the schools that I was interested in.”
“Before going to our Scenic City Tournament, my family and I decided to take a tour of Lipscomb. Right away I fell in love with the campus, the city, the culture and just everything about it. I wanted to tell Coach Ryman the night after my tour, but it was getting too late, and the next morning their softball team had a fall scrimmage and we were playing in a tournament. Coach Ryman and I talked that afternoon and I told her I wanted to accept their offer. I feel God opened doors (and closed doors) to lead me to Lipscomb! I am so excited to call Lipscomb University my home!”
RECRUITING SPOTLIGHT Q&A
Name: KAYLYN BELFIELD
Hometown: Kannapolis, NC
High School: AL Brown High, NC
Club Team (age group): Stars National-Belfield Gold 18U
Graduation Year: 2022
Height: 5-foot-5
Position: CF/OF
Nickname: Bel or Belfield (my high school team calls me that)
Twitter: @kaylynb_33
Honors: #53 in 2022 Extra Elite 100, 2020 16U All Summer Team by Extra Inning Softball, 2019 Hot Stove Greater Charlotte Youth Softball Player of the Year, HS Freshman of the Year, All-Conference, All-District, All-State and 2019 Triple Crown All-American.
High School Highlights/Stats: Batted .512 BA with .584 OBP, 30 for 30 SBs, 36 runs and 19 RBIs as a freshman.
*** Scroll down to see read more about Katylyn’s recruiting journey including 5 things she was looking for in a school!