News Photo by James Andersen Recent Alpena High School graduate Nikita Cordes, seated, recently signed a letter of intent to join the softball program at Alpena Community College. Cordes fulfilled a childhood dream of playing collegiate softball by signing with the Lumberjacks and will be joined by several of her former Wildcat teammates.

A childhood dream came true for Nikita Cordes last week. 

The recent Alpena High School graduate has dreamed of playing collegiate softball for many years and now she’ll get that chance after she signed a letter of intent with Alpena Community College to join the softball program for the 2021 season. 

“Honestly, I’m really excited. This was always a dream of mine, to play ball collegiately some way, somehow and now it’s actually happening, so it’s a wonderful feeling (for) six-year-old me, knowing that I did it,” Cordes said. 

Cordes will join several former Alpena High teammates including Aubree Sheldon, Dayna LaBell and Jade Schultz, who all recently signed with ACC and have been playing travel ball with the Alpena Mystics this summer. 

For Cordes, who plans to study physical therapy, the road to ACC has been a long and interesting one. She grew up playing Little League in Hillman and was part of Hillman’s 9/10 all-star team that finished third in Class D in Michigan in 2013. She subsequently went on to play several years in the Alpena ThunderCats travel softball program and four years with the Mystics.  

Cordes came to Alpena for high school and spent her freshman year keeping the book for the Wildcats while recovering from ACL surgery. She spent her sophomore season on the JV team and played last season on varsity.  

As someone who can play any of the three outfield positions, Cordes should bring plenty of versatility to ACC coach Christin Sobeck’s roster, which will include talented players from several Northeast Michigan schools. 

“We’re so fortunate, just northern Michigan in general and even in the UP, that we have such talented softball crews,” Sobeck said. “With each of those talents, it also comes down to your athletics and what you want to do. For any of those athletes that want to stay (close to home), we welcome them.” 

Without softball this spring, Cordes has been keeping active by going on runs, carrying wood and going on bike rides around her property at home. She’s also kept busy on the diamond this summer, playing in several tournaments with the Mystics and in the Alpena Women’s Softball League. Cordes said playing against travel ball competition has been a good introduction to the type of competition she expects to face at the college level. 

“Playing-wise, I don’t think it will be much different because I’m used to playing 18U, so I’ve already played against college teams for the past few years, so I know what to expect,” Cordes said.