By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

On National Signing Day, the commons of Berthoud High School (BHS) filled with family, friends and supporters as senior Spartan Gracie Flores signed her national letter of intent to play softball at Louisiana Tech. “I’m so excited, I’m really looking forward to it,” said Flores about attending Louisiana Tech and playing softball for the Lady Techsters.
“Without a doubt, in order to get to this point, you have to be a tremendous athlete. And you’ve got to be a tremendous softball player, especially to sign at a division one school, like Louisiana Tech,” said Buddy Kouns, Flores’ softball coach for four years at BHS.
Flores was a four-year letter winner for softball at BHS. Last season she led the team with a .466 batting average while also registering 41 hits, 40 runs, 23 RBIs, 19 stolen bases and three home runs. She was also named the Loveland Reporter-Herald player of the year for softball and Berthoud Weekly Surveyor co-softball player of the year. “Her accomplishments on the field, I tell you what, they speak for themselves,” said Kouns.
“Offensively in her last three years at the varsity level, I think that I figured out last night that she struck out six times in three years. That’s over 300 plate appearances. That’s just that’s not normal. That’s not real. Those are numbers that if I say them to somebody, they’re going to doubt that it happened. And we watched it happen,” he said.
Kouns said that as impressive as Flores’ athletic achievements are, it’s her kindness and humility that make her special. “There’s a purity in that heart, and a kindness that makes me want to be a better person when I see it,” he said. To illustrate this point, Kouns told a story about Flores playing in the All-State softball game last November. In the All-State game, the players from across Colorado are divided into north and south teams. When the south team didn’t have enough players Kouns volunteered Flores from the north team.
“I told them, Gracie would be comfortable moving and playing. She’s just that kind of kid, she’ll embrace it, she’ll be awesome. And I pulled the three coaches aside and I said in seven innings, you’re gonna come and you’re gonna hug me and you’re gonna thank me for moving her onto that team. And they did,” Kouns said with a big grin and a laugh.
After that David King of Triple Crown Sports spoke about Flores. “We do a lot of measurement of athletes, and I want you to understand that she has some of the best all-time scores that we’ve ever had in arms speed, in home-to-first, in power moves, in rotational acceleration, or hand speed, things of that nature,” said King.
“When I called Josh at Louisiana Tech, I said you need to sign her even if you haven’t seen her,” King said about reaching out to Josh Taylor, the head softball coach at Louisiana Tech. For Flores, the move is an exciting new chapter in her life. “It was beautiful, I just fell in love with the campus, the players, the coach,” said Flores about visiting Ruston, La.
“This girl has worked harder than any other girl I’ve ever seen,” said Flores’ mother Addi Brooks. Like Kouns, she mentioned Flores’ compassion for others. “She would always take up for the underdog. Take up for the people that were being bullied or mistreated. She always wants everybody to shine, not just herself,” she said. For Brooks, she couldn’t be happier or prouder for her daughter.