GREENVILLE — Cheyenne Bottenfield has been playing softball for nearly 10 years. That's about two thirds of her life dedicate to the sport she loves. And it's the only sport she plays.
The Riverheads junior, who pitched in a pair of wins the week of May 6, was voted athlete of the week by readers of The News Leader. Bottenfield struck out 12 batters in the two games combined that week. She also had five hits in the two games, including a two-run home run.
She likes softball for both the competition against others and the camaraderie of her teammates.
"I like having that connection with different people," she said.
"This year I'm seeing the ball better than I did last year," she said. "I really focused on tee work and when we had live hitting I really focused on seeing the ball come out of the hand."
She enjoys pitching because it's the position that almost everyone watching a game notices. At times, though, she admitted that can be a little nerve-racking.
"But I kind of like the nervousness," said Bottenfield, who is throwing a good riseball and changeup this season.
Bottenfield has the rest of this season left and one more year of high school ball. She said that will probably be it for her competitive softball career. Instead of heading to college, Bottenfield plans to enter the workforce as a cosmetologist after graduating Riverheads in 2025. She currently takes cosmetology classes at Valley Career and Technical Center.
If you have an athlete to nominate next week, please send the student's name and weekly stats by Sunday to phite@newsleader.com.
Voting opens every Monday morning and closes Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. The winner will be announced Thursday on newsleader.com.
This week's other nominees were:
River Cranford, Wilson Memorial, girls tennis: In Wilson Memorial's only match last week, Cranford won her singles match 8-3 and doubles match 8-2 against Fort Defiance.
Mia Alexander, Fort Defiance, girls track: Alexander scored 30 points and was named the overall girls MVP in the Shenandoah District track meet last week, helping lead Fort to the win. Alexander won both the long jump and triple jump.
— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
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