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Kimberly “KK” Reynolds is heading to the next level to continue her softball career. The LaGrange High senior made it official on Wednesday, sending her official documentation to Georgia Southwestern, where she plans to continue her academic and athletic career.

“I was reaching out to schools and I reached out to [Georgia Southwestern], and they were interested, and they needed a third baseman and so they invited me on a visit, and I loved it right away,” Reynolds said. “Now it feels more real and not just like some high schooler saying she is going to a college. It’s starting to feel more like I’m actually going to be playing in college next year.”

Reynolds’ collegiate decision has weighed on her heavily heading into her senior year. The Granger infielder was originally committed to playing at Murray State, but decommitted heading into her senior season. It was uncharted waters as Reynolds looked for a place closer to home.

“Murray State was the first school that reached out to me and I really love the school, I love the coaches, I love the girls, but I just started getting anxiety about college and being so far from home,” Reynolds said. “I knew I was feeling this way for a reason, like, God always has a plan. And I asked God to show me a sign, and it was in my heart to decommit. I bit the bullet there, but I knew God had a plan for me.”

It was a long process but Reynolds found the Hurricanes of Georgia Southwestern and vice versa. A year from now, Reynolds will be settled into Americus in her first semester in college, a prospect that feels both so close and yet so far away. 

While Reynolds came into her senior season hoping to help lead the Grangers deep into the playoffs, fate and circumstance would not allow that to be. In the very first game of the season Reynolds injured her shoulder which kept her from playing in the field and eventually led her to be shut down completely late in the regular season.

“Honestly, it sucked not being able to play the field, because that is a big part of why I love softball. Without playing the field there’s a lot of time in between your next at bat, so you just sit there and you think about your last at bat the whole time. But it was fun to at least be able to do something. Because I feel like, if I wouldn’t have been able to do anything this season I would have been depressed.”

Reynolds is set to be medically cleared in February after which she will play her final travel ball season before taking to the college ranks. 

Despite not getting to enjoy the senior season that she envisioned for herself, Reynolds had a remarkable career for the Grangers. She became an every game starter at third base as a sophomore and never relented in her pursuit of getting better. Even dealing with a major shoulder surgery, Reynolds hit over .300 as a senior and made the All-Region second team as a utility player. 

It has been a long softball journey with countless weekdays and weekends traveling to far away ball parks for one more game or tournament, but days like Wednesday make all the countless hours of hard work worth it.

“I’ve always wanted to play college softball since I first got to high school and I started seeing some of my friends and some of my teammates going to school, going to college to play,” Reynolds said. “It started to feel like a realistic thing for me. So I really started getting serious about my recruitment process and locking in on going to college for softball, and it all worked out.”