Northside’s Keech to continue softball career at CVCC

Published 10:06 pm Thursday, December 12, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Nothing was going to deny Northside High School senior Londyn Keech the chance to further her softball career and education.

On Tuesday, Keech — who will be playing her fourth season on the Panthers’ varsity softball team — signed with Catawba Valley Community College to continue her education and to play softball. The Redhawks have had lots of success in advancing their athletes past the college and to four-year institutions.

Keech, 17, has played softball for years, both in school and with travel teams. She was determined to find a place that was a good fit for her despite battling through some injuries that had gotten in the way. Now that her college choice is settled, she can focus on the other things that come with being a senior.

“Yeah, I wanted to go play far, go away. But at the same time, I wanted to stay close to home. But I know that I want to go explore new things,” Keech said. “So I knew that would be a good opportunity for me to go ahead and go five hours away.

“The coach (Mickey Bolick) is really big on school. School comes before softball. And that’s what I wanted because I’m going to be an anesthesiologist. And I’m a firm believer that education comes before sports. So I knew that he would let us have time to do schoolwork and maintain self at the same time.”

Keech, who pitches and plays third base, was part of the Northside team that advanced to the Class 1-A state championship series last year. That and her play with the Carolina Flames travel softball team opened doors and got the buzz started for her chance to play at college.

“I was really big on sending out e-mails, making yourself out to be better, pushing on Twitter (X), make sure that my social media platform was all clean,” Keech said. “And that’s when I started getting offers and going to take tours to colleges and seeing everything.

“And then Catawba came along. And it is five hours from the house, but it was a very good environment for softball and the school was good for what I’m going to be.”

Family is also big for Keech. They, along with her softball family, were there for her through three surgeries on her right knee and right foot. Now that she’s near 100%, she’ll be expected to help the Panthers work to have a successful season as they try to feed off the accomplishments of last season.

“After losing six players or seven kids off last year’s team and only returning three seniors, she’ll be the only returning starter that actually got on the mound for us,” Northside softball coach Keith Boyd said. “So she’s going to lead in a lot of different ways, and we’re going to lean on her as well as the other two seniors and hope to bring these young girls along.

“So we’re going to kind of go as they go, and I feel good about that.”

So does Keech. She is big on not only thanking her family — including mother Susan Woolard and father Melburne Keech — but her softball family. She said many of the current players grew up together so having everyone work toward one goal makes the ride an exciting one.

“It’s already hit me just seeing our seniors (from last year) leave and how hard it was last year and then knowing that I’m in that same spot,” Keech said. “We’ve all grown up together. We’re all family. It’s really hard, but I know I’ve got big things coming.”

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