Softball: Smith hopes to make impact at Purdue like she has for OHS program

When Kristy Smith made her debut for the Odessa High softball team in 2006, she anchored the Lady Bronchos' defense at third base, biding her time.

During the next season, she moved back to her natural position behind the plate and has been a fixture at catcher for head coach Stephanie Graham the past three seasons.

Now, she wants to make it four in a row for Purdue University.

Smith signed a letter of intent Wednesday to play for the Boilermakers. She becomes the second OHS player to sign with a Division I program, following in the footsteps of pitcher Hillary Phillips last year, who signed with Centenary College in Shreveport, La.

"When I went up there for a visit, I just fell in love with the campus," Smith said. "I met the coaches, the team, the professors and everyone was just great and it really helped me make my decision.

"I had already gone to visit Marshall University and it was a nice campus and a good program, but it just wasn't right for me."

Smith's official visit to West Lafayette, Ind., was delayed after she and her mother, Dana, were involved in a rollover accident Nov. 20, 2008, as they were preparing to leave for the airport to fly to Indiana.

Both Dana and Kristy Smith came out of the accident without major injuries.

"That was really scary," Kristy Smith said. "There wasn't any way to get out of the way.

"The coaches at Purdue were great about it, telling me to take my time and when I was ready, to come up for the visit."

Smith eventually made the visit, along with her father Doug, who has been a major influence not only in his daughter's career, but the OHS program with all his work in the booster club the past four seasons.

The family's patriarch came away impressed with the Boilermakers' coaching staff, practice facilities and the fact that Purdue, under head coach Kim Maher, has made the Big 10 Tournament the past two seasons.

"That's big-time softball," Doug Smith said of the Big 10. "Teams like Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State are always competitive and Kristy is going to be playing at a much higher level.

"I couldn't be prouder because she's worked so hard since the first time she started playing softball and to get a scholarship to a great school like Purdue is just unbelievable."

For Kristy Smith, the scholarship is not only a way to continue her softball career, but to help her toward her goal of being a speech pathologist.

She knows, however, that she and the rest of her fellow seniors - Chelsey Walters, Kendra Dees, Courtney Cernoch and Laci Sanchez - have some unfinished business. Last season, the Lady Bronchos advanced to the Class 5A state semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Alvin.

This year, everyone wants to take the season two steps farther.

"That's been our goal all year, to get back to the state tournament," Smith said. "We know what it takes to get there after last year and we know that we can't relax at all now."