“Softball has given me opportunities I had never imagined,” says Kyra Lockhart, one of the top power-hitting freshmen in the country and a name you’ll be hearing a lot about over the next few years.

We first met Kyra, a first baseman with the Jersey Intensity, at a recent tournament and were not only impressed with her powerful stroke on the field, but her personality and energy off of it. When she said she loves to write, we knew she’d be another great blog writer for StudentSportsSoftball.com!

In this introductory blog, the New Jersey infielder details her history of falling in love with baseball first and then her transition into softball and how she became a prospect that SEC schools are after…

Check out our video interview of Kyra done in early October.

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Hello! My name is Kyra Lockhart and I play on Jersey Intensity KOD and this is my story about how I fell in love with softball.

It all started when my father was watching a New York Mets game. I was fascinated by the game and automatically knew I wanted to play. Unfortunately at the age of 5 we had no little league teams in the town. However, I made my own alternative. I would play my own imaginary baseball game in the house. This included sliding, diving, and numerous amounts of dry swings. It was INTENSE!

On my sixth birthday, my parents knew exactly what to get me. They had seen me slide across the hardwood floor so much, they signed me up for a year of Tee-Ball. I was exuberant that I would actually be apart of my first team!

That year of Tee-Ball was excellent and laid a platform for everything else. After Tee-Ball I played regular little league—that is where my journey really started.

In second grade, my coach said I needed more of a challenge. There was a local travel team and they were having tryouts. I didn’t know if I would make it but I believed it was worth a try. I went to the tryouts played my heart out and awaited the call. That week felt like forever to me. But on that fateful Sunday night I got the call; I had made the team.

This team was the first real challenge for me. I had a great coach who pushed everyone to his (or, in my case, her) maximum potential. We would practice hours on end to get plays correct, hit, base run, and everything else. Every now and then I would come home exhausted. And being on a team with all boys made it worse at times.

However my parents used to tell me “If you want it that bad, you will work for it. No one will hand you anything.” And I wanted it bad. My dream was to start for that team. So I worked more than I had to. When practice would end I would be the one taking extra swings or fielding more ground balls. I was determined.

In the end the hard-work paid off and I was a regular starter for the team. I played baseball with that team for three years and we had great success as a team. Then one day the coach who had ran the team for so long stepped down as coach. The sense of familiarity I had was gone and it was time yet again to take on another challenge.

At a baseball tournament I recalled seeing they had a softball team tryout coming up. At this point I had never even considered making the transition from baseball to softball, but once again I was optimistic and decided I would try out for the “Finch’s Aces.” My years of baseball had ended.

The different dynamic of softball threw me off a lot. The size of the ball, swing difference, and new rules were hard to get used to. My first months were difficult.

The success I had in baseball was gone and I had to start from square one. I reverted back to the quote and worked as hard as I could to get everything down. However, my heart really just wanted to go back to baseball. It was my mother who made me stick with softball. She told me that things would be rough but they would get better with time.

Even though I struggled with the transition, the girls I met made it a lot easier. On the team with me were six of the girls I still play with to this very day. It was with the Finch’s Aces that we became so very close. The months had passed and I was getting the hang of it. It turned out I fell in love with softball more than I did with baseball!

The team had a great summer ball season and it was time for Nationals. My family and I had never been out of the state for a sport so this was very new to us. My coach at the time decided we would go to 12U ASA Nationals. This would be the trip of a lifetime.

In that tournament we were the only team from New Jersey. I remember every detail about the tournament. We played some of the best teams in the country but we lost in an elimination game to the Nor Cal Firecrackers. I was out of the sheltered stage.

I was given the opportunity to see some of the California girls play who I thought were AMAZING. I wanted to emulate them. Before Nationals I had never even thought about college, but after I had a whole new perspective. Nationals gave me a new goal. I wanted to play softball in college.

When I came home my parents and I called a D-I coach for guidance about teams. He told me that the best man to play for in the East Coast was Kevin O’Donnell. My parents decided that I would play for the Jersey Intensity.

Immediately, Coach Kevin took me under his wing. He put me up against the best at a young age. By my seventh grade year I was playing 18U Premier level softball.

Even when I struggled Coach Kevin believed in me and kept bringing me up to play. Prior to playing with Intensity I hadn’t seen college coaches come to my games. It was a whole new world but I could see the process of my dream beginning. I started doing college clinics where I met top players from around the country, some of whom I still am very close with to this day.

However the biggest event of my life so far was the OnDeck Futures Camp. I did the camp my eighth grade year and remember seeing all the college coaches in the back watching everything. It was there I was put on the recruiting map. It was an experience of a lifetime.

I am now a freshman and I still recall every memory from my softball/baseball past. Softball has given me opportunities I had never imagined. It has given me the chance to meet some awesome people and learn from great coaches. From my old baseball coach to my present coach, Kevin O’Donnell, they all have been a part of this crazy journey.

Things have changed for me in the last couple of years. I am now close to making a decision about where I want to further not only my softball career but my education.

The new details of my life are surreal and wonderful. But I can never forget the people who helped get me here and the little girl with a dream playing imaginary baseball in her house.

—Kyra