When Kalista Birkenstock was considering where to continue both her athletic and collegiate careers in college, softball, while important, wasn’t the driving force behind her decision.

Birkenstock, a junior at Marlboro High School, was just as much drawn to Manhattan College’s engineering program as she was the Jaspers’ Division I softball team. On December 4, she officially announced her commitment to Manhattan College, just a few months shy of her junior scholastic season.

“That’s not going to stop me from working hard or anything like that,” said Birkenstock, an outfielder for the Marlboro Dukes. She also plays the middle infield for her travel team, the Empire State Huskies. “But it’s definitely a relief to know where I’m going and not have to worry about doing well in front of college coaches. So, that’s definitely a lot of weight off my shoulders.”

She will play for Jaspers’ coach Cat Clifford, entering her second season as head coach, and her seventh in the program. The Jaspers most recently won their second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship in program history.

“I love the coach; she was great,” Birkenstock said. “I love the girls; they were amazing. The biggest part was probably that she put education over athletics because, while softball is important, you only have that for four years, education is for the rest of your career.”

That aligns with Birkenstock’s values. Ask her what drew her to Manhattan College, and you may be surprised to hear that it wasn’t the Division I softball program, but the school’s engineering program.

“I really like chemistry, physics and math, and I talked with all my teachers, and they also think it’s a good career for me,” Birkenstock said. “And I just think that I wanted to do something along those lines.”

That’s off the field.

On the field, the Jaspers will be getting a player who brings a diverse set of skills to the softball field. She bats lead off for the Dukes, where she tends to slap the ball around, gets on base, steals bases. She plays mostly outfield scholastically, but on the Huskies also spends time in the middle infield.

Penny Roberts, one of her coaches with the Huskies, referred to Birkenstock as an “absolutely dynamic” player.

“She brings a lot of versatility,” Roberts said. “With her speed, she brings it up on offense, she brings it out to her defense, and she creates many so many things for her team when she’s on field. It’s going to be really fun to see what she does in college.”

She didn’t get there alone. There have been a bunch of coaches along the way, but when she announced her commitment, she especially gave thanks to family for making her the player she is today.

“They helped me tremendously,” she said. “My mom was always my biggest supporter. Ever since I was little, she would always push me to be the best I could be. When I was feeling lazy one day, she’d be like, ‘come on, let’s go hit, let’s go get some ground balls.’ But then also Greg (Locke) would always take me to the field, throw some batting practice, hit some pop flies or some ground balls to me. They always helped in improving my game, but also keeping me humble.”

Right now, Manhattan College must seem so far away. She will graduate from Marlboro High School in 2024 and won’t suit up for the Jaspers until the spring of 2025. That leaves her two more scholastic seasons and two more summers with the Huskies before moving on.

“I’m looking forward to getting a great education and being able to play softball because that’s always what I dreamt of when I was younger, playing softball in college but at the same time doing what I want and getting a good education out of it.”