Robbinsville softball alumna shifts talents closer to home
Robbinsville – With one single decision, the commute to watch Abigail Knight play a home college softball game plummeted from 987 miles to 213; a 15-hour drive, now just 3 ½.
A member of the historic Robbinsville Lady Knights team that marched to within a strike of the 1A state title series in 2019, Knight has chosen to leave her gig with Boston College while at the peak of her career. She was announced as both the Eagles’ Most Outstanding Offensive Player and Most Valuable Player of the 2023 season on May 25.
“I knew I was having a good season throughout the year, which is what I had been focusing on all year with my intentions to transfer,” Knight said. “You want to set yourself up for success, but I wasn’t expecting to get two awards: it felt good to get that recognition. It meant a lot to me.”
The Graham Star was the first to report Knight’s transfer to UNC-Charlotte on June 21. In an exclusive, candid interview, she recounts her time as an an Eagle, while also delving into returning to her home state for two more years under the sun.
Starts and stops
After her freshman year at Robbinsville, Knight verbally committed to play for the Virginia Tech Hokies, a NCAA Division I program in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
However, in what sadly became a recurring theme throughout her career at the next level, a head coaching change upset the apple cart. Knight was out shortly after the new regime took over, which left her little time to seek another option.
“The summer before my senior year, Virginia Tech hired a new head coach,” explained Knight. “At the end of the summer, he just dropped everybody. This is two months before I’m supposed to sign my NLI (National Letter of Intent). All the other places I had thought about going – or had thought about me – had already given out their scholarships, so nobody had money left. Penn State was able to make me an offer, but it wasn’t for much money. Student debt is what it is and you’re going to owe it, but I wanted to get the best offer I could.
“Boston College was the best possible option for me to play at the level I always wanted to play at. I knew that if Virginia Tech had recruited me, I could play in the ACC, so I didn’t want to drop down and spend four years playing against the level of competition I knew I could play better than.”
The amount of turnover with coaches – no matter the sport – has recently became a disturbing trend for collegiate programs. Knight and her team experienced it first-hand: Boston College went through four different hitting coaches and two defensive coaches in her four years as an Eagle.
“It’s truly terrible and shouldn’t be like that,” Knight said with emphasis. “Every coach has different mindsets and outlooks on things – which is OK, but it’s hard to build consistent, lasting relationships when people are in and out so fast. The most important part of coaching is building a relationship with kids, so they trust you when they coach you. I had people trying to change my swing. You have to remember that you got there for a reason and it’s because you can play ball. You expect your coaches to want to help you, but it changed me and caused me to struggle a lot.”
Like so many others, COVID robbed Knight of the majority of her freshman year. The NCAA righted the unwarranted wrong by giving all players an extra year of eligibility, meaning Knight’s first full season with Boston College would be put on ice until 2021.
“It was pretty devastating, but we found out pretty soon that they were going to give that extra year of eligibility back to all the spring sports,” Knight said. “I’m sure they felt a lot of sympathy for anyone who was playing that year.”
Boston College was 9-12 when COVID interrupted the 2020 proceedings. The Eagles lost 3-1 to ACC rival Georgia Tech on March 8; Knight was 0-2 in the game, with a walk. a 3-game series at divisional foe Louisville was slated for March 13-15, but suspended and – like so many other games on the docket – never revisited.
Knight was batting .178 when the campaign was disrupted; she had eight hits, two doubles and one RBI. It was a stark contrast to her Robbinsville numbers, but she was determined to find her groove as she bided her time on the sideline, waiting for a worldwide pandemic to settle down enough to allow her to play the sport she loved.
Little did she know that her time off the field was about to be doubled.
Another setback
Blame it on a myriad of problems – cabin fever, boredom or a simple love for the sport – but Knight joined several of her teammates for an impromptu practice in October 2020.
It was a simple enough exercise, one she had participated in countless times throughout her career: shagging fly balls hit into “the gap” (the space between the three positions in the outfield).
Knight’s self-imposed plan was to dive on each play.
“I was excited to go into my sophomore year,” she said. “One of our coaches was just giving us extra reps on a Saturday. The catch before, I thought, ‘Oh, that kind of hurt my shoulder a little bit.’ I was diving for every ball. I had actually gone to take my cleats off, but I thought, ‘Nah, let me get one more,’ because I had missed the catch before.
“So, I went back. When I dove for that last ball – I knew. I had never felt that kind of pain before; I knew something was wrong. I dive for balls all the time, so it would have inevitably happened sometime.”
Only this time, it was not a tweak, a strain or a jam: Knight had torn the labrum in her left shoulder. The labrum is cartilage lining in the shoulder socket, but it serves a vital purpose in that it prevents your shoulder from dislocating.
Surgery was two weeks later in November, but the toughest road laid ahead – overcoming both the mental and physical effects of the repair.
“I could’ve played on it, because it was my glove (non-throwing arm), but I didn’t want to play at 50 percent,” Knight said. “The rest of the (2021) season was pretty hard on me. My grades dropped. My happiness dropped. Any time you get hurt, you’re going to feel a lot more lonely. If you’re not actively going through it, it’s hard for somebody else to understand what you’re feeling. I was the only one out that season, so it was tough.”
