Kaylee Andersen comes from an athletic family.
So, it was only natural that she started playing sports at a pretty young age.
“Along with soccer and gymnastics, I began playing T-ball at the age of 4, then continued into softball at the age of 8,” Andersen said.
A Morgantown native, Andersen is a 2017 graduate of Morgantown High School.
She is in her sophomore year at Fairmont State University, where she continues her softball career.
Andersen earned a starting spot at centerfield as a freshman. She finished with 120 at bats, 26 runs, 33 hits, 11 RBI, and 27 strike outs. She had a .275 batting average.
Andersen is looking forward to the upcoming season but knows it will not be easy to keep her starting position.
“With the large amount of incoming freshmen arriving this year, I will have to push myself and work even harder than before to stay on the field,” she said. “But, knowing we will have so much talent throughout the entire team this year excites me to see how much farther we will come,” she said. “I am ready to get this season started.”
Andersen said playing softball in college is different than at MHS.
“One noticeable difference is the competitiveness in the environment,” she said. “When it comes to playing a collegiate sport, more work must be put in because this is a different level of competition, with a large variety of skill.
“My love for the sport has only grown stronger by furthering my career at Fairmont State.”
There were several factors that made Andersen decide to attend Fairmont State.
“I’m really close to my family, so knowing that I would be in close distance to them was a comforting factor in choosing my school,” she said. “Also, coming up to visit the softball staff during my senior year of high school helped my decision. The softball staff and players were very welcoming and made me feel like one of them just on my first visit.
“Also, the smaller school atmosphere, I loved. Knowing that I would be able to have a more face-to-face relationship with my professors and classmates was just amazing.”
Andersen is not the only Mohigan on the Falcons roster. Heidi Hormell also attends Fairmont State and graduated from MHS.
“I started playing with Heidi way back to the middle school years,” Andersen said. “She’s always been like a big sister to me on and off the field, so I am so lucky to have her through another chapter of my life.
“The transition from MHS to FSU was quite the jump, but knowing I had a familiar face to help me through my first year really calmed me.”
Andersen also excels academically. She was named to the MEC (Mountain East Conference) Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll for having a GPA of 3.25-3.69 during the spring semester. She is majoring in chemistry, which affords her some extra opportunities.
“In addition to that, through chemistry, I am in a research group on a branch of NASA through Fairmont State called the Solar Army, where we are trying to find a metal oxide to catalyze the water reaction to potentially use hydrogen gas as a renewable resource in the future,” Andersen said.
After graduation, Andersen hopes to attend graduate school and venture into the research department somewhere.
