Gianna Santoro has played softball since she was 4 years old. She shares, “My mother signed me up for tee ball, and ever since I have fallen in love with the game.” Since then Gianna continued to play through all middle school years and on her travel team currently playing for CT wildcats 16u. She is also now going on to her third year of high school softball, and she is also captain of the EHHS team this year!
Gianna has chosen to commit to Albertus Magnus College as a junior in high school. She decided to commit early because “I wanted to focus more on having fun and the money aspect during my senior year than scrambling to commit and get money.” These decisions aren’t always easy. Gianna said, “This decision was hard and easy because I had more colleges that I liked or wanted to go visit but it was easy because of the coach and how well he wanted to know the real me outside of softball.” Gianna decided to commit in her junior year so early “because I wanted to continue my softball career while still focusing on my career and didn’t just want to throw 12 years of basically my life away.”
Gianna began her relationship with Albertus Magnus by being “tagged the head coach in a Twitter post and I got an email a few hours later saying, Hi Gianna thanks for tagging me today in your Twitter post showing your hitting lesson.” He continued, “I’ve been keeping an eye on you on social media and my assistant coaches have seen you play this fall so I wanted to let you know we are interested in you and would love to see if you wanted to potentially visit the college for a visit soon. I’m starting to work on my 2025 class and I need two pitchers. You’re the first I’ve reached out to. It is impressive that you are such a good hitter as well and can be successful in other positions like outfield.” After she visited the school, she fell in love with it.
Even with committing early, there can always be injuries or changing your mind about where you want to go to school so Gianna does have a backup plan if anything goes wrong. “If something goes wrong, I can go into the transfer portal. But I hope I don’t have to nor think I will have to.” Gianna also expressed that what stood out to her the most was how small the school and class sizes are at Albertus. It is also close to home so if anything happens I need to come home quickly.” Gianna is excited that she was offered a spot at a D3 college. She has also been in contact with some of her new teammates. “ I have talked with the team. I did an overnight stay and I had a lot of fun meeting the team and hanging out with them too. Gianna is very excited and happy about her decision, and can’t wait to continue her softball career. Wish her the best of luck!
