This is an uplifting story for all those who get discouraged about the recruiting process, who maybe feel they are “late in the game” as high juniors or seniors or don’t feel they’re getting the attention or exposure they need.
As you’ll learn in this senior’s story, no matter where you live, what position you play or how far along you are in being recruited, there seems to always be a way to make it work out right.
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Chloe Doyle is a senior catcher from Brighton Colorado and, as her father Mike Doyle puts it, “was not well-known locally or nationally.”
Part of that, he believes is because she lined up at every position on the field until two years ago.
“The funny thing is Chloe had only been catching for about a year,” he states of her beginning her recruiting process last summer. “She was a pitcher and infielder before and decided she wanted to try catching. She can play every position on the field, but catcher was where she felt like home. It took 10 years of playing to finally figure that out.”
The talented athlete, who also plays varsity basketball, competed for her dad on a local travel softball team, but he admits the program she was on wasn’t much for exposure.
Chloe played third base for her Brighton High School team starting her freshman year and played there through her junior year, earning 1st team All-Conference all three years of varsity high school.
Impressively, she has also been a three-time All-State All-Academic honoree and is ranked #1 in her senior class of over 500 students.
Chloe got the opportunity to play for the Colorado Stars 18U Gold – Sakamoto team starting her junior year, but before all that, there were a lot of different opinions about her ability as a softball player.
The Colorado athlete wanted to play Division I-level ball despite some people telling her there have been no DI players from her area.
However, many did believe in her according to her father.
“She did have many people that thought she could at that level so I decided we needed to go to a couple of D1 camps to see if she could or not.”
Last November, Chloe went to the prestigious West Coast Elite Camp produced by OnDeck Softball where she shined and was chosen as one of the Top 12 Performers at the Camp.
Derek Allister, co-founder of OnDeck Softball along with his wife Joann, said after the event: “Chloe should be highly recruited over the next nine months.”
How prophetic his statement would end up being.
The family sent recruiting letters out and received a handful of invites. She picked Florida State and Stanford.
*** Scroll down to read the rest of Chloe’s story and a Q&A with her!