Bartow junior golfer Caylee Mitchell’s best moment was helping and coaching her senior teammate Chole Baker because she loved watching her grow as a player to be the best team captain she could be.
This is the type of player and person Mitchell is, as she values team success over her own. As a captain, it’s important for her to help her team, making her heart sing as a player.
While bowling is an individual sport, she thinks about team moments as opposed to her own individual success. Other moments that come to mind is bonding with the team and seeing the entire team grow and learn as players.
Still, some of her highest scores this year have been in the 230s. And she was the only girl in Polk County high school bowling to advance as deep as she did in the 2025 FHSAA Bowling State Championships this past October. And for that, she’s The Ledger’s 2025 Girls Bowler of the Year.
But what or who is it that motivates her?
“I think my biggest motivator other than my grandpa has been my dad,” Mitchell said. “My dad is truly my biggest supporter and has never stopped believing in me. He has been at every practice, every match and always been my best motivator through it all and I’m so grateful for my dad.”
And just like her father, bowling has taught her responsibility and, forcing her to have a growth in mindset, as when she first started bowling, Mitchell said she had an immature mindset.
But things have changed since she began bowling, which embarked when she fractured her wrist amid a travel ball world series game in 2021 — the same year she switched competitive sports from softball to bowling.
“I was always getting mad when I did bad and I got in my head pretty badly, but now that I’ve been bowing for a few years, I’ve realized that I have to take it frame by frame and not every shot will be the same or perfect and I just have to focus on the next ball. I can’t worry about the bad frames. I have to look forward to the next shot and taking it frame by frame and keep calm and don’t get a bad mindset,” Mitchell said.
This mindset has already taken her to state. But now she is looking forward to the college process because she is interested in sending in videos of herself bowling in hopes of attainting that coveted full-ride scholarship to college.
And in the meantime, she will continue to work on her form to become a better bowler for 2026.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Bartow’s Caylee Mitchell is The Ledger’s 2025 Girls Bowler of the Year
Reporting by Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
