Kendall Wiley: It’s a Family Affair

By Brooke Adams
Photographer

Third generation Bobcat Kendall Wiley is about to finish her junior season for the Texas State softball team. Wiley’s competitive spirit and love for softball radiated from her when we met in the dugout at the Texas State Softball Complex to get a grasp of what softball means to her and how she handles being a student and an athlete during the regular season.

Growing up, the athletic first baseman threw herself into every sport. When asked why she stuck with softball, Wiley replied, “Softball has been the most natural; everything else was kind of for hobby, and [softball] was the sport I love.”

As it came time for Wiley to select a college that would host her talent, she chose Texas State, saying, “My whole family went here…my dad actually made the baseball team…I wanted to play because he played here.”

Being away from home and adapting to Division 1 softball helped Wiley “grow up fast.”

Wiley described a typical day for her during the long fifty-three game season: waking up at 6:30, long before most college students even enter their first REM cycle to practice, taking extra time with the coaches on days she doesn’t have class. She then attends her classes, tries to get in as much study-time as possible, and ends her days with an ice-bath.

Wiley has one of the most unique pre-game rituals we’ve heard yet at Texas State, explaining, “I look through pug photos or videos…and listen to early 2000s R&B.”

Wiley said she loves playing first base, because it keeps her completely involved in the game and in constant contact with the ball; she always has something to do. When asked if she was a social first baseman, Wiley smirked and said, “Yeah, actually, I kind of am. I’ll give teams credit where it is due.”

She explained that teams often make beats in their respective dugouts and if the competing team’s chants are good, she likes to tell them when they get to first base.

Now a junior, Wiley is approaching the second half of her college career. With only one more season remaining after this one, we asked if she could pinpoint a specific moment that has stood out to her over the past two years of Bobcat softball.

“When we went to Florida last year,” Wiley said, “I hit three home runs back to back.” Understandably shocked, I asked how this was even possible. Wiley’s reply summed up the situation pretty well.

“She kept pitching to me,” Wiley said. “I don’t know why.”

Wiley says that “communication” is the key factor in making a team function. As the oldest on the team, Wiley is already looking to the future, saying she wants to finish her degree in Finance and go on to work in human resource management.