St. Scholastica Softball Begins New Era Under Head Coach Kallee Wilkins

The Saints first game is against UW-Stout on Saturday at the Bethany Lutheran Invitational in Mankato.

DULUTH, Minn.- For the first time since 2016, the St. Scholastica softball team is entering the regular season with a new head coach.

Kallee Wilkins, who’s the 7th head coach in program history, takes over for a Saints squad that finished 17-18 last season and was in the middle of the pack of the MIAC conference.

CSS has nine upperclassmen returning this year and Wilkins, who’s a first time head coach, says she’s been relying on them early on to help make the change smooth.

“They’ve been a huge help in this transition. In the fall when they were just kind of doing it on their own before I arrived here, the upperclassmen were huge. Just getting everything ready to go for when I did get here and they’ve been a huge part in getting everything going and just keeping it going at the pace we need. So, it’s great,” said Wilkins.

The Saints also have two All-MIAC conference honorees back this spring in pitcher Ashley Matejka and catcher Sam Paniagua.

“I’m very excited we have long week of preparation ahead of us. Having a new coach it’s fun, it’s new and it’s exciting. She brings a lot of different experience and a lot of different ways to teaching with us,” said Matejka.

“For sure we want to win, that’s the goal. Just want to win but just working on to see what we have, see what we’re working with. Feeling it out with new players, new team, switching things up a little bit and we’ll see how it turns out,” added Paniagua.

The Saints first game is against UW-Stout on Saturday at the Bethany Lutheran Invitational in Mankato.