By Joanna Chadwick

Wichita East senior Alexis Hill isn’t kidding around when she says softball, a sport she started playing as a freshman, changed her.

“The sport taught me teamwork and communication and to be aware of every single moment,” said Hill, who was an All-City League center fielder as a junior.

“In track, it’s on your own. In softball, I have to communicate with others. I’m usually quiet, but softball made me talk to people.

“It changed my personality. I kind of owe my whole high school experience to softball. I learned to talk to people and enjoy the moment instead of being a hermit and go off to the side.”

Hill didn’t get a chance to play her senior season after all spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19.

“I can’t imagine if I were in her shoes,” East coach Randi Godown said. “Softball was my entire life. I would have been inconsolable. It’s heartbreaking.

“She wants to go on to the next level. This doesn’t help that.”

Hill is working to get her name out to coaches, and she wants to go to veterinarian school.

A former track athlete, Hill started playing softball when she got to East because her older sister, Daycia, had played.

“She’s a tremendous athlete,” Godown said of Alexis Hill. “She hadn’t ever really played softball before her freshman year. She started on the (junior varsity) team and was quickly moved into a starting role on the varsity team.

“She became an absolute big hitter. She’s a big, strong girl. I had to move her out of center field because I needed someone at shortstop, and she had the ability to play there.”