MOSES LAKE – Ciarrah Knoll’s journey through softball is full of twists and turns to say the least. However, her love for the sport was never lost. In fact, she said the sport has somewhat saved her.   

“Softball was definitely my escape,” she said. “It was my way to just put my mind at ease. I would always ask my dad, like, ‘Hey, can we just go to the fields? Even if it's just for two buckets of BP, like whatever it may be, can we just go to the fields?’ And he was always willing to do that with me.”   

Growing up, Knoll said, home life was not the easiest. Having softball provided an outlet for her to take her focus off of that. Early in her time at Moses Lake High School, Knoll said she was not the best-behaved student until she found her way onto Mike Hofheins' softball team.   

She recalls a pivotal moment when he pulled her aside and had an honest conversation with her.   

“(He said) ‘We run a tight program, like we're not going to have any of that. We hold our players to a higher standard,’ and softball was more important to me. He got me on the straight and narrow,” Knoll said.   

Hofheins said when he sees potential in a player, it's important to stay on them. He said his players are student-athletes at the end of the day. How they do in the classroom is just as important, if not more, than what they do on the field. This is a perspective, he said Knoll embraced throughout her high school days.   

“It just takes calling them out of class and saying, ‘Hey, I see you're great (on the field). It's not all about ground balls and hitting. I think as she matured and got older, she kind of embraced that and took it a little bit more seriously,” Hofheins said.   

As she invested more of her time into the Mavericks softball team, she grew close with her teammates. A lot of them she knew from playing summer ball on the Rattlers growing up. Knoll said she thought about what they might have going on in their personal lives, but also used softball as an escape.   

“They were always there,” Knoll said. “They're all doing their own thing. I don't see all the behind-the-scenes, but I know some of it, but yet, we're all still here together, playing the same sport, doing the same (thing) trying to have the same goal. It was just something special to me, and I wanted to keep that so softball really helped with everything in my life.”   

With her team around her, Knoll began to thrive. At the start of her sophomore season, she told her dad, Bart, that she wanted to have an error-free season. She would do so all the way into the state tournament, where she recorded her first and only error that year.   

From there, she would start attending camps all over the place. She went to a camp at the University of Oklahoma,the  University of Washington and several others across Washington, she said. She was working to get exposure to boost her recruitment.   

In the summer before her junior season, Knoll hurt her shoulder for the first time. She separated her shoulder after diving for a ball. She knew instantly, she said. After she let her arm dangle for a moment, it sucked itself back in – so she kept playing.   

After seeing a doctor in Moses Lake, she was told everything looked fine. However, over the next year and a half, she would dislocate her shoulder eight more times, she said. She came to expect it at times.   

“If it was like a Superman dive, then I knew when I would come down, I would probably dislocate it and I would end up having to pop back in ... I mean to me, that was just part of the game. It is what it is. Like injuries happen, I was going to keep playing through the pain, whatever I had to do, is what I was going to do for my team,” Knoll said.   

In February 2021, her senior season, she would see another doctor in Idaho who told her she suffered a torn labrum. That same visit she was scheduled for her first surgery. At this time, she was being recruited by Wenatchee Valley College. She reached out to the coaching staff to update them and see if they would still be interested in recruiting her.   

“I let them know, ‘Hey, I'm scheduled to have surgery. I don't know if you still want me, but I should be ready to play come freshman year,’ and he said, ‘No, we still want you.’ So I signed my letter of intent,” she said.   

Knoll said after her first surgery, she was advised by her surgeon not to play softball anymore. However, she wasn’t ready to give up the game she loved.  

“I kind of laughed ... I thought, ‘Yeah, no, that's not happening. I don't know why you would say that to me. That's not even a thought in my head,’” she said.   

The surgeon had explained that, with the type of tear in her shoulder she had, there was a greater risk of re-injury. However, Knoll decided she was willing to risk it. From her perspective, she’s dealt with this already for two years. At this rate, it was no big deal to her and if the surgery did not work, she would cross that bridge when she got there, she said.   

In her first season with the Knights, she got to see the field. She recorded 16 runs, 12 RBIs, six doubles and four stolen bases. In that time, she would hurt her shoulder once again and need a second surgery. She was advised once again to step away from softball, but she kept playing.   

Eventually, she would need a third surgery that required total reconstruction. With that, Knoll finally accepted it was time to step away from softball as an active player. 

“My biggest fear was, ‘Is this going to end my softball career? Am I going to have to leave the thing that saved me? Am I going to have to stop doing the thing that I love the most in this world?’” she said. 

After taking some time to process, she decided that if she could give to softball as a player, then she would as a coach for the next generation, she said. She returned to the Mavericks slow-pitch program in the fall of 2024 to help her old coach. Hofheins said she might have found a new passion within the sport she loves.

“She brings that energy with her coaching, and she treats them all the same, and she likes to teach the fundamentals of the game, and she's patient. I think she got a little coaching bug in her,” Hofheins said.

Being able to coach the slow-pitch team allowed her to receive closure, she said. As she looks toward the future, she sees becoming a head coach somewhere eventually as a real possibility. Though her playing career did not end the way she wanted, she would not change a thing, she said.

“Even now, I still have some pain in my shoulder. In the winter, my shoulder aches because the metal gets cold or sometimes it'll lock up. But I wouldn't have changed it. I would have done this (again). If I could do anything differently, maybe I would have stretched out a little bit more, but I wouldn't change it again, if I could do it again,” Knoll said.   

    Mavericks alum Ciarrah Knoll throws to first base during a game her senior season. Knoll says she loves softball and that the sport saved her in a way.
  

    Ciarrah Knoll fields a ball and looks to make a throw for the Wenatchee Valley Knights. Knoll would only play one season for the Knights. Due to her injury, she would not be able to play her final season.
  

    Ciarrah Knoll tags out a runner during a game in her sole season with the Wenatchee Valley Knights. Knoll said she dislocated her shoulder eight times throughout her junior and senior year of high school.
  

    Former Mavericks Ciarrah Knoll steps up to bat for the softball team during her senior season. Knoll came back to help Head Coach Mike Hofheins coach the slow pitch team in the 2024 season.
  

    Ciarrah Knoll winds up a pass to first base during a game for the Wenatchee Valley Knights. Knoll said she hopes to find her way into a coaching gig someday.