Caroline Tallent forged a path to Wichita State softball that is distinct from most other players. Instead of being recruited, she reached out to WSU head coach Kristi Bredbenner as a high schooler to show interest in becoming a Shocker.
“I definitely reached out to them first,” Tallent said. “Then we started talking a little bit, but really, I just reached out to them and they liked that I was an athlete and thought they give me a chance.”
Now a senior ready to graduate, Tallent is used by Bredbenner as an example of a Wichita State success story. Bredbenner remembers seeing that email from Tallent in her inbox.
“Sometimes I stumble on them — I get a lot of emails — and I can’t remember what piqued my interest with her,” Bredbenner said. “I just remember watching her film, and she hit right and left-handed. She had a great build, and she just seemed like a good kid.”
Tallent is also a hard worker off the field. She was class valedictorian at the Alvin C. York Institute in Tennessee and has been named to the American Athletic Conference All-Academic team every year of her WSU career.
She is the only engineering major on the WSU softball team. Tallent chose WSU because the university has aerospace, biomedical and mechanical engineering programs.
“There’s not very many colleges that have both aerospace, biomedical and mechanical,” Tallent said. “So that if I decided to do one over the other, I wouldn’t be stuck.”
Bredbenner said it’s been great to coach Tallent.
“From just the first initial conversations that her, and I had when she was in high school. Just with her desire of wanting to come here, be an engineering major and play softball,” Bredbenner said.
In her Shocker career, Tallent has played in 95 games and started 62 of them.
“I think she is just a hard worker, blue-collar,” Bredbenner said. “I mean, she will roll up her sleeves, and if you need her to invent something for you, she’ll do it.”
Tallent said she wants to be known for her hard work.
“Just knowing that if you work hard and keep your head down and don’t boast or get too cocky, just keep trying, hustle and give your 100% effort every day, good things will happen,” Tallent said.
However, Bredbenner thinks Tallent will leave a legacy for her selflessness.
“She’s an awesome teammate and she’s everything that anybody could have asked for in a teammate,” Bredbenner said.
After she graduates, Tallent would like a job in mechanical engineering. She thinks that she does a good job of balancing being a ballplayer and an engineering major.
“Towards the end of the season, like it is now, it gets a little hard because you have term projects and end-of-the-year projects,” Tallent said. “And I know whenever I do school, I do school. Whenever I do softball, I do softball. And just keep working it out, and it all works out in the end.”
