March 28, 2024

Tritons rubber-stamp Murray's Wookey

MURRAY – Murray's Kayla Wookey made her dream of playing collegiate softball official Monday signing with the Iowa Central Tritons to play for head coach Rick Sandquist.

"It feels great and I am very excited to start my next career with such a great school," said Wookey. "I love the game of softball and will love pitching for a great program and coaching staff. This is what I have been working toward all these years."

Wookey, who will join the Tritons as a pitcher, has not had an earned run average higher than 1.49 in her three years of varsity action.

But the Lady Mustang senior has faced her share of adversity after tearing her ACL during a January basketball game in early 2018.

There was a decent chance Wookey was going to miss her junior softball campaign based off the usual recovery timetable of the injury, but Wookey went straight into rehab and still managed 14 appearances over the summer season.

Wookey said that she worried about her chances of playing collegiately after the injury, but mentioned that her work ethic and the people around her helped her avoid any doubts.

"My worst fear was not being able to excel in certain levels of the game," said Wookey. "... I had a lot of people by my side throughout the experience telling me to keep pushing. This drive to succeed definitely pushed me to continue contacting college coaches."

The soon-to-be Triton noted that Iowa Central was the one school that had shown interest before the injury and one that didn't lose intrigue afterward.

Wookey plans on studying animal science when she officially enrolls in college.

With still one high school season left to go, Wookey said her fall ball season went well and with the college decision figured out, there will be less to worry about in the summer.

"My coach told me that not having to worry about college coaches watching helped my pitching tremendously," Wookey said. "Hopefully I can apply this calm mindset to the mound this summer season."

Even with the signing out of the way, the Murray senior knows that the Lady Mustangs have some unfinished business to take care of on the field after three-straight 25-plus win seasons.

"Yes the bar is set very high and I am so excited to start playing with my Murray Mustangs," said Wookey.