When Starpoint’s season ended May 30, Natalie Prezioso thought one of her last chances to play competitive softball was over.
She was going to play summer softball for the USSA Pride Black travel team and then go to the University at Buffalo as a student, while trying to play club softball at the school.
That is until a discussion with Starpoint coach Joe Hill put the wheels in motion as she realized she was not ready to be done with softball. She wanted to continue playing the sport she has been playing since she was a little kid.
She has the opportunity as she has signed with UB next season.
“I didn’t really think about playing sports in college just because I didn’t know how to reach out to coaches,” Prezioso said. “… My school softball coach reached out to their head coach for me. … She came and watched me. It opened an opportunity just by her watching me … when the opportunity was in front of me, I took it immediately.”
After hitting .387 with 10 RBIs and 16 stolen bases to help Starpoint to the Section VI Class A crossover game. Hill reached out to UB head coach Chelsea Plimpton and encouraged her to look at Prezioso. Hill knew he would feel like he did not properly advocate for Prezioso if he did not reach out to Plimpton and express his belief that the outfielder had the work ethic and ability to play at the collegiate level.
After Plimpton watched Prezioso play in a tournament near the UB campus, the two met and the coach extended a roster invite to Prezioso.
Now that she is officially confirmed as a member of the Bulls, Prezioso has a renewed excitement as she knows that her softball career is not over and the lifelong UB fan gets to continue to play the sport she loves.
“It’s given me a huge reason to be excited especially for college because I’ve always played sports my entire life,” Prezioso said. “So knowing that it’s not over yet is exciting for me. I know it’s obviously going to be a way higher level now but I’ve worked so hard my entire life so I know I’ll be able to do it and I’m going to have so much fun doing it too.”
Despite being a talented field hockey and basketball player, Prezioso knew that if she was going to play any sport in college, it was going to be softball. She had coaches reach out to her to play basketball at the collegiate level but she did not have any interest in playing the sport at the next level. She was ready to be done with her play on the turf and the hardwood and move on to the next chapter in her life.
During the season, Hill did not have any coaches reach out to him because he did not know what she wanted to do and whether or not she wanted to play sports in college.
“She was still going between schools,” Hill said. “So it was one of those things where it was tough to gauge what she wanted to play. I think she just wanted an opportunity in something and when you’re a first-team All-Star in three different sports which is unusual these days, it probably was a little bit overwhelming trying to figure out what I want to play and what I’d feel comfortable with and what’s going to make me the most happy.”
When she officially enrolls next month, Prezioso will be one of three Starpoint softball alums playing at the NCAA Division I level, alongside Mercyhurst’s Emilie Pascual and Rutgers’ Bailey Briggs.
The Lockport resident is sticking with the plan that she had before she joined the team of commuting to and from school every day, while majoring in chemical engineering. It is a unique challenge that she will have to face while balancing her academics and softball.
She will not have very much time to hang out as a student as she is going to UB to be in the honor’s college for chemical engineering.
“It’s definitely going to be really challenging but I think once I get used to my schedule and being able to time manage pretty well, it’ll be a lot easier than I think,” Prezioso said. “… I know that being a first-year student athlete, you have to be in the study halls a certain amount of hours per week which that’s definitely going to help keep me accountable.”