The CT Softball Blog

BROOKFIELD—Somewhere along the way, Skye Graham had a choice to make.

Softball had been part of her life since she was 5 years old. She had grown up around the game, following her father, grandfathers and two older brothers into the baseball-softball world before eventually joining the CT Burn travel program at 8.

Then, as a freshman at Brookfield High School, Graham tried something different.

A best friend suggested she might be good at indoor track.

Turns out, she was.

More importantly, Graham loved it.

“I really fell in love with the sport and the coaching was amazing,” Graham said. “My coach, Ed Butt, is one of the best ones out there, I think. And the girls were just also sweet.”

That created an unusual fork in the road for an athlete who loved two sports.

Graham played softball for Brookfield as a freshman, but after returning to indoor track as a sophomore, she was given the opportunity to join the Bobcats’ outdoor track program, as well.

She chose track.

But she never chose against softball.

And now the two athletic paths Graham has traveled are coming together again.

Graham, a senior at Brookfield and longtime shortstop for the CT Burn, has committed to continue her softball career at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

She also hopes to continue her track career at Union, potentially competing during the indoor season before turning her attention to softball in the spring.

“It was pretty tough,” Graham said of her decision to give up high school softball. “I think it more came down to I wouldn’t get another opportunity to run track, and I really did enjoy the sport and the girls and the coaches. I knew I could go play for a club team.”

That club team has been the same one for nearly a decade.

While the travel softball world has increasingly become one in which players bounce from organization to organization looking for their next opportunity, Graham has never left the CT Burn.

She joined the Brookfield-based organization when she was 8.

“I guess really the familiarity of it all, and it’s the same with the coaches,” Graham said. “I really like their coaching style and how they built up their team. And the girls on the team, most of them have stayed with me too.”

CT Burn’s Chris Buckley said, “I couldn’t be prouder of Skye Graham and her success as both a member of the Burn Softball program and the BHS Track Team. I have known Skye since her years playing t-ball and her earliest introduction to the game of softball. It is rare to find a player who completed their entire career with one program and as Skye prepares to complete her final travel season, we are grateful that she is choosing to complete it in a Burn uniform. “

The decision to pursue track also helped Graham become a better softball player.

“The joy Skye finds in flying around the track transfers to the softball field and makes her an offensive weapon that I have been lucky to have on my roster for many years,” Buckley said. “Skye’s ability to extend a single into a double or steal a base with a perfect hook slide is one of the reasons that she is such a dynamic player. Skye is one of the most well rounded and athletic players I have had the pleasure of coaching. Skye brings a natural athleticism to the game which is due to the fact that she is a dual sport athlete. She is fearless in her approach to the game, both defensively and on the base path. Skye has an innate ability to read how the defense is set, as well as the pitcher and catcher, allowing her to get excellent reads on how and when to steal.”

A sprinter and long jumper for Brookfield, Graham has a personal best of 16 feet, 4 inches in the long jump. She has been part of SWC championship relay teams in both the 4×200 and 4×400 and said Brookfield finished second in the state in the 4×200 last season. Graham also placed sixth in the long jump.

Eventually, she began realizing the speed she was developing on the track translated rather nicely to the softball diamond.

“I kind of realized that track was helping me in softball with my speed and stuff,” Graham said. “It was getting me noticed by more coaches, that she’s fast on the base path. So that really helped out too. I just never really thought I’d go for both of them.”

At Union, softball came first.

Graham began contacting Union softball coach Chris Camino, who eventually watched her play at several games.

“I started contacting the Union softball coach first and he came to a couple of my games,” Graham said. “I think that’s where it really started off.”

There was already another important connection to the school.

Graham’s older brother is a sophomore at Union, meaning the siblings will spend two years together on campus.

“He was excited for me,” Graham said. “He wanted me to go.”

Graham said Union’s sense of community, along with the familiarity she already had with the school through her brother, helped make it the right fit.

“It’s a great community and my brother already goes there, so I’m pretty familiar with it,” she said.

Graham expects to arrive at Union as a shortstop or infielder, but she hasn’t completely closed the door on track.

She brought up the possibility with Camino, who was receptive to Graham contacting Union’s track program. Graham has since been communicating with the track coach about the possibility of competing during the indoor season.

That would give her a chance to keep both sports in her life without creating the same spring-season conflict she faced at Brookfield.

For Graham, there is something appealing about the differences between the two sports.

Softball is inherently interconnected, every pitch and play dependent upon teammates. Track allows Graham to compete on her own while still being part of something larger, particularly when she runs a relay.

“I liked where I could go off and do my own events, but at the same time I still had a team that I needed to be there for,” Graham said. “The team aspect and the relays, I really did enjoy that.”

Now the pressure of the recruiting process is gone, too.

With her college choice made early in her senior year, Graham can concentrate on another indoor track season at Brookfield and one final summer with the only travel softball organization she has ever known.

“A lot of stress is off my shoulders,” she said. “I’m not worrying a lot.”

Graham plans to study biological sciences at Union with an eye toward a career in the medical field, possibly pediatric nursing.

And when she gets to Schenectady, she isn’t placing any grand expectations on what her college athletic career must become.

After all, Graham’s athletic journey has already taught her that sometimes the best path isn’t necessarily the traditional one.

“I guess it’s just see what happens,” Graham said. “I know I’m going to try my best, try my hardest.”

It is a journey that started with T-ball at 5, led to the CT Burn at 8, took an unexpected detour onto the track at Brookfield and will now lead Graham to Union.

Different paths.

Same destination.

Love Stories Like This?

Get Connecticut’s best softball features, breaking news, recruiting updates and exclusive interviews delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. Subscribe to the CT Softball Blog Weekly.