Good luck catching Florida softball commit Kylie Holden on the high school softball field.
It's not just because of her speed. It's actually because she's barely on the field for her high school, Ocoee High School (FL).
This is by design, as Florida plays its flag football season during the spring high school sports season, the same time as softball.
"If I'm telling you the truth, in high school, I do play flag football more than I play softball," Holden told USA TODAY Sports. "I have 25 games in softball; you'll only see me playing 10 because I'll be playing flag."
Love at first sight with softball
Don't let Holden's preference for flag football over softball confuse you. She still has a strong passion for the sport played on the diamond.
Holden — the No. 2 player in the 2028 recruiting
class according to Softball America — is following in her mother Kamilah Johnson's footsteps; she was once a Hall-of-Fame catcher at Bethune-Cookman. However, Holden needed convincing and a nudge to give softball a shot at first.
"I just wanted to kind of get her out there and try to play," Johnson told USA TODAY Sports. "Naturally, she could catch, so that kind of helped us convince her that this is something she might want to try out. I was not necessarily trying to say, 'You have to play softball because I played softball.'"
So when she was 8 years old, Holden went out to play softball to give the sport her mother was a star in a try for the first time.
"As soon as I stepped on the field and actually played the first game, I fell in love with the sport," Holden said. "After that, it just came into me growing up and working at it every day. And here I am now."
Holden, who also plays volleyball, basketball and flag football, says she gets a different feeling on the softball diamond than anywhere else.
"Softball feels like a home away from home," Holden said. "It's my getaway."
Kylie Holden commits to Florida softball
It turns out, giving softball a chance was the right choice. Five years later, when Holden was 12, Florida softball coach Tim Walton started gauging Holden's interest in becoming a Gator.
"Walton has been recruiting me since I was 12," Holden said. "He was the first Division I coach to ever follow me."
While Florida is the in-state school and the campus in Gainesville, Florida, is just about an hour-and-a-half away from Ocoee, Holden's final decision came down to the Gators and Ole Miss.
Holden announced her commitment at a ceremony before Ocoee's football game on Friday, Oct. 2.
"I chose Florida because I feel as if I'm going to be around people who are going to make me better and grow, not only as a player, but as a person as well," Holden said. "In addition, being close to home was a great decision, too."
For her father, Carl Holden, his daughter picking the Gators will cause a bit of a change of allegiance.
"I have to go from doing the tomahawk chop because I've been a Florida State fan my whole life to doing the gator chomp," Carl told USA TODAY Sports with a laugh. "I'm a Gator now."
Holden also joked that he will be excited to see his daughter leave high school and head to college next year, as her four-sport schedule keeps him busy.
"I'm the dean at (Ocoee), so I actually have a couch in my office so I don't have to go home," Carl joked. "I spent a lot of days on that couch watching volleyball, basketball, flag football and softball. So, I can't wait until she's off to college."
Holden joins an elite Florida recruiting class that includes five-star catcher Ryann Harris (No. 8 overall recruit), five-star two-way player Kate Losh (No. 11 recruit) and four-star catcher Brooklyn Evans (No. 21 recruit).
"Me being around the best of the best, our class is probably going to be the No. 1 class in 2028," Holden said. "I think that's a big factor. I feel as if them recruiting the top recruits also played a large role, because I want to be around the best of the best, always."
Why flag football over softball in high school?
When it comes to the spring season, Holden picks high school flag football over softball. Part of the reason is that her dad is her coach on the flag football field.
Holden plays quarterback and safety for the Knights. She led Ocoee to the State Final Four in 2025 after throwing for 2,375 yards and 25 touchdowns. She also recorded 15 interceptions on defense.
"Honestly, those are my two favorite sports to play," Holden said. "... I actually love it because I'm non-stop. If we have both softball and flag football on the same day, I'll play softball and if we end earlier, I'll go run and put all my flag stuff on and go play flag football right after that."
While she does not play a ton of high school softball, she does play for the Virginia Unity Johnson 18U travel team. For the Virginia Unity, Holden had 61 hits, nine home runs, 52 RBI, four triples and 50 runs scored.
So how does one juggle four sports during the high school season, in addition to starring on a travel softball team? The answer might surprise you.
"It's honestly not that hard, because my whole life is sports," Holden said. "If I'm not playing a sport, I would literally be at home doing nothing. So, I really don't know what I would do without sports."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why this elite Florida softball commit prefers playing another sport in high school
