Here’s why Berry High’s softball prodigy Kian Chisholm gave up on the game but came back

Berry High School softball star Kian Chisholm is 18 years old, and she’s spent the past 14 years playing the sport she loves, giving up large chunks of her social life to chase the dream of playing in college.

Until, all of a sudden, she didn’t want to do any of that anymore.

“I was getting in my own head too much,” Chisholm said.

Growing up, Chisholm was always one of the best players on the field, whether she was playing T-Ball with little kids in Charlotte or playing serious travel softball with the Atlanta Vipers. But two years ago, she shut down what looked like a sure-fire path to a Division I scholarship after years of building toward it.

“It was earth-shattering,” she said, “because literally that’s all I’ve done since I can remember. Softball was my identity; always skipping out on going out on the weekends, always practicing, always traveling.”

Berry High’s Kian Chisholm

But the pressure of playing was getting to her. The ground ball she would field in her sleep became difficult. The mistakes, which she almost never made, became more frequent.

“I was literally overthinking and putting unnecessary focus on me,” she said. “And I think I was letting some of (my teammates) down. Things started to shift when I started enjoying practice and working out more than the games.”

So Chisholm shut down her travel ball career and thought about not playing school ball either. Berry coach Malcolm Elliott said he’s glad she decided to continue playing school ball.

Chisholm is having a monster senior year for the Cardinal (5-4). She’s hitting .682, among the best in North Carolina, and she has scored 14 runs with 15 hits, 15 RBI, plus five doubles and two triples.

“Softball could be her ticket out,” Elliott said, “but this is not what she wants. She’s going to school. That’s where her focus is. And she’s a brainiac.”

Berry’s coach Malcolm Elliott smiles at players at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

Chisholm has better than a 3.5 grade-point average, and Berry athletic director Tricia Barnes-Perkins said that the senior is a natural leader.

“She’ll be the person who’ll get her work done without a fuss and do everything meticulously, and she’ll push herself to get better,” said Barnes-Perkins, in her 19th year teaching in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. “Anyone in a group with her is going to want to get better. She’s the only senior on the softball team, and she’s always been dynamic but never the person out there who says, ‘I’m the best player.’ She pushes everybody else to get better.”

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Last Friday, Chisholm had three doubles and five RBI in a 14-8 win over Hopewell, showing flashes of why Elliott believes she’s still a Division I talent. That was Berry’s fifth win of the season, just two away from last season’s total. Berry has eight regular-season games left.

“She can do whatever you need,” Elliott said. “She can help coach. She can play catcher, pitcher, anywhere in the field. She helps me get the other girls up to par. She’s only playing because she likes being around those girls. But if she said, ‘You know what? I’m going to give my all to softball,’ she could be one of the top girls in the city of Charlotte, if not the top. I’m not saying that because I’m her coach. You have to see her play. She’s just got it.”

For now, Chisholm is planning to enroll as a student at East Carolina and major in bio-processing science with a business minor.

“I think it’s important for everybody to have a foundation in business,” she said.

She plans to use her freshman year to get adjusted to school and make sure her academics are strong, maybe play club ball. Then she hopes to walk onto the Pirates softball team as a sophomore.

Elliott, her coach, likes the plan.

“Listen,” he said. “Kian can do anything she puts her mind to. It’s like I told you before, she’s just got it.”

PHOTOS: Ardrey Kell vs Berry softball