Berkshire senior Meghan McKeogh earlier this month signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her education and softball career at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
McKeogh, who attends The Lyceum, a college preparatory school focused on classical Catholic education, will major in a pre-professional Pre-Medicine program.
“I am very excited to continue playing softball in college,” McKeogh said. “I love to play but was only going to play in college if I could find the right college fit, with the academics being a priority. The fact that I found everything I wanted in a college and get to continue to play softball for that college is pretty much everything I could ask for.”
In Hillsdale, McKeogh found a perfect fit.
“I really love everything about Hillsdale,” she said. “I am attending a classical high school and love the classics, so Hillsdale’s focus on the classics as part of their core curriculum was something I liked and is also pretty different from most colleges and universities. I also like the fact that there is a strict Honor Code and the students are so respectful of each other and honest. I was told, and even witnessed, that students just leave things like their computers or purses at a table and can walk away even for hours at a time and their items will be there when they come back. Those are the kinds of people that I want to spend four years with.”
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Hillsdale students have the opportunity to apply to the Marine Officer Candidate School, another opportunity McKeogh will consider.
McKeogh’s interest in Hillsdale began in the summer prior to her freshman year of high school. She attended a camp at the school and immediately was drawn to the school and its mission.
She attended several more camps at the school, including an academic camp, and felt right at home.
“I knew pretty much from the start,” McKeogh said. “Every camp I went to gave me more reasons to choose the school and I grew closer to the coaches and players. I remember the second camp I attended, I forgot my glove, as I took it out for a lesson the night before. I was mortified but went up to Coach Joe and told him. Not only did he laugh it off and put me at ease, but one of the players on the team gave me her glove to use all day. It turns out she was also No. 33, which I thought was a good sign.”
A middle infielder/outfielder, McKeogh is ready and willing to play any position on the field to help the Chargers.
“Honestly, I have not had a very long conversation about that with Coach (Kyle) Gross, the new head coach,” McKeogh said. “I generally play middle infield and outfield, so I assume I would stick to those areas, but whatever the coach wants and what the team needs is what I will do. I think I will be happy wherever I play because I am just happy to play and to contribute however the team needs me to contribute.”
Even as she prepares to move on to college, McKeogh is fully committed to Stay in Softball, a charity she created to make softball accessible to inner city, low income and disadvantaged players and players facing extreme hardships.
Throughout the years, McKeogh and her peers have worked hard to collect equipment donations, run player and coaching clinics and provide personal assistance to softball players and coaches.
The group also has recruited younger volunteers to carry on the mission after McKeogh and the others head off to college.
“Stay in Softball will definitely continue,” McKeogh said. “Once we realized that there was a big need for what we do that will not go away any time soon, we started preparing for when we, the players who have been a part of (Stay in Softball) from the beginning, would go to college. We have been adding new and younger volunteers and players to our Player Advisory Board every year. We also started a Junior Advisory Board for players who will be the future leaders of the organization. They are learning about how SIS is run so they can lead it in the future.”
McKeogh hopes to use her college years to grow the organization.
“I will still be involved while I am at college and hope that as we all go to college we can involve our college teams and teammates,” she said. “If that happens, we have the potential to become even stronger and more widespread than we are now. I am sure I will always be a part of it even after college, I just don’t know what role I will play.”
