Port Aransas High School graduate Kristin Hall has been named to the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islanders women's softball team. Kristin Hall, a 2006 graduate of Port Aransas High School, has made the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islander women's softball team.

"I feel great about it," said Hall, who is scheduled to be a relief pitcher for the Islanders team. "I've been working on this since before middle school. It's just like a huge achievement for me."

The Islanders head coach, Dawn Wuthrich, said Hall made the team as a walk-on after trying out.

"She had a good work ethic, and right now, she is helping us a lot in the practices," Wuthrich said. "We're hoping to get her in some games in the spring."

The season starts Feb. 9.

Hall "has got good grades and works hard every day," Wuthrich said. "She has a great attitude."

Hall, 18, a freshman, said she is studying nursing but plans to change her major. She said she wants to end up a history teacher and coach at the high school level.

Hall was named the Port Aransas High School girls Athlete of the Year in the spring.

As a junior, Hall was named to the all-state girls high school softball team for Port Aransas High School's division.

As a senior, Hall played in five softball games before a broken collarbone knocked her out of softball for the rest of the season. Still, the Texas Girls Coaching Association honored her with academic all-state status for having good grades and being an allaround good athlete in softball and basketball in 2006.

Hall is the daughter of Mike and Karen Hall of Port Aransas. Karen Hall is coach of the PAHS girls softball team, in addition to other duties she has at the school district.

"I'm really thankful I spent so much time (at softball) with her," Karen Hall said. "Actually, I've been her coach, no kidding, for 13 years. We went and played summer ball ... and that expanded her experience, made her a better pitcher. I got so much out of watching her grow and get better."

"Last year, of course, it hurt so bad, not being able to see her finish (due to the broken collarbone)," Karen Hall said. "We thought it might have been over at that point, her college expectations. But she was determined to come back."

Kristin worked all summer on rehabilitating her pitching with assistance from her mother and Shirley Burnett, a private pitching coach from Rockport. At times, the work was physically painful.

"It was definitely hard," Kristin said. "There were a lot of humps I had to get over, and honestly, a lot of tears. It was a hard time, for sure. But overcoming it made making the team so much better in the end."

By the time Kristin tried out for the Islanders team, she was pitching 60 mph, which Karen Hall said is competitive for a college freshman. "I've been playing since T-ball,"

Kristin said. "I always have just loved the game. There's no feeling like being on the pitcher's mound because you're in complete control of the game."

Making a college team has been Kristin's goal since she was a young child, she said.

"I wasn't going to let one broken bone stop me," she said.