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Karlie Walker has racked up her fair share of accolades during her time with Callaway Softball. She has been a region defensive player of the year, an All-Region player and now, the LaGrange Daily News Athlete of the Year. After thousands of votes from the community and nearly 40 athletes representing five schools from around Troup County, it was Walker who came out on top.

“These just show that my hard work and effort is paying off,” Walker said. “Even if it seems like people don’t see it, it still is paying off.”

This is not even the final act for Walker with the Cavaliers. The rising senior is coming back for one more season in red and black and with the season set to start in less than a month, Walker is raring to go and get back with her girls on the diamond.

“If we put in 150 percent in everything that we do on and off the field we can make a run,” Walker said. “We want to win region and we want to go to (the Elite Eight in) Columbus.”

There is rarely any downtime for Walker. Outside of a dead week or two around Christmas each year, Walker is playing softball year-round with her high school and travel ball team.

“It’s pretty hard (to balance softball and everything else) because I love hanging out with my friends and sometimes I don’t have time to do that because of travel ball,” Walker said. “We will have a tournament on a Saturday, and then next Saturday, then the next Saturday, but then the next one after with practice in between so it can be difficult at times.”

The diamond has been home for Walker since she first picked up a bat at four years old. It was love at first sight and she has been playing softball ever since, starting travel ball when she was 11 years old.

It was not always in the cards for Walker to be a Cavalier. She transferred to Callaway before her freshman year which was a daunting task. The softball team helped her adjust with rising junior pitcher Mackenzie Toney, who was also present for Walker’s athlete of the year ceremony on Wednesday, helping the adjustment.

“Besides Mack, I didn’t know anybody else here so it was a little nerve-racking at first,” she said. “The softball girls made me feel at home and I’m even still friends with the ones that have already graduated.”

Now, there is nobody more suited to sit behind the plate than Walker. This will be her third full season as the starter at catcher for Callaway and she is more confident than ever after setting career highs in RBIs and extra-base hits as a junior.

Callaway will need her confidence filled to the brim as she serves as a leader as one of the only seniors on the team.

“It’s definitely a big responsibility, because we have a lot of younger girls, especially sophomores and freshmen, and there’s only like three seniors,” Walker said. “I feel like it’s a really big responsibility because when I joined the team, the seniors made a really big impact on how like the team was gonna go.”

While Walker is primarily focused on team goals heading into her senior season, Walker also has lofty individual goals. She is not looking for accolades per se but is on the path to earning a scholarship to play college softball.

“The awesome thing about Karlie is I’ve had the opportunity to teach her in the classroom too,” said Dalton Reed, the head softball coach at Callaway. “To see her come in as a freshman and then develop into where she is today has been awesome. She is a real leader for our team and a big asset for us on and off the field.”