By Keya Nijhawan
Unlike Katelyn Nixon’s junior class peers, she knows where she’ll be going to college. When she graduates from Lovett next year, she’ll be heading to Furman University to play Division 1 soccer.
Katelyn has been playing soccer for basically all of her life, partaking in both school and club soccer. She began her club soccer journey at the ripe age of 3 as a Little Hatter at Tophat and then moved into playing competitive soccer.
In middle school, Katelyn represented Lovett in both soccer and basketball. When she reached high school. Where the seasons overlapped, she chose to stick with soccer. She loves soccer because she finds “it’s fun to play with my friends,” she said.
Currently, Katelyn plays at Concorde on the ENCL Platinum team, which put her in an excellent place for recruitment. The ENCL level allowed Katelyn to attend many showcases across the country, where she could be seen by many college coaches.
Even with the many showcases, Katelyn still had much work to do to get recruited. “It was really hard,” she said. She sent many emails to schools all over the country to promote her talents in hopes of getting a response from coaches. Eventually, she was able to narrow it down to two schools. “And then, from there, I chose my school.”
Ultimately, Katelyn chose Furman University. When I asked why, she said, “Well, my dad went to Furman, and so I kind of always knew I wanted to go there.” She attended many ID camps to get recognized and visited the school many times.
Katelyn already knows some of her teammates who will also be going to Furman. “One of my friends who goes to Harrison is also going,” she said.
Now that the college process is over her and she is ahead of the game, I wondered if there was anything Katelyn wished she could change.
“No, I feel like I learned a lot, like learning to talk to people, which will be helpful in the long run,” she said.
Looking ahead to Katelyn’s years to come at Furman, she said, “I am excited to meet new people.”
