By LARRY VAUGHT
Renee Abernathy has loved playing softball at Kentucky and coming off an impressive junior season had more confidence than ever going into this season.
However, she already has a set career path once her softball career ends — and she hopes that is in the College World Series.
Abernathy will be joining the Navy and attending medical school.
“Going into medical school is expensive. An option for that is obtaining a military scholarship and I have chosen the Naval branch. They would pay for my medical school and I would go into the Navy as a doctor and serve back my time that they paid for medical school,” said Abernathy, a .357 hitter in 2021 with 13 home runs when she started 58 of 59 games.
Since medical school is a four-year commitment, Abernathy would have to serve four years doing residency in the Navy.
“Then I can choose to stay in for the 20 years and then retire from the Navy but still practice as a doctor or after those four years when I have paid them back, I can leave. It just depends on how those four years go,” she said.
She joked her father “really liked the idea” of having the Navy pay for medical school. She has family members who have served in the Army and National Guard, but none in the Navy.
“It’s not like a family tradition but I have always been surrounded by military. I love serving our country. I love America. It’s a good option for medical school,” Abernathy said. “I don’t know what kind of doctor I want to be. No clue on the specialty actually. I am hoping medical school opens my eyes to that.”
She would not have to attend traditional basic training since she would graduate medical school as an officer.
“It would be more learning about the Navy and leadership type stuff than the traditional basic training. I would have to pass a physical test. Push-ups, mile and a half (run), but I think I would be fine,” she said.
She certainly exploded on the UK softball scene last year when she drove in 48 runs with her 61 hits and made just one error in the outfield in the 59 games she played.
“Last year is gone. What I did last year doesn’t really matter for this year. I worked on a lot of things during the fall and preseason. I have just focused on what I can do for the team and not worry too much about what I did last year because it doesn’t matter,” she said. “It did give me some confidence for this year but I did not want to put pressure on myself.”
Abernathy has learned how to keep a positive perspective after dealing with a COVID-19 season and then having an ankle injury last season.
“I learned my whole softball career can end at any moment. Injuries are possible, COVID possible … you just never know. So playing every game, every pitch like it is my last and leaving it all on the field is something I pride myself in,” Abernathy said. “I made that a goal to do this year so I can look back and say I gave it my all no matter how much I play.”
Abernathy has been a vital player again this year and got her moment on national TV when she blasted a solo home run against No. 1 and unbeaten Oklahoma in front of 2,117 fans, a regular-season record crowd, last week. She is hitting .338 with eight homers and 32 runs batted-in 29 games this season.
The senior had a week to remember last week with home runs in four straight games, including a walk-off three-run homer against Auburn. She drove in six runs in the series-opening win over Auburn.
“I don’t think I have ever hit home runs in four straight games before,” Abernathy joked after the game-winning homer over Auburn.
Abernathy had to juggle medical school interviews with scholarship applications and more with her preseason softball work but was able to stay “prioritized” on each task.
“It’s tough to juggle but I have been preparing for all this the last couple of years,” Abernathy said.
Abernathy has fallen in love with Kentucky. She’s from Springfield, Ill., but enjoys being at Kentucky and that’s obvious watching the smiles when she plays or the way she interacts with fans.
“Kentucky is my home. This atmosphere, the softball team, the BBN and the athletic department at this school is unbelievable,” Abernathy said. “It is truly a family atmosphere and I could not be happier playing here for Kentucky and being surrounded by these people every day.
“Truly there is not a bad person in this athletic department and I just love this school. I love playing for this school and Kentucky truly is home.”
Before the NCAA Tournament started Kentucky coach John Calipari said he thought freshmen Daimion Collins and Bryce Hopkins could both be important players for the Wildcats. However, neither freshman played in the overtime loss to Saint Peter’s.
“I think Bryce and Daimion were ready and my plan was to play them in this game,” Calipari said on his radio show last week. “ I was hoping to get a little gap, get those guys in, get their feet wet, and let’s go. We never got to that. But that was my plan prior to the game.”
Calipari called it a “funky” game — UK fans called the loss a lot worse than funky. He said Collins and Hopkins were prepped to play but he never called on them even though during the regular season Collins was the spark UK needed to win at Alabama and Hopkins was the key spark in a home win over LSU.
Hopkins played in 28 games but averaged just 2.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 6.6 minutes per game. Calipari said he got “behind some guys who were just better” but also offered other reasons on his radio show for his lack of playing time.
“You gotta come in knowing, lose some weight. Let’s try that one. Let’s get more consistent shooting the ball. You drive and your pull-ups and your strength and your rebounding. Let’s get it to where you’re even more athletic than you are,” Calipari said.
“Another great kid. He was crying after the game (against Saint Peter’s), which just about everybody was, and he didn’t even get in.”
Neither did Dontaie Allen and the former Kentucky Mr. Basketball announced last week he was putting his name into the transfer portal.
Other players could not only contemplate the transfer route but also leave for the NBA.
“My advice to a couple of them were you need to test the waters but let’s talk about what you’re looking for so there’s a plan of where they are and what opportunities they’re looking for which would make them leave or come back,” Calipari said.
