Sophia Knight enters her third season as a pitcher on the Toledo softball team. She is an honor roll student pursuing a degree in exercise science with hopes of going to optometry school after graduation.
On her study-abroad trip in the summer of 2023
I got an email from Monroe County Community College (Mich.) that was advertising this program to go to Europe and learn about the healthcare system. It was a 10-day study-abroad trip to London and Paris and focused on healthcare and history in Europe. I also got to do a lot of sightseeing with my group. We visited a lot of museums, including the Florence Nightingale Museum. She was the first nurse during the Crimean War. We also saw the Eiffel Tower, and the Elizabeth Tower, and climbed 528 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. A lot of the buildings we saw maintained the historical structure but have been modernized. It was cool to see how the first medical school, The London Hospital Medical College, is still running today. I had never been out of the country before. I don't speak French at all.
On her educational journey since coming to Toledo
I came to Toledo as a pre-med major because I wanted to go to optometry school after I graduate. Toledo doesn't have a pre-optometry track so I switched my major to public health. I switched again to nursing last year, and then back to pre-med. Finally, my advisors said that exercise science would be the best track to go through.
On her plans for life after Toledo
I have started looking at schools with pre-optometry programs. I would like to go to Ohio State University, but I need to wait until I finish some classes to take the acceptance exam. My trip this summer gave me a credit towards the health sciences, but this was a class more geared toward nursing.
On her first season with head coach Jessica Bracamonte
Coaching styles differ for every coach. Coach Bracamonte is amazing. She has such great game knowledge and can relate to us because she was also a student-athlete. We all love her and the team culture she has created. It's so easy to play for her, not because we don't do hard things, but because we do hard things together. We all want to work hard for our coaches and that is just the culture they have created.
On her growth over the last three years
I'm glad I had my team behind me during my freshman year. I think it was a big growth period for us. We're a lot stronger now so I'm excited for this season. I'm so excited to see how our team chemistry off the field carries onto the field. Our defense and offense have been looking great and we have a team full of hard workers. I'm also excited about our pitching staff, and how we will all work together to beat teams.
Individually, I have gained confidence while playing. I think that overall, confidence comes with just finding that love for playing. It's so much more fun to go out there confidently rather than playing scared or timid, and the outcome can mirror that. As a team, we have such great team culture on and off the field. I can't wait to see what we accomplish this season. We have grown so much in skill as well. We bought into our coach's philosophies and let them break everything down to build it back up. We have just gotten so much stronger because of it. I am so lucky to be a part of this new team culture that is going to be carried on for years after we leave. We will have left our program better than when we first came into it.
