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Zion Chapel High School senior catcher Amber Kidd announced her commitment to play college softball at Gulf Coast State College last week.

Kidd earned All-Messenger honors as a junior at Zion Chapel last season, boasting a .479 batting average with 30 RBIs, seven runs, 10 doubles, one triple and four home runs. She also earned a .995 fielding percentage behind the plate with 17 runners caught stealing and three runners picked off in 182 innings.

As a junior, at Pike County, Kidd held a .348 batting average with 24 RBIs, 12 runs, nine doubles, two triples and two home runs. Defensively, she earned a .994 fielding percentage with two runners picked off and 12 runners caught stealing.

Kidd, who also plays travel softball with the successful Alabama Fury program, committed to Gulf Coast State after an appearance at a summer camp and said that one of her Fury teammates played a part in that decision.

“I went to a camp – a three-day camp – this summer and met Coach (Scott) Thomas and the girls and I just felt like that would be where I would be the happiest,” Kidd said of her decision. “(Enterprise’s) Macy Robinette is going to play there this year. That’s one of the reasons I went to the camp, she is a part of the Fury with me, because she said that she really liked it there.”

Gulf Coast State, located in Panama City, Fla., boasts a number of Wiregrass players on its roster, including Charles Henderson’s McKenzie Cain, Ashford’s Rayleigh Jordan and Barrett Lawrence, Brantley’s Kaylee Navarre, Rehobeth’s Makayla Peters and Robinette.

Kidd, who plans to pursue a degree in sports nutrition or strength and conditioning, said she knows she has a lot to work on during her senior year at ZCHS.

“I definitely want to improve,” Kidd emphasized. “I want to play over my two years there and not just sit on the bench. I think I definitely need to work on being more vocal and being more of a force behind the plate. I have to make sure runners are scared of running and keep people on base and not advancing.”

Kidd, who also plays volleyball at ZCHS, will continue to play catcher in college and says she plans to continue playing past her junior college stint.

“I want to be able to play my two years at Gulf Coast State and then hopefully go on to a four-year college and play there,” she said.