SCOTTS VALLEY >> It takes more than athleticism to turn out a NCAA Division I athlete, it takes a village.

So after Scotts Valley’s Kyleigh Mace committed to BYU last month, the Archbishop Mitty High junior pitcher gave credit to all the people who helped along the way. High school, travel ball, and personal coaches. Friends and teammates, too. And, above all, her family.

Mace, who plays travel ball for Suncats Jimenez (18U), estimates that she has attended 10-12 out-of-state camps, some of which were attached to tournaments. One of her parents, Scott and Janelle, usually made the trip, while the other stayed home with her younger siblings, Connor and Taylor.

It was more than a time commitment, it was a financial commitment, too. Flights, hotels, food …

“The stress isn’t just off my shoulders, it’s off the family, too,” Mace said. “I went to so many camps out of state. It’s a huge time and financial commitment. It’s kinda ironic, I never went to a BYU camp.

“I never guessed I’d commit to BYU, but once I visited there, it was no competition. It felt like home.”

Mace knew BYU was religious based, 99% of its students are members of the Latter-day Saints. She isn’t. Ultimately, the university checked too many boxes.

She plans to focus on either engineering or finance, and BYU has one of the nation’s top business schools. (In 2019, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the BYU Marriott MBA program number one in the world for training graduates.)

She liked that the campus in Provo, Utah, is close to the Utah Valley, a heavily populated area, meaning there are ample opportunities for internships and job placement.

And she liked the beauty of the campus and surrounding area, and the fact that she would get to be in the snow.

“But the best part about it, it’s a sports school,” she said. “I want to go to class and go to games. There’s support everywhere.”

On her visit to BYU, she attended a fall softball game. She was taken back by how many people showed up.

The Cougars’ softball program, which reached the National Invitational Softball Championship final in 2023, is a program on the rise. (And that’s not an elevation joke.)

A former West Coast Conference power, the Cougars (31-23, 11-16) completed their first season in the Big 12 Conference last spring and were competitive against the likes of eight-time NCAA champion Oklahoma, winner of the past four national titles, and Texas, the NCAA runner-up in 2022 and ’24.

“To finish in the middle of that conference last year was impressive,” Mace said. “They recruit from some of the best (travel) teams and get some of the best players. The promise they’ve shown over the past year is pretty incredible.”The Cougars are under the guidance of longtime coach Gordon Eakin, who has won more than 800 games in his 22 season at the helm. Mace mostly dealt with Associate Head Coach Pete Meredith during the recruiting process, but Eakin was the one who offered her a scholarship — her first offer.

She also made visits to Harvard, which made her an offer while she was on her BYU visit, and Iowa State. A couple other schools also made offers.

One of the top pitchers in the Central Coast Section, Mace was bombarded with phone calls and emails the second college coaches could speak with prospective recruits on Sept. 1. It was a shot in the arm considering how much time she has committed to the sport.

“Kyleigh is constantly working on her skillset in the circle,” said Megan Yocke, Mitty’s head coach. “It doesn’t matter if she has a catcher or can only throw into a net, she is always putting in the work. Kyleigh is also incredibly bright. She thinks about the game of softball in great detail and with great precision and then pushes herself to make adjustments accordingly.”

Mace helped the Monarchs (23-5, 8-2) take second in the West Catholic Athletic League as well as the CCS Open Division playoffs last season. She posted a 20-5 record with a 1.27 ERA. She surrendered 103 hits and 39 walks over 148.1 innings while striking out 154 batters.

As astounding as those numbers are, she’s still only a junior. While making her commitment took off some pressure, it added some too.

“Now I have something to prove,” Mace said. “This adds more fuel to the fire. I’ve got to show people why I earned it.”

Despite her impress strikeout numbers, Mace is a pitch-to-contact pitcher.

“I’m a ground ball pitcher,” she said. “I pitch to weak contact.”

She does so with a massive array of pitches. She counts a fastball, rise, drop, screwball and changeup in her arsenal. She took lessons for one month to improve her rise ball from ace NiJaree Canady, who transferred from Stanford University to Texas Tech in the offseason, but that’s not her best pitch.

What is? Ask opposing hitters, and you’ll probably get five different answers.

“Kyleigh has the ability to throw just about every pitch,” Yocke said. “Her ability to keep opponents off guard with a full arsenal of pitches is a testament to her great work ethic to learn and work towards mastering those pitches.

“I fully believe that Kyleigh is capable of great success at the next level. Her hard work, determination, and steady demeanor are all great assets to have in the circle at the collegiate level and I look forward to watching her reach all of her goals at BYU — but first, I look forward to the next two seasons with her on our team.”