It would have been a surprise if Edith Kaplan, a senior softball standout from Mountain Brook (Ala.), hadn’t gone to the University of Virginia… if only because being a Cavalier has been in the family going back two generations.

Her grandfather on her father Justin’s side, Michael Kaplan, went undergrad and law school at UVA and was also on the swimming and diving team.

Her grandmother, Mary Anna Kaplan, got a master’s in education at Virginia and an aunt, Lindsay Kaplan Rubin, also got both an undergrad and master’s in education at the ACC school.

And it was clear from early on that Edith has both the brains, she’s currently pulling down a 4.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale student in all Advanced Placement classes, and also the softball talent to compete as a student-athlete at a major DI college program.

In the 8^th grade, she started on her Mountain Brook High’s varsity team at shortstop and was selected to play in the USA All American Games in 2019.

A year after that, Edith was invited to be part of the USA Softball High Performance Program, the USSSA Select 30 event, and for over five years now she has been a top 100 honoree in player rankings as a game-impacting infielder/utility standout who can also pitch.

This summer, she helped her Birmingham Thunderbolts 18U team win the PGF 18U Premier Nationals and a week from Sunday will play for the Israeli Women’s Senior National team in Utrecht, Netherlands at the Women’s Softball European Championships.

[Note: that this is NOT the Junior Women’s team that Edith is on—the high school senior, who will turn age 18 on November 8^th, will take the field to compete on the Women’s Senior National team for Israel in Group Y that will also include Great Britain, Greece and Italy.]

Click HERE for more on the Women’s Softball European Championship that will take run from September 1 to September 7.

And, if there wasn’t enough excitement going on in the lives of Edith and her family, this past week she did pull the trigger on committing to play softball at the University of Virginia to understandably make her family very, very proud.

GO HOOS!!! 💙⚔️🧡 pic.twitter.com/yb3L82P8A7

— Edith Kaplan (@edith_kaplan_7) August 19, 2024

But… this is where the story—happy and successful as it is now—gets interesting and is a good one to note and recall when the topic of “perseverance” comes up in future discussions.

Edith suffered knee injuries in 2019 and 2020 which kept her out of most of the Winter and Spring seasons but was still able to return successfully and bat .500 in her shortened high school season four years ago.

But that wasn’t the end of her injury bug issues; the talented high schooler then had to battle Posterior Tibial Tendinitis in her left foot which included the scary sounding treatment of micro laceration therapy (or having electrical microcurrent stimulation on the injured area for healing).

And, according to Edith, “it was about as fun as it sounds,” but the treatment ultimately did get her back on the field.

Still, it hasn’t been the easiest of roads over the past two and a half years as Edith would have to face the uncertainties that come with injuries and the reasonable doubts at times that she wouldn’t realize her great softball potential.

Line Drive Softball’s Brentt Eads caught up with the Alabama resident this week to talk about her motivational and inspiring story of battling through injuries and, ultimately, how she was rewarded with an offer from, and commitment to, Virginia Head Coach Joanna Hardin…

*****

Line Drive Softball: Congratulations on the Virginia commit!
Edith Kaplan: Thank you! I’m very excited for sure and I have been interested in UVA for a long time with my grandparents and aunt going there and having family live in Charlottesville and growing up and visiting them. I have pics of me and my cousins on the Virginia campus as I went to camp there at 12U and have loved Coach Jo and the campus ever since.

LD Softball: Was it University of Virginia all the way for you?
EK: As I kept going through softball, I knew I wanted to go to a great academic school and a couple of years ago decided that UVA is where I wanted to go. I’m happy that it’s ended up working out that way!

Congratulations Edith! We’re excited for your opportunity to play softball at UVA! 🥎🔵🔶 pic.twitter.com/IgOQ5kF4q0

— Mountain Brook Athletics (@mbs_athletics) August 21, 2024

LD Softball: How far from home will college be for you?
EK: It will be a nine-hour drive or a 1½ hour flight from Birmingham to Charlottesville, Va. or to Richmond and then an hour drive.

LD Softball: How did you get your offer and how did you commit?
EK: We started talking last September and I had been hurt earlier so Coach Hardin came and watched me pay last fall and this summer. We had a phone call when I was playing in Colorado to talk about putting together a pre-application form to send into Admissions at UVA.

She heard back from them last week and called me when I was in office of my (high school) head coach, Brittany Vintson, last Wednesday (Aug. 14, 2024) and said, “Edith, we heard back and you’ve been accepted so you are officially in at Virginia!” We had a Zoom meeting on Monday (Aug. 19) with me, Coach Jo and my parents (Justin and Brooke Kaplan) to answer last minute questions.

