Softball Superstar Caylee English

Caylee English, a student-athlete who is committed to the University of Hartford, is a normal teenager, just like the rest of us. She has a frequent Starbucks order and she contemplates how many times to hit the snooze button in the morning. But Caylee is a unique person, with a knack for softball, and you’d be surprised to know that she didn’t always love the sport that she is now so passionate about.

Starting her softball career around the age of nine, English had actually been a dancer and cheerleader in the years leading up to her becoming passionate for the sport. In earlier years, she played t-ball, and only continued to play softball because her cheer friends played, and their fathers were the coaches, it had never interested her very much. Ironically, today, Caylee is extremely passionate about the sport and pushes herself to new limits, but still agrees with her younger self that the bonds made from playing with a team are the best result from playing softball. English will continue to pursue her passions, including the start of her medical career, in the next couple of years at the University of Hartford.

Caylee has faced so many pressures with playing softball, many being self-induced, but she has prevailed and become the captain of the Immaculate Conception Varsity Softball Team, a leader and role model that many look up to. She hopes to be remembered for and said that, “As a captain, I believe it’s not always about voicing yourself, but actually going out and doing things that others don’t have the courage to do, so others will have enough courage to do it themselves.” English believes in “Leading by example,” and she doesn’t believe in the “freshman card,” that many upperclassmen seem to pull. Softball has shaped her and has made her mature, she claims she would not be who she is today without softball.

English has made many unbreakable bonds throughout her years as a softball player, on club teams and at Immaculate Conception, a school that has taught her to lean on others and not take burdens head on by herself, but rather, with a family of friends and teammates alike. Her biggest accomplishment is not signing the Letter of Intent, but being a girl that no one knew, to pitching in the Tournament of Champions. English will miss IC, and her friends, who she will leave behind in the fall of 2019. To Caylee’s friends, who she is leaving behind in New Jersey for the capital of Connecticut to play for the University of Hartford, she says, “Keep our legacy alive, work hard toward the gold.”