Passion fuels Konstand

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B with her swing coach Nikki Rombough, from RBI Training.

“She’s grown a lot, but she puts in a lot of hours,” Bill Konstand said. “She works extremely hard. … We’ve watched her grow but she’s grown because she has put in the work.”

One of Kylie’s goals is to take 100 swings every day.

“I practice almost every day,” she said. “But, (because) I do practice almost every day, it’s also good to have a day or two for a break, because if you practice every day, you would get tired of it.”

Her earliest memory on a softball field was back when she was still playing T-ball, as she remembers swinging her very sparkly — and very pink — Hello Kitty bat.

“It would go ‘Ding!’ every time I hit the ball,” Kylie said.

Recently, as part of the varsity softball team at Windermere Prep,

KYLIE’S STATS

n Kylie leads the Lady Lakers in RBIs with nine runs batted in this season.

n She is third in the team under the on-base percentage with a .522 OBP.

n Kylie has one triple this season, which puts her third in the leaderboard of the team for triples.

she hit her first almost-homer, and that motivated her to continue pushing hard to soon be able to take the ball out of the park.

“The ball hit the fence, and everyone was cheering,” Kylie said. “I haven’t hit a home run yet, but I’m really close.”

LEADING LADY

For Stacy Konstand, her favorite memory of Kylie in the softball world happened earlier this year, when she got asked by her teammates at the CF Phoenix travel team to be their captain.

Her contagious cheerful personality is one of the reasons Kylie believes her travel softball teammates chose her as captain. And even though she is not a captain at Windermere Prep, she still arrives at the softball field — for practices or games — with the same energy.

“I think I can just be really loud and cheerful,” she said. “I’m always cheering at the pitcher when she’s pitching and at the batters when they are at bat. So, I think that’s one of the things (I bring to the team) and also, if I make a mistake, I am really good at just shaking it off.”

During the years with the Lady Lakers, the Kondstands believe Kylie will get stronger and better thanks to the opportunity to play with older and stronger opponents.

“You only become better at things when you compete against people that are a lot better and a lot stronger,” Bill Konstand said. “This teaches her to compete, to be resilient, to not get nervous. … She has to get herself over (those nerves). Now,

“I practice almost every day. But, (because) I do practice almost every day, it’s also good to have a day or two for a break, because if you practice every day, you would get tired of it.”

— Kylie Konstand

the girl (who) plays shortstop next to her is a senior, and they (her teammates) love her, they can’t believe she’s out there (on the field) playing with them.”

For Kylie, her favorite thing about playing — and the reason she loves softball — is her team’s camaraderie and getting good plays during a game.

“I love the feeling after you get a good hit or if you get a really good field,” she said. “And even if you don’t, your teammates are always there to cheer you on. I just love to say I’m on the varsity team.”