With her remarkable high school athletic career coming to an end, Kallissa Coats is preparing to play Division I collegiate softball at Towson University.

Kallissa has shined all throughout her high school career while playing soccer, basketball, and softball. She received the 12 Seasons Award for playing 12 straight seasons of varsity athletics at John Carroll.

“This award shows me that people are seeing my hard work and recognizing it,” Kallissa commented.

Kallissa loved attending the games of each sport, and when she could not, she tuned in to watch them on TV. When she reached age six, her love for each of these activities grew, and she began playing in recreational leagues.

Kallissa has centered her life around sports for as long as she can remember. Each of the three sports that she has participated in have been major aspects of her life.

As she found strengths in each sport, she joined travel and club teams at age ten. She played soccer at The Football Club USA, basketball at Bullets, and softball at Maryland Dynasty.

Kallissa commented, “I had the God given talent to do well in all three sports, but it was softball that I really excelled at from the start. It was the sport I was strongest at and had the most success in.”

Once Kallissa aged out of her 14u team on Maryland Dynasty, she switched teams and joined the Hickory Lady Hornets, soon renamed to Wagner’s. Kallissa played there until she was about 15 years old, and as intensity grew, she saw that the team was not giving her the exposure she needed to get in front of the right college coaches.

She continued playing on travel teams outside of school up until the summer before her junior year. “It was a big relief to not have two practices back-to-back anymore, but it was sad to stop playing the other sports.”

With all of her focus on softball, she soon joined the Gold Coast Hurricanes which was where she would shine in her softball journey. This team traveled all over the nation and allowed Kallissa to play in front of coaches from the best softball colleges in the country.

During the beginning of her journey on the Gold Coast Hurricanes, she was too young to talk directly to coaches about recruitment, so she opted to attend their camps. These camps were a chance for her to showcase talent to as many coaches as she could.

Once she aged into the recruiting stage where she could converse with coaches, she would email as many coaches as possible and send out her tournament schedule. She continued by showing interest in a school’s programs and repeatedly visiting their camps.

Kallissa received offers from numerous schools of all different levels. Finally, she narrowed interests down to Elon University and Towson University.

After visiting both schools and getting to know each coaching staff and team, Kallissa made her final decision to play the next four years at Towson University.

“In the end, Towson just felt like home and I could really see myself there,” said Kallissa.