With one look at the team, you can see Kelsey's impact. Visors and bats have KN stickers on them. Gloves have purple ribbons on them. Batting helmets feature purple butterflies on the back. They wear purple nail polish and adorn their social media feeds with the hashtags #KN and #Play4KN, purple hearts and butterfly emojis. They do it for Kelsey.
It's gameday with my sistas 😈 #Play4KN #3 pic.twitter.com/lmWmhe7ysw
— nicole mendes (@nicole_mendes_) June 1, 2017
Leaving auburn with a punched ticket to the World Series ❤ #3 #KN pic.twitter.com/0WwQBLHNgb
— Raegan Rogers (@Raegan_Rogers24) May 27, 2017
“We just kind of presented it to the team and made it kind of our rally to bring some comfort to the family and just honor that little one who loved the Sooners,” Coach Patty Gasso said.
After Nicole Nalepa graduated from OU, she became a teacher, got married and had two kids — 10-year-old Kellen and 8-year-old Kelsey.
Kelsey was an outgoing, helpful, spitfire of a little girl who cared about her friends and family.
“She was going to be something,” Nicole said. “She had a presence about her. She was there. You knew she was going to do something special (someday).”
Kelsey was also a budding softball player on the League City, Texas’ girls softball team.
“This year was the year that she was really making some strides,” Nicole said. “She was playing a little bit of third base, stopping some balls and really making some plays and hitting the ball hard.”
Then everything changed.
The family was stopped at a red light on the way to Kelsey’s game when their car was rear-ended by a drunk driver. Kelsey, who was buckled in the backseat, hit her father’s seat when it dislodged.
She died on April 9 due to severe head trauma.
Nicole said friends who never played sports at the collegiate level or understand what it’s like have reached out in support and to express awe at what’s been done. But to her, it was just another example of the OU softball community’s bond, even if she’s never met some of the players on the current roster.
“That’s what it’s like. That’s family,” Nicole said. “I don’t know if every coach would do that, but that’s Patty. That’s what they do. It just shows the community, the support, the love.”
***
First — from first days of school, first cars, first loves or the first time to do anything — always makes an impression. Nicole Myers Nalepa, Gasso’s first signee at Oklahoma, did just that.
Nicole was on the National Championship team in 2000. She was a great defender, had big moments on the field, and her work ethic played a role in turning OU softball into what it is today, Gasso said.
“From day one, it was home,” Nicole said. “It felt like family, and I enjoyed every minute there.”
The team still prides itself on being a family and staying in touch with those who have come through the program. When Nicole needed her softball family nearly two months ago, it was there.
For Gasso, it wasn’t a hard decision to take time to see Nicole or add Kelsey’s initials to what might feel like everything in the clubhouse.
“When these guys are your players, they become your kids,” she said. “Whether they’re 20 years out of whatever it is, when they hurt, you hurt. I’ve had a bond with her and any player that I’ve had. If they needed me, I would be there.”
***
Associate Head Coach, and Nicole’s former teammate, Melyssa Lombardi first heard about the accident while the Sooners were in Austin to play Texas. She passed on the news to Gasso.
“I called her and I didn’t think she would answer, but she did,” Gasso said. “We talked a little bit and told her I wanted to come down and see her, and I felt like I might be pushing it, but she said ‘Yeah, I’d love that.’”
The team put Kelsey’s initials on their visors to show their support, then Gasso and Lombardi made the trip to League City.
Gasso brought the family her visor with Kelsey’s initials and an Oklahoma batting helmet signed by the entire team and spent some time at the Nalepas’ home. She and Lombardi also went to the candlelight vigil at the school Kelsey and Kellen attended and Nicole teaches.
“There’s fencing in front of the school, probably a half-mile long, and every piece of fence was some kind of tribute to their daughter, whether flowers, signs, or stuffed animals,” Gasso said.
Nicole’s family was there. They were being supported. They weren’t alone.
“It meant a lot,” she said. “It meant more than I can even explain.”
