Warrenton softball player Kiera Daniel was sitting in seventh hour until she was told to go to Coach Matt Dodge’s room. Confused, Daniel walked into her coaches room to find Dodge and her other two coaches, Chad and Katelyn Berrey. 

After seeing the three of them standing there in her coach's classroom, Daniel’s first thought was only a reasonable one: she was in trouble. 

After pushing that thought aside, Daniel looked around the room and spotted the white board. There in big letters the white board read, “GAC North Player of the Year.” 

“I started freaking out. I was like, you’re lying. I thought they were playing a sick joke on me,” Daniel said. “I was so excited and it was just surreal that I had gotten the award.” 

The coaches made sure to tell Daniel in-person about her latest achievement. 

“We wanted to see her reaction for being named the best player in the whole conference,” Head Coach Chad Berrey said. “It was great to see her just light up and the pure joy and how proud she was of herself.” 

Berrey said during the all-conference meeting he actually was not the one to first nominate Daniel, but instead it was Holt’s Head Coach Trey Pirkle that first nominated Daniel as player of the year. After discussion and naming three players that could potentially be voted, the coaches went into silent vote and Daniel was voted unanimously as player of the year.

“There’s a lot of great softball players and athletes in our conference, so it says a lot about what other coaches think about her,” Berrey said. 

Daniel is typically a player that needs no introduction. With a .577 batting average, 45 hits, 45 runs and 45 stolen bases all just in her senior season, Daniel was not only a key player for the team, but a top player in the school’s program. 

“In previous years, my hitting was my biggest struggle, so when I would get bored I would go downstairs and hit in the basement. I would be hitting constantly just to improve,” Daniel said. “That’s probably what helped me get this award because my hitting was the best thing that I did this year.” 

Daniel first picked up a glove and a bat when she was in sixth grade. She said she was not very good when she first started.

Berrey agreed with the sentiment.

“You say you hit rock bottom, but she was already rock bottom when she came to us,” Berrey chuckled. “I remember the very first time she came to our softball camp in the summer. She was a little tiny brunette, bright blue eyes and her glove resembled more of a pancake than an actual softball glove and her bat was too small for her.” 

Berrey remembered thinking this was a player that might not stick around for too long, but even despite getting pelted with a ball on her first day, Daniel stuck with it.  

“I’ve never seen a girl progress so fast and so far from when she first started playing and coming in as a sixth grader and really learning the game of softball, because that’s really too late most of the time,” Berrey said. 

Berrey noted Daniel’s name lies in the program’s record books among some of the best players Warrenton has seen. He credits her accomplishments to her character and dedication. 

“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more coachable girl. Anything I asked of her or told her she should do, there’s no questions asked,” Berrey said. 

During her four years on varsity, Daniel is a two-time second-team all-conference player, a two-time first-team all-conference player and a first-team all-state player. She has broken three school records and reached 100 career hits. 

Daniel noted this was a great way to end her senior season.  

“All the things I’ve done, like breaking records and being player of the year, it’s something I never thought I could ever achieve,” Daniel said. “The season didn’t end how we wanted it to, but getting this is kind of the reassurance that I did play my part in the season.” 

Daniel intends to continue her softball career at the collegiate level, and has verbally committed to Jefferson College. 

“I told her, I got to get my [Jefferson College] shirt and I’ll definitely be making a lot of trips to Hillsboro to see her play, because she’s something special,” Berrey said.