Karissa Shay '15 Recruiting Profile

I am an optimistic, short, outgoing, spunky 17 year old female!  I believe in kindness, love, hard work, and dedication. To me these things are the key to a fulfilling and enriching life!  My education, family, and support system are everything to me. I would not be where I am today if it was not for their love, encouragement, support and understanding.  I am a leader and role model on and off the field. My career goal is to help others by teaching them to be able to help themselves, through special education with the emphasis on the visual, hearing, and speech impaired.

Every child always has dreams of what they would like to do as they get older, over time as we mature and change those dreams also change. The one dream that has NEVER changed for me is to play softball at a collegiate level or possibly my BIG dream to play for Team USA. If anything my desire to achieve this dream gets stronger every time I step on to the softball diamond. I knew it was going to take a lot of hard work as well as academic excellence to help me reach this goal. This is and always will be an ongoing process as my parents, my teachers and my coaches I have had, have instilled the mindset with me that no matter how well or how good you think you are, there  is ALWAYS room for improvement, in life as well as sports and education.

Thus far a majority of my time has been spent at school and practices as I am a dedicated three sport athlete.  Although my heart belongs to softball,  I also enjoy participating in volleyball and basketball. When I am not in the classroom or in the gym my time is usually spent with my family, my brother and my sister, and my friends cheering and supporting them in their activities.

I have been on the softball field since I was a small munchkin. I feel that I have grown and learned so much, but by far in my mind the most accomplished event I have participated in is the Fast Pitch World Series last year in Rockford, Illinois, where our team placed fourth.  I cannot even describe the feelings I experienced while there. And to know in the back of my mind I was the youngest or known as the baby of the team. I was a 15 year old playing on an 18U team and was considered one of the key players. Although everyone always told me I could, this was the moment I personally realized that yes, even though I come from a small rural town, with hard work and persistence I CAN achieve the dreams, and accomplish the things that I set my mind too!