Indiana Shockwaves

COMMITTED! ❤️🤍🥎 With a full and grateful heart, I’m excited to announce my commitment to Earlham College to continue my academic and softball career! This is more than choosing where I’ll play. It’s choosing where I’ll learn, grow in my faith, build friendships, and take my next steps toward my future. When I picture wearing a college jersey, I still see the little girl who just wanted to play—the same girl who was told at five years old that softball wasn’t for her. That little girl kept playing. And so many people helped her believe she could. 🥹 Through illness, self-doubt, difficult changes, and hard lessons, I’ve had people who believed in me while holding me accountable. My name is on this commitment, but I didn’t get here alone. 🥎 Coach Tommy Grayson: Thank you for every pitching lesson, welcoming me for my final travel season, and preparing me mentally for the challenges ahead. 🥎 Coach Marino Gaeta: Thank you for being my rock, having my back, and caring enough to push me. Your expectations, encouragement, and belief helped me become stronger as a player and person. 🥎 Coaches Nicole Trice and Noel Raney: Thank you for building my confidence, expecting more from me, and teaching me that dreams require work—even when I thought I’d already done enough. Coach Noel, I still didn’t eat the whole fridge! 😂 🥎 Coach Mike Vanderpool: Thank you for trusting me behind the plate and continuing to believe in me through illness and uncertainty. Our incredible high school season will stay with me forever. 🥎 Coach Gary Burns: From 8U to this moment, you’ve reminded me, “I can.” That little girl you coached is going to play college softball. Thank you for helping her believe it was possible. 🥎 Coach Ashley Burns: Thank you for your guidance, for helping me mature, and for teaching me to become just 1% better every day. 🥎 Coach Ryan Brown: Thank you for seeing possibilities before I saw them myself. Your support never depended on the jersey I wore, and you will always mean more to me than an old coach. 🥎 Coaches Brad Webb, Kadin Mahmet, and Adam Bastin: Thank you for introducing me to high-level travel softball and teaching me to keep fighting as the competition grew harder. 🥎 Coach Christian Montgomery and Ella Nagel: Thank you for your patience, encouragement, and the work that helped me trust my swing and myself. To every instructor, coach in another sport, teammate, sponsor, and softball family: Thank you for helping raise me, challenging me, supporting my opportunities, and giving me memories I’ll carry forever. Leaving a team never meant leaving behind what you meant to me. ❤️ Mom and Dad—Amanda and Darren—this moment belongs to you, too. You’ve seen everything that never makes a highlight video: the tears, illness, frustration, and uncertainty. You kept showing up through all of it. Every sacrifice helped make this possible. Wherever I go, I’m taking your love and lessons with me. I love you both more than words can say. God, thank You for carrying me through the hard days and placing these people in my life. Help me honor this opportunity with faith, gratitude, and purpose. To anyone questioning whether they’re good enough: Keep giving yourself the chance to discover what you can become. There’s more work ahead, and I’m ready. This one is for everyone who helped me get here—and for the little girl who kept believing. Earlham, I can’t wait to be a Quaker! ❤️🤍🥎 Kenzlei Mathews | Class of 2027 @Quaker_softball #Committed #KenzleiMathews2027 #EarlhamCollege #GoQuakers #nsrathlete @IndyShockwaves @WeboBarstool @WBstarsSoftball