Virginia Tech transfer Tayvion Robinson got a first-hand look at what the Kentucky football program was like when he played against the Cats in the Belk Bowl won 37-30 by Kentucky. He had one rush for five yards, two catches for 18 yards and one punt return for 11 yards.
“This is a place that guys really wanted to be at every day,” Robinson said. “Waking up at 5 or 6 (for practice) is not fun for anybody. I came on a visit and just sat back and watched how they prepared. Everybody in the building wanted to be there. It was like guys were dragging in. They were happy to be here and the culture in practice was fun. It was something I wanted to be part of. That was an attractive thing to me.”
Robinson said recruiting was different after he played three years at Virginia Tech compared to when he came out of high school.
“As soon as I was in the (transfer) portal, I started getting a million calls. I narrowed it down to a couple and this was the best opportunity for me,” he said.
Kentucky needed a proven receiver with Wan’Dale Robinson leaving for the NFL and Josh Ali graduating. Robinson was a three-year starter at Virginia Tech who had 113 catches for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has also returned 49 punts in his collegiate career.
“I feel like that’s my go-to outside of playing receiver,” Robinson said about returning punts. “That was one of the things I told them when I was coming here that I wanted to continue to catch punts, so I’ve been doing that since spring started.”
Tayvion Robinson was impressed with the success transfers had at UK last season and with the way UK moved to a “pass friendly” offense under Liam Coen last season. He doesn’t expect that philosophy to change with new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello.
“They had the best recruiting class in school history and we have a lot of very good receivers. All these young guys kind of makes me feel young,” Tayvion Robinson said. “It’s going to be fun teaching them and seeing their development.
During the last week of the regular season Kentucky coach John Calipari made a plea for the NCAA Tournament selection committee to separate Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas in the tourney bracket.
“What I hope is they separate the top four of us (in different regions in the NCAA Tournament) and we’re all in the Final Four,” Calipari said. “My guess is they’ll put us and another team from our league in the same region. They’ll put two of us and two of them so only two of you can advance. But if we’re all spread out, we could have four teams in.”
The selection committee put the four SEC teams in different regions but only one — Arkansas — made the Elite Eight. The Razorbacks beat No. 1 Gonzaga before losing to Duke.
“The SEC is going to get crushed because of our tournament performance,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “I think we just beat each other up all year. It was such a grind. Such a grind. That’s the only thing I can tell you because the league was really, really good. We didn’t show it in the tournament.”
It was only the third time that the SEC had six teams in the NCAA tourney and only one made it to the Sweet Sixteen.
Still, the most shocking SEC loss was Kentucky falling to Saint Peter’s. Kentucky had played in 33 NCAA Tournaments, been to nine Final Fours and won five national titles before Saint Peter’s made its first NCAA appearance in 1991. Even with Saint Peter’s magical NCAA run, it’s still a loss most UK fans will not forget for a long time — especially with bluebloods Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova in the Final Four.
She actually made her verbal commitment to Kentucky several weeks ago but there could not have been a better time for Nashville guard Kennedy Cambridge to make her pledge public than when she did.
One day after starters Dre Edwards, Treasure Hunt and Jazmine Massengill announced they were transferring from Kentucky, coach Kyra Elzy got a needed win with Cambridge picking UK over Auburn and Mississippi.
The 5-8 combo guard played at Ensworth School and just helped her team win its second Division II-AA state title in the past three years. Ensworth beat Lipscomb Academy 70-46 and Cambridge had a game-high 21 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and five blocks.
She’s from an impressive basketball family as her sister Jordyn plays for Vanderbilt and her younger sister, Jaloni, is a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 2 sophomore guard in the nation by ESPN. Cambridge also has two brothers, Devan (Auburn) and Desmond (Nevada), playing college basketball and her oldest brother, Jason, played for Fisk University.
Elzy cannot talk about Cambridge until she officially signs but she said the transfer “portal is part of college athletics” on the SEC Network where she’s a NCAA Tournament analyst.
“I am confident in myself as a coach and a person, and what our staff does for our student-athletes on and off the court. I have a group of athletes on campus and signees that are excited about Kentucky women’s basketball,” Elzy said one day after the transfer decisions.
“We’re back to business as usual. We’re on the phone talking to recruits and there are a lot of future Wildcats that are still excited about the program.
She said she would continue to “recruit players who fit your style and fit your program.”
Quote of the Week: “He’s humble, and he’s a joy. A hard worker — probably the hardest worker that I’ve ever been around. He’s always happy, with a smile on his face,” Philadelphia 76ers all-star center Joel Embiid on guard Tyrese Maxey’s impact on the team.
Quote of the Week 2: “Recruiting never bothered me before in college football. Quite honestly, with the (transfer) portal and the way the game’s going with (NIL), it’s becoming a lot more like the pro game. Like it or not, it is what it is,” new UK offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello on college recruiting.
Quote of the Week 3: “It was one of the first things after the game. I looked at the stats and I said, ‘I should have gotten him more time.’ He and I talked about it after. … He should have gotten more time, without question,” Kentucky coach John Calipari on not playing Jacob Toppin more against Saint Peter’s.