Recently, Sterling softball’s Georgia Gallardo announced her commitment to Kishwaukee College. The Sterling senior outfielder now plans to spend her next two years competing at the D1 NJCAA school, where she will continue her softball and academic career. 

  Although Gallardo wasn’t originally planning to continue her softball career past high school, she was met with a few opportunities that she took advantage of. 

  “​​The head coach of the Kishwaukee softball team is my travel coach. I never really planned on playing in college until he reached out to me, and it just felt right to take the opportunity,” said Gallardo. 

  On top of finding homely traits at the school, Gallardo saw perks in having her travel softball coach as her future collegiate coach. 

  “My travel coach, and future college coach Eric is a great coach already, and I trust that he will continue to be great. He really sold me on committing because of his coaching style, as he is encouraging and will give me the opportunities that I deserve,” shared Gallardo. 

  Along with the coach being a fit, Gallardo also meshes well with many of her future teammates, as she has got to experience travel softball with a few. 

  “Two girls on my travel team are also committing to Kish, and they already show their values of trusting their team, and putting in hard work to better themselves,” said Gallardo. 

  Beside her group of incoming commits, Gallardo hopes that the rest of her teammates are an  “extroverted and determined team to help push me to do better.”

  Though the opportunity of college softball stemmed from her travel softball roots, Gallardo still faced some challenges throughout the recruiting process. 

  “It’s been a challenge deciding what I want to do rather than playing softball. I feel like I was handed the opportunity to continue playing, but I’m still deciding on what I want to do for my education,” said Gallardo.

  Now as Gallardo finishes her senior season of softball already committed, she looks to use the season “as an opportunity to relax and just try to have fun instead of putting a bunch of pressure on myself, and to stay as healthy as possible before I go to my college season.” 

  Ultimately, as Gallardo heads into her senior season as a Kishwaukee commit, with the goal to spend her “last year having fun and while playing with my girls,” said Gallardo.