She has no idea what’s going to happen in her immediate future in a world dictated by COVID-19.

The difference with Kota is, she knows where she plans to spend the next four years of her life.

Kota, a senior at Gowanda, recently signed a national letter of intent to attend NCAA Division I St. Bonaventure University and play softball for the Bonnies.

“I’ve always wanted to play softball in college since sixth or seventh grade. I always wanted to play at the highest level I could,” Kota said last week. “It’s like a dream come true to play Division I.”

Photo courtesy of Kevin Stewart

The 5-foot-7 pitcher/shortstop enjoyed a breakout sophomore season for the Panthers in 2019.

At the plate, Kota hit a team-best .680 on 51 hits in 75 at-bats. She led the team in doubles (16) and RBIs (48) while tying for the team lead in triples (5) and home runs (2). Kota was also second on the team with 32 runs scored. Kota walked four times and struck out just three in 80 plate appearances with a .696 on-base percentage and a 1.106 slugging percentage.

“That felt really good,” Kota said of her sophomore season. “My school seasons weren’t terrible before that, but it felt really good to know that I could do this.”

Gowanda went 9-11 overall, including 4-6 in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 East that spring, and generated a sense of optimism heading into the 2020 campaign with several key players, including Kota; seniors Olivia Pawlak, Paige Gabel, Makenzie Carroll and Maddie Clark; as well as junior Abby Valone; sophomores Hailey Fort, Cameron Nagel; and freshman Gao:wisa:s Stevens scheduled to return to the team.

“We really were confident going into last year because we had pretty much the same team we did my sophomore year,” Kota said. “We were supposed to be better in our division, so it really was heartbreaking.”

Photo courtesy of Gowanda Athletics Zoey Kota pitched and played shortstop at Gowanda, but will likely just play the field at St. Bonaventure

Then the coronavirus pandemic took away the 2020 season. Now, once again, Kota and the Panthers are looking forward to the spring season after a capital project in the Gowanda district added artificial turf and lights to the softball field.

“I’m really, really hoping we have a senior season because we just got the turf in at our field,” Kota said. “I really want to play on that my last year and go out with a good season.”

In the meantime, Kota also played last year for the USSSA New York Pride fast-pitch team coached by Kevin Stewart.

“I’ve known the family. My younger daughter played with Zoey when Zoey was 12 years old in a different organization and you could see how much of a great work ethic she had, even at 12. She played any position. She would start in the infield, then catch and could really jump anywhere on the diamond.”

The Pride planned to practice twice a week from October 2019 through September of this year, but COVID-19 altered those plans for several months.

In addition to Kota, six Class of 2021 players on the Pride roster have committed to college programs, including Sophia Graczyk and Ella Susi (Buffalo State College), Courtney Adamo and Ally Beardi (D’Youville College), Abbey Roeser (Canisius College) and Samantha Dzierba (Allegheny College).

“She really came in as a leader. The girls had a lot of respect for her. I tell anybody new on the team, you can basically fit right in and lead by example,” Stewart said. ” … These girls want to win so if you can come in and help the team win, they’ll immediately have a lot of respect for you.”

Locally, Olean’s JoJo Gibbons, who will graduate in 2022, also played with Kota on the Pride.

“It’s just the best all coming together and playing. It’s girls from all over,” Kota said. “When you have a small town like this, there aren’t a lot of girls to pick from. Up there, there are more girls to pick from and it’s a better level of play.”

At St. Bonaventure, Kota will play for the Bonnies in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Head coach Mike Threehouse’s team was 2-7 last spring before being shut down due to COVID-19.

“My daughter, Madison, is the starting catcher there and it was pretty cool to have her come back and take Zoey under her wing a little bit,” Stewart said. ” … Zoey has that kind of ‘it’ factor when it comes to athletes.”

Stewart took a group of about 20 girls, including Kota, to a hitting camp at St. Bonaventure last January and a 10-minute session piqued Threehouse’s interest.

“I put her in the cage with the head coach and she was rocketing the ball back up the middle,” Stewart said. “After that I said ‘Go introduce yourself,’ and the coach reached out to me later that night.”

“He really helped me through the process with St. Bonaventure,” Kota said of Stewart. “He was sending videos all the time and doing whatever he could to get me there because that was where I wanted to be.”

In 2019, the Bonnies finished 9-36 overall, including 5-17 in the A-10 Conference.

“I’ve always wanted to go to St. Bonaventure,” Kota said. “When I decided I wanted to play softball, it really felt like the right choice to make.”