LD Softball: Any idea what you want to study?
EK: I’m thinking Biology or something in science as I want to go on to vet school.

LD Softball: How did you and your family celebrate the Virginia verbal?
EK: My parents got me a cake in blue and orange icing—Virginia’s colors—that said: “Congrats Edith!”

LD Softball: Let’s talk about your impressive perseverance battling through your injuries… what advice would you give younger kids facing tough circumstances like yours?
EK: I really had to lean on my support system—my family and friends—and understand that everything happens for a reason and that everything will work out how it’s supposed to in the end. I would definitely advise young athletes about how important it is to have a good support system and trusting it to work.

LD Softball: Your ankle injury… when did that first start to become an issue?
EK: I first started to have pain in my left ankle as a freshman but still played on it for another six months expecting the pain to go away eventually. However, I ultimately needed x-rays and an MRI which determined at first that it would take six to eight months of treatments and recovery time.

LD Softball: How long did you end up being out and what treatment did you have done?
EK: I was out completely for seven months, first having PRP (Platelet Ridge Plasma) injection where blood is obtained from arm, spun and re-injected. Then, I was in a boot and still dealing with rehab for over two and a half years because of bad tendonitis.

LD Softball: That’s a brutally long time to recover… how did you deal with that mentally and emotionally?
EK: Yea, it wasn’t until this (2024) summer that I felt I was returned to what I can truly do. I played high school ball in the spring and was close but not quite all the way back. It was hard mentally. My school ball season my sophomore year was really hard plus we were having team problems, and the atmosphere wasn’t great.

It was especially hard because I was supposed to be back and wanted to play—everyone wanted me to play—but I couldn’t both because I wasn’t cleared and because the pain was too great. It felt like a knife going into my ankle.

LD Softball: When did you first start seeing progress?
EK: I had shockwave therapy last summer (2023) and, for the first time started to see improvement. I would go twice a week for two to three minutes at a time to have micro lacerations where the doctor makes tiny cuts in the tendons to allow the blood to flow and heal. It was painful, but by that point I was into whatever was going to work… two minutes of being uncomfortable was so going to be worth it to get me back on the field!

LD Softball: Along with your physical health returning, what else did you learn from the experience?
EK: It made me a lot stronger mentally and I also learned to lean on, and rely on, the people around me. For sure, the rehab helped me appreciate the game.

LD Softball: What about patience when having to come back from injury?
EK: I tend to be an impatient person, but it showed me that I do like to have schedules and to know how and when things are going to happen. However, it showed me as well that that’s not how life always works.

In my case, six weeks of recovery turned into two and a half years.

LD Softball: When do you take your official Virginia campus visit?
EK: In October.

LD Softball: Tell us about playing internationally with Team Israel and how that started…
EK: I played in Poland for the Israel U-22 National Team last week and have the Women’s Softball European Championship the first week of September and I’m really excited for that…

The first time I played with Israel was at the International Challenge in Colorado during the Summer of 2021. To qualify for the team, you must show your ties to Israel, and I had one grandparent born in the country and am Jewish on both sides. My Dad’s mom converted, my great-grandparents were Jewish, and they immigrated from Europe before the Holocaust.

After Colorado in 2021, Team Israel did a December team training camp and that first year was crazy as a bunch of people got Covid and one age group would play another separately.

Today, I play on the Israeli Women’s team and the 18U team as well because, in Europe, it alternates every summer between the ‘18’s and ‘22’s.

LD Softball: How was the experience playing in Poland earlier in August?
EK: It was hectic but a lot of fun! I was in Poland for the U-22 European Women’s Softball Championships and then flew home, had a day to rest, and then started my senior year on Tuesday, August 13th.  Our U-22’s finished 6^th out of 16 teams—the highest finish ever at that age group.

23 national teams playing for the Title of European Champion in Utrecht 🇳🇱 from September 1st to 7th! 🏆
The Women's Softball European Championship schedule is now official!#lovesoftball #EuroSoftball @softball_europe @HonkbalSoftbal https://t.co/R31dn9oxGI

— ⚾🥎🖐 WBSC Europe (@WBSCEurope) April 11, 2024

LD Softball: What is your takeaway from getting to play all over the world and against players from varying nationalities?
EK: It is so rewarding getting to play teams like Italy, to meet people from different countries and hear all the different languages. I’m very blessed in getting to do what I love and have the experiences in softball that I do.

LD Softball: Final question… what it’s been like having your father as your coach for so long in the sport?
EK: I love all the time we are together, how he supports me and has helped me grow and realize my dreams. There is no better experience than winning a championship and looking over to see your dad right there with you, smiling and celebrating with you.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball