Danyelle Milam '17 Recruiting Profile

As a person, I've grown into who I am through various situations. Softball has taught me to trust more in myself and my skills that I can offer, while being on my school's yearbook team has taught me the value of real team work and hard work. Going through personal hardships has taught me the most important things in life are friends and family because they always want the best for you, no matter what. Being a writer, that has taught me to not apologize for who I am because I am me, and there's no one else like that in the world. 

I've been destined to follow softball since I was very young. My dad played baseball, and my mom played softball, as well as my aunt who played in college and my grandpa currently is a volunteer coach. Ever since I was old enough to hold a bat and a ball, my grandpa taught me every skill I know today.

As written above, softball has taught me the value I have, and what skills I can offer to the sport. I'd always hear, "You're so good." or "You can go D1." but I'd never believe it, because I viewed myself as just another player. Because of this, I tried to strive to be better, work harder, even work on being whatever my coach and team needed me to be. That even included picking up pitching after years of not throwing a ball, and jumping right into a game. Softball has helped me evolve into the person I am today, as it's been in the family for as long as I know, and I was fortunate enough to be able to follow in their footsteps.

My academic goals while finishing out high school are to set myself up well for the college experience, as I have taken many honors/AP classes to get ahead. For college, I'd like to pursue a degree in one of three fields: journalism, English, or teaching. My mom always has helped me go by the motto, student comes before athlete. So if I get a college softball opportunity or not, I still plan to attend somewhere and get my career started at that select University. After I got the degree, I'd like to come back to my home state and coach softball while being in one of those careers.

Again, as I had written before, I've had the overcome the obstacle of keeping myself grounded and not growing to be a cocky player because of the amount of compliments I'd receive. However, at one point in my athletic career, I did let those compliments get to my head and I stopped working hard. It's not something I'm proud of, but a value I live by is honesty is key. I'm not a person who likes receiving compliments because of it, and because I've known countless people who have let their last name, or their families reputation gain their spots on teams, and I'd rather gain my spot with a little bit of elbow grease and a smile.

A unique characteristic I possess is that I'm a leader. Not vocally, but I have been known to lead by example. I'm friends with all on a team, and I try to make others who feel like an outcast, welcome, because I was in their shoes once and I want their experiences to be better than the ones I may have had back then.

Thank you for looking at my NCSA profile!