Those connections helped lead the Half Moon Bay High School senior to gain admittance to a possible spot on the Santa Clara University softball team next year.
She had the academics to get into the highly respected college
 Nicole Picard is all smiles as she prepares to play softball at Santa Clara University. |
"Near the end of the season, my coach (Shelley Alifano) asked me what I wanted to do in college," Picard said.
At the same time her fall ball and high school volleyball season were ending, her high school soccer season was just starting up.
She was a starter for all her high school teams. She chose to play softball and told that to Alifano.
"She said that she knew a coach and would mention me to him," Picard said.
Alifano was friendly with Steve Rianda for a while. A Peninsula product, Rianda just completed his first year coaching the Broncos after coaching at Notre Dame de Namur University for the previous four years.
Picard put Santa Clara on the list of schools she was going to look at, along with Notre Dame de Namur, Dominican College and the College of San Mateo.
If she had gone to Dominican, located in San Rafael, she would see a familiar face in Courtney Parks. Parks graduated from Half Moon Bay last year.
She thought CSM might be in her future. Half Moon Bay has been sending players to CSM for years.
But that all changed with the visit to Santa Clara.
"I felt right at home," Picard said. "The coach is very nice. The campus is beautiful."
She will be living on-campus.
"The closeness of the campus is a good thing," Picard said. "I'm far enough away to be on my own. But I am close enough to come home."
Santa Clara has a very strong business school, something Picard will be studying.
Picard also liked what she saw at Notre Dame. But in the end, Santa Clara just won out.
"After walking around the campus, I called my dad and said 'This is it,'" Picard said.
She was formally accepted into Santa Clara in January. Picard started her final high school softball season in a relaxed mood.
"My goals were set at the start of the season," Picard said.
Picard planned to play a sport in college, but until recently, she thought it was going to be soccer.
"But in the last few years, I was improving so much in softball," Picard said. "I was learning a lot."
The Broncos finished third in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. They were 24-34 overall.
Conference mates include Portland State, Sacramento State, the University of San Diego, Loyola-Marymount and St. Mary's.
Among the conference games on the schedule for the Broncos is a doubleheader with area rival San Jose State and a doubleheader at the University of Oregon.
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