TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER
During this year’s ACC tournament, Estelle Czech was the go-to arm for North Carolina State. She threw every inning for the Wolfpack during their two-game stay in the tournament and helped lead her team to a win over the rival North Carolina Tar Heels.
On May 16th, Czech entered the NCAA’s transfer portal and began a hunt for a new home and a place to finish her college career. Suffice it to say that the two-month span was both busy and stressful for the Illinois native and former top-50 national recruit.
“I definitely agonized over it for a while,” Czech told JWOS of her decision to enter the transfer portal. “I loved my teammates and the school aspect, and I was really torn between leaving and staying. I had multiple conversations with my parents. A thought entered my mind over winter break, and I didn’t say anything about it to anyone, but then later on, the thought started going more and more and I decided to run it over with my parents, and they said they were there to support me in whatever I decided.”
Anything can happen in the transfer portal, and Czech heavily weighed potential pros and cons before deciding to seek a new home. Calling the decision “terrifying”, it wasn’t one that she took lightly.
“I knew when I hit that button that I knew exactly what I was looking for,” Czech said. “After playing a whole year in college, I had a template in my head of what I wanted in a new program. But it’s terrifying [to enter the portal]because I know the school I’m going to has girls that already know each other, that already have a really good connection. And me, I’m going to be stepping into the school not knowing anyone, totally starting over again. That’s what really scared me was starting again with new coaches, new teammates.”
With every visit that she took, Czech had a mental checklist of qualities that she was looking for as she evaluated the program as a potential new home. “I wanted a great connection with the entire coaching staff,” she said. “I wanted a great program, a good academic school. A lot of the ‘normals’ that you usually look for, but definitely that connection, the family feel, was on top of the list for me.”
Once in the portal, Czech garnered a lot of attention from top-level schools. Her quality performances in that same ACC tournament, when the spotlight was even brighter than usual, may have helped raise her notoriety at just the right time. “I was really proud of how I pitched in that tournament,” Czech noted after a moment to think. “I do think that it was a plus that I did very good. That’s not the initial thought that I had after pitching in that tournament, that ‘oh, this is going to make me look good to coaches’ but I do think it helped.”
Upon entering the portal, Czech knew that she wanted to pitch for a school in a warm climate and she knew what conference and program types she wanted to target as she searched for a new home. She intentionally took her time in the process and sat down frequently with her parents to discuss the options. Among the teams that made the cut were the Texas Longhorns.
When she visited the campus in Austin, affectionately known in Longhorn circles as the Forty Acres, Czech was sold on both the on-field and off-field opportunities in the Lone Star State. “Austin is a very artistic city, a lot of food, a lot of music, and those are the kinds of things that I’m very much into,” Czech said. “But in the softball aspect, Coach White is an amazing person and, while I don’t know him as well as the girls he has already coached, I didn’t have to to know that he is an amazing coach. And I met some of the girls and they were absolutely amazing. Being the new girl coming in, they didn’t have to be nice to me and they could have been standoffish. Texas hit my mental checklist so that everything was checked off when I got there.”
“I’m a very ‘feely’ person,” she added. “And I knew I needed to feel it in my gut and in my heart. I felt it in both of those places and I knew this was where I wanted to be.”
In 2022, the Longhorns will surely rely on Czech as a valuable piece of their bullpen. Playing in the Big 12 means facing some of the game’s top offenses on multiple occasions, but it’s a challenge that the rising sophomore is more than ready for.
I grew so much in my first year [at NC State],” the southpaw said. “If I can grow that much in one year, imagine how much I can grow in three years. I’m not content with where I am now [as a player]; I want to get a lot better. A lot faster… the Big 12 has a lot of competition, as well, and I definitely think I can improve and be even better when it comes to competing with this team. My goal is to get every single girl out, so I still have some work to do.”
