Dual-sport star Carrière picks softball, Valley City State

The Valley City Vikings may need to play an exhibition game in Friedensfeld if they keep scooping up Eastman talent.

Chloé Carrière became the latest softball player from the Eastman Wildcats to commit to the North Dakota-based University, joining La Broquerie’s Pascale Kihn, who played her freshman season this year and Landmark’s Kelsey Warkentine, who committed this winter to the program.

“I always knew I wanted to play either hockey or softball in university after I graduated,” Carrière said, noting she had a campus visit at Valley City in the fall.

“It took me a while to decide if I wanted to play hockey or softball. This year I chose to go the softball route.”

Carrière was a star in both sports in the region, playing at the top level for the Eastman Selects in the winter and suiting up for the Eastman Wildcats in the summer. She was part of the Selects team which won the 2025 AAA provincial championship.

“(Softball) is a team sport but also very individual at the same time,” Carrière said.

“You get to cheer each other on… Throughout playing Wildcats, the teams were always a really good group of people you enjoy going to the diamond with.”

A big plus for Carrière was how close Valley City is to Manitoba. The school is less than four hours away from her home town of St Pierre. She plans on studying health sciences.

Carrière is suiting up for the U19 Eastman Wildcats this season and played on the St Pierre/St Joachim co-op high school team this season. She helped the Braves to the high school championship in 2025.

The Eastman Wildcats U19 team is next in action at Friedensfeld July 12. For photos from the U17 team’s games against the Winnipeg Lightning June 18, check out Carillon Sports Second Shots, published every Wednesday at www.thecarillon.com/sports.