Duncan Christian School student Kaylie-Grace Brown has signed her letter of intent to play softball for Bellevue College of the 36-school Northwest Athletic Conference.
The 17-year-old catcher/utility player was highly sought after following a regional gold medal last season with the Langford Lightning U19B team, as well as a strong provincial tournament, leading her team in home runs.
“I had a couple official offers and about 10 schools show interest,” Brown said. “I had the top six teams in the conference reach out. So that was fun.”
With her pick of the litter, Brown took a trip south to Washington State to tour some schools.
“I liked how everything was on campus at Bellevue,” she explained. “One of the biggest factors in my decision was the field. When we went to the other schools I stood on the field and it was just a field, but at Bellevue I felt like I could picture myself there.”
While the NWAC is predominantly an American league, there is one Canadian School, Douglas College, in New Westminster.
“I had talked to the coach a little bit but they didn’t have housing,” Brown noted. “As well as my dream has always been to go to an American school, so it felt silly to get so close and just play American teams.”
Brown will move to the school’s campus and join the team in the fall semester after graduating from DCS in June. It’ll take some time to get to know one another, however.
“It’s an entirely new team apart from one sophomore,” she explained. That doesn’t bother her. Coached by Parris Mamon, and already one of the top teams in the NWAC, Bellevue College has had roughly three dozen former players go on to finish their academic and athletic careers at four-year colleges or universities, meaning the sky’s the limit in terms of both athletic and academic development for Brown.
While at Bellevue, she’s planning on embarking on a path into psychology.
“I really want to end up in either counselling or sports psychology,” Brown said.