Stuck in the role of hype man on the bench, Knight pressed on and, eventually, her mood shifted.
“It was easier at first to convince yourself to feel positive,” she said. “But as the season goes on, it feels like it drags out even longer. I was thankful to be surrounded by my roommates – who were also my teammates. They did everything they could to help me out. I think they knew they couldn’t really relate to me, but they tried their hardest.
“Looking back on it, that was very important.”
There is no way to expedite shoulder repair, but Knight gave it the proverbial college try. Grueling, physical therapy and a tireless work ethic led to her clearance in May 2021.
It had been the longest seven months of her life.
Back to form
In short order, Knight found offseason competition in South Carolina (where she was able to play alongside her sister Maggie).
The junior – but really a rookie, with just 21 college games under her belt – Knight returned to Boston College laser-focused.
“The outlook I took on it was, ‘I still have four years left,’” she said. “I think my junior year set me up for how it went this year. I learned a lot about myself.
“As soon as you go into college ball, it doesn’t matter what team you’ve played on in summer ball; it doesn’t matter how good you were in high school; or how good you were in the travel league. It is a whole different animal in college, at any level. It will chew you up and spit you out really quick; you get humble very fast, but you also get good really fast.”
To say Knight embraced the challenge would be an understatement. Numbers at the plate were up across the board: she finished 2022 with a .288 average, 40 hits, seven doubles, a triple and five RBI.
But the program overall is mired in struggle. Since Knight received her college jersey, the Eagles have posted a 66-99 record (21-62 in ACC play). Even her MVP numbers during her senior/sophomore run in 2023 (.294 average, .855 OPS, 47 hits, 10 doubles, 2 triples, five home runs and 27 RBI) were not enough to lift Boston College to a winning record – something that has evaded the Eagles since 2018.
“In two years of collegiate play, I have learned a lot about who I am as a player and the person I want to be,” Knight said. “You don’t have to be selected as a leader to be a leader; leaders naturally lead. I think if you learn who you are as a player, nobody has to tell you: I know what makes me a good player and I don’t need people to come to me and try to change that.”
‘Giving up on a dream’
Knight finished her career in the Northeast with a home run against Syracuse on May 7. Just two weeks later, she received her college diploma, a bachelor’s degree in communications.
The occasion was a rare family affair, as her parents were able to attend – something that was lost over the course of her stay in Massachusetts.
“When I picked Boston College, I didn’t really care about how far away I was going to be from home,” Knight said. “My parents didn’t either; they wanted me to play against the best competition in the country. But looking back on it now, my parents got to see me play a handful of games in person. They got to watch me on TV, which was cool, but there was a lot of games where everybody’s family was in the stands except for mine. My parents both coach – and they coach in the spring, so I totally understand.
“Now, I have two years left and I want to give them that opportunity to get to watch me play in college.”
Knight threw her name in the hat as a free agent of sorts and received a lot of interest. Ultimately, she was invited to three institutions for official visits: the University of South Florida, University of North Carolina in Charlotte (both members of Conference USA) as well as an SEC program, the University of Missouri.
“It’s a unique situation; I’m a senior who has the mental experience of playing in college for four years, which is a big thing,” Knight pointed out. “I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve matured a lot. I still have two years of growth, physically and mentally.”
Perhaps the mental maturity won out, after all. With tears in her eyes, Knight described making a choice that she knew was best for her.
“The SEC has been my dream since I was little; what made me want to play college softball was watching Alabama win the National Championship in 2012,” she said. “That’s when I knew I wanted to go there and be in the SEC. If you’d asked me four years ago, it would have been Missouri – without a doubt.
“But when I was making the decision, I realized how little time two years is, and I know how important it is for me to have my family and friends come and watch me play, since they never really got to. Plus the way that it felt to be in North Carolina; Charlotte felt good. It felt like home.”
Even after her visit to Missouri on June 17, she was still unsure of what to do. The drive back only narrowed her decision to Charlotte and Missouri.
“I cried for two hours straight,” Knight said. “It has been so stressful since I left Boston College because I knew what schools were interested. I knew I had visits to make, and I knew whatever was coming was going to be a really hard decision.
“That’s the biggest dream I’ve ever had; it’s a hard thing to let go of. There’s a lot more that plays into it now and I just really want to be happy playing the sport again. I felt like the best place to do that was at Charlotte.”
Knight is excited to suit up with the 49ers – and she is joining a program that is hungry. UNC-Charlotte was 35-23 last season (16-7 in Conference USA play, good for a divisional title before switching to the American Conference in 2024) and handed defeats to such notable programs as South Carolina, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Virginia Tech – and Boston College.
“They’ve got a great culture, great coaches and great relationships,” Knight said. “I think when it all came down to it, that is what made me decide on Charlotte: it doesn’t only feel like I’m coming home again, but it feels like I’ll be playing in the environment I grew up in.”