Kelly Nutter Does the Hard Things Better
Monze Meraz-Lerma | SPORTS EDITOR
April 23, 2026
When Kelly Nutter steps up to every at-bat, her eyes stay squinted and steady, with her jaw stern and locked. The graduate student and softball player faces the pitcher as though ready to face a storm, just as her walk-up song, “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” by Luke Combs, suggests. Yet, she brings the storm to her opponents as one of the team leaders in triples, home runs, and slugging percentage.
“A lot of things had to go right in order for me to be here, and it did,” Nutter says.
She attended Cal State San Marcos in 2020, transferred to Palomar College in Spring 2022, and joined Whittier College in Fall 2023.
Nutter gained extra eligibility years from COVID-19, redshirting after breaking her hand while diving into home plate, and a strategic decision to maintain part-time status, making it possible for her to play two seasons as an undergraduate Poet and now one more as a graduate student.
Nutter drives to campus in her red Ram 1500, which can be found at Palmer Field as early as 5:30 a.m. for softball practice. On her busiest days, she and her truck rush from an early weightlifting session to a K-8 school for required observations as part of her Master’s in Education, then to the field for a three-hour practice, and finally to a three-hour evening class.
After this back-to-back day, Nutter heads to her off-campus home, which she shares with her boyfriend and four other baseball players. She finishes the day working remotely at her two jobs: as a Program Coordinator for the Mitchell Thorp Foundation and as an Equipment Specialist for her father’s landscaping company.
The Mitchell Thorp Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps children with life-threatening diseases and disorders. It nominates players from the community’s youth sports organizations who demonstrate strong leadership.
In 2014, Nutter was picked, becoming the first female to receive the recognition. She has continued her involvement with the foundation for the past five years and now works as a Champion Day Lead.
“I have deals with the San Diego Seals, the Clippers, whatever it is, and I’ll send kids to a day where they can just enjoy the day rather than worry about medical bills or the fact that they might not see tomorrow,” Nutter says.
While home in San Diego, Nutter works as a Hilton server, but last year, she felt antsy to take on more. Her father put her to work for his landscaping company, sorting through a garage full of equipment, for which she created an efficient organizational system.
When she’s at Whittier, she does the company’s administrative work and takes calls, sometimes even past midnight due to her busy schedule. She admits the experience in this field hasn’t always been easy.
“It’s a male-dominated area, and you have to be really strong and thick-skinned to be in that industry,” Nutter says. “When I first came in, I had some hiccups with some of the male managers when they were like, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’”
Instead of submitting to these doubts, Nutter thought to herself, “Just you wait,” knowing her capabilities. Her headstrong attitude and comfort with her adrenaline-filled days make it no surprise that she plans to become a part of law enforcement.
As Nutter comes from a family involved in the military and law enforcement, this passion naturally became solidified by the time she was in high school. However, having her own personal experience with police during a recent encounter is what has since confirmed her desire to enter that field.
“I was in an abusive relationship, and I hid it for a long time,” Nutter says. “It actually came out at a JUCO practice where my coach [noticed] something was wrong […] They ended up taking me from practice to the department and going through the interview process. It was hard.”
This difficulty was magnified when Nutter couldn’t speak to any female officers because the department only had male officers. She clarifies that she had no issue speaking with a male officer until she was asked, “What did you do for him to hit you?”
Nutter prides herself on being able to fulfill that gender gap within departments in the future. In the meantime, she plans to start out as a harbor police officer to combine her love for boating and the need to continue to “compete every day.”
“It’s scary to think about not having college softball anymore, and I’d be able to fill that void with law enforcement,” Nutter says. “You have to be on all of the time. You can’t have an off-day because someone can die.”
Nutter is finishing the last few weeks of her collegiate softball career, but she will continue to finish her two-year Master’s degree. In the thick of a tough season, a rigorous degree, three time-consuming jobs, and the all-absorbing factors that come with life, Nutter continues to stick to her team’s motto: “Do the hard things better.”