TRUMBULL—You can’t really call St. Joseph pitcher Kaitlyn Dzialo a late bloomer.
After all, the left-handed pitcher has been starring in the circle for the tradition-rich Cadets softball program for her entire high school career.
However, given the fact Dzialo was likely third on the depth chart as a pitcher during her Little League years in Milford, last week’s announcement that the rising senior has verbally committed to the application process to play at the Ivy League’s Princeton University shows you exactly how far she has come.
“I would never have believed it, especially in the pitching aspect, because pitching was just something I did for fun,” Dzialo said of her younger days. “I didn’t do lessons. I was behind (two other pitchers in Little League) so I never would have gotten any time. And I never would have believed I’d be going to an Ivy League school, especially Princeton. When you just say that name people are like, ‘Oh my God!’ So, yeah, I would just say I would never ever picture myself where I am today.”
The Ivy League is exactly where Dzialo will end up, however.
Ten months ago, Dzialo met an assistant coach with the Tigers, and the pair had a great discussion.
Over the winter, she attended a Princeton softball camp and just like that the Tigers weren’t just in the game, but very much a front-runner.
“When I was there, I got to meet all the rest of the coaches and the team and I fell in love with the school,” Dzialo said.
This past summer, she returned to New Jersey for another Princeton camp and was hooked.
“I got to see more of the actual campus during the summertime, and it was beautiful,” Dzialo said. “Princeton is one of the prettiest campuses in the country and it was just drop dead gorgeous. I just fell more in love with it. But, right after that camp in January, I knew that was my home.”
For the past four years, St. Joe’s has been her home, and the softball field has been a place where she has shined as brightly as in the classroom.
She arrived on campus as one of two freshmen pitchers and given the fact the Cadets had just graduated their best arm, Dzialo simply went out and won the starting job and hasn’t given it up since.
“Super proud of an exceptional player, young lady and student,” St. Joe’s head coach Jeff Babineau said. “She possesses all the characters of a true leader both on and off the field. Most proud of her determination and dedication to gain the approval of the Princeton team and coaches. That was her No. 1 school, and she made it happen. Her accomplishments in the classroom and on the field will provide her a great education and softball career.”
Once upon a time, Dzialo—who plays travel ball with the CT Impact—thought the game would take her south to warmer weather, year-round outdoor practices and a lot more games.
As she started looking at colleges, though, she realized that her intended major—civil engineering—boasted a lot of strong schools in the northeast.
“My original goal two years ago was to play down south, but with my major a lot of the better schools are up north,” Dzialo said. “So, as I got further into my recruiting journey, I realized that the schools that I want for my major are going to be up here. It didn’t matter exactly where it was going to be up north, but I knew that I was probably going to end up further closer to home than all the way down south.”
The one thing Dzialo wasn’t chasing was the Division 1 dream or the Ivy League dream.
In fact, her second choice was a Division 3 school in New York.
Instead, both Princeton and Division 1 found her, and it proved to be a perfect fit.
“When I was making the decision between the two, I didn’t weigh one over the other because one was Division 1 and the other was Division 3,” Dzialo said.
What Dzialo did want to do was attend a high-academic school to set herself up for the rest of her life, and also play softball.
“I wasn’t looking at any other Ivy’s,” she admitted. “Softball is only for four more years, but your career is the rest of your life, so I just didn’t want to go to a random school that didn’t have good academics but had a good softball team. High academics was definitely a part of it.”
Dzialo’s career and take on the college process certainly makes her a great role model for those who will go through the process in the future.
“Katie is a beacon for young aspiring softball players to follow in her footsteps,” Babineau said. “I look forward to her senior year at St Joe’s and then to see her at Princeton next fall.”
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