Danielle Grealish '28 Recruiting Profile

I started playing softball when I was 7 years old. right when  stepped foot onto the diamond I knew in my heart that this sport is defiantly for me. Ever sense I started playing I had this dream to play in collage softball.  One day when I was about eight or nine the coaches said to the thirteen girls on my team ''will anybody want to be catcher'' Nobody else wanted to but me I wanted to really be apart of the game and have fun with it so my dad bought me the carchers gear and I started practicing .Once  Covid 19  hit are town was under lockdown and we could not play our spring season but that did not stop me for playing my dad almost everyday brought me to a big field and would make me practice so I would not fall behind. After Covid we got back to the diamond the coaches in the winter did clinics 1-2 times a week for about 2 hours for us to keep practicing and learn more skills before we go back to on season. now that I am in the 8th grade  I've been working harder than ever this year I will be trying to make junior varsity as a 8th grader and I'm prepared to make it. it might seem I have not had set backs but that is not true at all in May of 2022 I got diagnosed with Chiari malformation and a syrinx. Chiari malformation is when your brain and spine meet from the cerebellum and squeeze's  on the  brain and causes very harsh migraines. Additionally with the Chiari I had a pool of spinal fluid which is called a syrinx. After I got diagnosed we decided in August of 2022 we would get the Chiari and the syrinx fixed at Boston Children's Hospital. After a very long journey in the hospital I got released after 1 week  and had to recover for 4 months with absolutely 0 physical activity I couldn't even swing a bat but after the 4 months I got right back to it but not even 2 weeks later I broke my left wrist. But that did not set me back I couldn't be catching but I kept throwing with my right hand during off season. This has not set be back at all. I have neurofibromatosis ( NF1)  which causes a lot of different problems for different people this condition 75 percent of the time is genetic but the other 25 percent it is not and I'm apart of the 25 percent nobody in my family has it not even cousins or aunts uncles etc. In the end it had not held me back just made it 10 times harder.  I will always absolutely love the sport and nobody will change my mind. I might still be young but the people that won't believe won't believe you cannot make them you just have to keep trying.