Last weekend at the Champions Showcase in Cumming, Georgia, the Atlanta Vipers-Jiles team was playing the Louisville Lady Sluggers when starting catcher Chooch Carroll came up to bat with two outs and a runner on first.

She quickly got two strikes on her, but to everyone’s amazement she hit a bomb over the 225 foot left field fence that got a lot of college coaches attention really fast.

Before long, Virginia had invited Chooch to their camp via communications with Vipers Head Coach William Jiles. South Carolina asked her to return to their camp where she had cranked out two home runs over their 220 foot fence in September.

North Carolina and Kennesaw State also invited the entire Vipers team to their camps.

What’s surprising about all this and the attention paid to the 5-foot-9 catcher is she’s only 12 years old.

That’s right, Chooch (who’s real name is Leslie, by the way… more on that nickname in a minute), is only in seventh grade, but like her home run blast at the Champions Showcase, where she was the second youngest player in the event, this young player does everything BIG.

Her father is 6-foot-5 so it’s no surprise where she got her height, but what is shocking is her feet size. Chooch wears a 13 1/2 men’s shoe — a 14 1/2 in women’s! — and her feet are so big she had to have her cleats custom made!

Coach Jiles wanted every player to have green cleats to match the Vipers uniform and the Carroll family had to get creative. The athlete’s mother, Adele, got the idea to trace Chooch’s foot and send the tracing to Ringor, which was able to build a customized cleat for the junior high standout who attends Northwestern Middle School in Milton, Ga.

“The gentleman that owns the company was every bit as shocked as Coach Jiles when he saw this,” laughs the player’s mother.

Chooch’s home run was her first in her career in a real game and won’t be the last, but it’s not like it was an accident; she’s worked hard to get to this point where ACC and SEC are already hot in pursuit.

The athlete, who is hitting .458 with 15 RBI in fall ball, gets up before school each day and works out for 30 to 40 minutes doing weight lifting and plyometrics.

Each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she also works in the Velocity Arm Care program and then hits for an additional 60 to 90 minutes. Fridays are her “light days” as she does cardio and long toss.

Adele says Chooch loves to workout because she has two goals in mind down the road.

“Her long-term plan is to go to college and play softball and then join the Armed Forces like many of her family members before her. Chooch will acquire extensive on-the-job training in a career she chooses while serving her country and then come out of the military to begin her career. I served in the Army and we are a proud fourth generation military family covering the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines!”

Is there any concern she’s working so hard at such a young age?

“I’ve had people ask why Chooch trains like that and her response is this: ‘Would you ask a gymnast, skater or swimmer training for the Olympics at ages younger than me when I started playing that same question?’ Chooch responds that she’s a serious athlete who wants to be the best in her sport and realizes that even the most talented and gifted athletes have to work hard to stay on top.”

And as for the name “Chooch,” which we’ll likely be hearing for many years to come, her mother tells how it originated when the athlete was two years old.

“My uncle by marriage is from Sicily, Italy. Growing up as a kid I had a girlfriend with a crazy Italian name; her real name was Cookie Rakonza. Her sister couldn’t say ‘Cookie’ and, instead, called her “Choochie.’ Northern Italians have blonde hair with blue eyes and fair skin and my daughter is a strawberry blonde and looks just like my friend Cookie.”

“I told my Uncle Luigi about all this and he laughed and said, “She’s a ‘Chooch,’ which means ‘funny, goofy, silly.’” And that is my daughter, she’s a funny kid who is always in a good mood and it shows in the dugout and on the field.”

Despite being one of the youngest recruits in the country, Adele is adamant that Chooch won’t be committing anytime soon.

“We know recruiting is getting earlier and earlier, but we’ve made it clear that she won’t be committing anywhere until at least the middle of her freshman year. We have a lot of work to do before then in studying schools and finding a good fit.”

Speaking of finding a good fit, it doesn’t look like the shoe thing is going to get any easier, either.

“Being 12 years old, a girl, and wearing a men’s 13 1/2 has been tough,” the Georgia player’s mother concedes, “and she is still growing so it’s hard to tell how big her feet will get!”

“Big” is a word you’ll be hearing a lot when Chooch’s name comes up in discussion from now and it won’t be limited to just shoe size. When it comes to softball, the operative words will likely be “big home run,” “big-time potential” and “big and bright future.”