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Women's Soccer Spotlight: Devyn Ciotti
April 27, 2013 | Women's Soccer
April 27, 2013
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Devyn Ciotti, a rising junior defender for the University of Louisville women's soccer team, grew up in an athletic household where loving and playing multiple sports was the norm. As a result, Ciotti faced the difficult decision to give up a sport all together.
Ciotti grew up with multiple sports options due to her father and brothers. As a result, Ciotti was a dual-sport athlete, playing both soccer and basketball at a high level throughout high school.
"I guess it is easy to see that with all these options I ended up with not one but two loves: basketball and soccer," said Ciotti.
As she grew and excelled at both sports, Ciotti was encouraged by outsiders to concentrate on one sport and give up the other.
"It's unusual to see someone play two sports at a competitive level these days," she explained. "I heard over and over that I needed to choose one, especially if I wanted to play in college."
However, Ciotti refused to choose between basketball and soccer and competed in both until her senior year high school.
"I told everybody no, I want to do both. When it came time to actually start the recruiting process, I wasn't quite as confident with that answer," she said. "It wasn't easy. College soccer camps in the summer were at the same time as basketball tournaments with my club team. High school basketball games interfered with the soccer showcases that I was supposed to be at. Suddenly, choosing a college was becoming real, and there was a lot of pressure to be everywhere at once."
Recruiting pressure, scheduling conflicts and an injury finally forced Ciotti to make the decision she had been dreading and avoiding. Ciotti verbally committed to play soccer for the Cardinals during her sophomore year of high school, though she continued to compete on the women's basketball team.
"I just couldn't seem to give it up," said Ciotti. "But going into my senior year I was injured, and I knew that soccer was my future so I decided not to play my senior basketball season.
"Walking into my high school gym where I had spent countless hours of practices and games, I started crying before I could even tell my coach what was going on. Quitting basketball will always be one of the hardest things I have ever done -- watching my teammates play games I should have been playing in."
And while she is no longer competitively participating in basketball, Ciotti knows she made the right decision, to compete at a high level in soccer.
"Even though I know I will always love and miss my second sport, I look back and I know that I made the right decision to choose soccer," Ciotti said. "I could not be happier with my decision to play soccer with this program and this team."
