Marty Gordon
A Christiansburg all-district, all-region, all-county softball performer has announced plans to attend Northern Kentucky University.
This past week, Reagan Smith made the commitment as she enters her senior year.
Smith had 37 hits this past season with a .474 average, 19 doubles, five home runs, 35 RBIs and 23 runs scored. Smith was named to the first-team all-River Ridge District and all-Region 3D teams.
She says she chose Northern Kentucky because when on campus for a visit it truly felt like the place she could see herself at:
“I loved the atmosphere, the players I met, the demeanor of the people I got to speak to, and most importantly the coach,” she said this past week.
Northern Kentucky, which is located in Highland Heights, Kentucky, has just gone through a coaching change that brings Bridgewater College’s Megan Pleskovic. She left the ODAC school Bridgewater as one of the most successful coaches in program history, finishing as the second-winningest all-time. Under her leadership, the Eagles made the ODAC Tournament every season it was held.
She was also the 2025 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, and Bridgewater went 29-16 and reached the ODAC Championship game for the first time since 2012.
Pleskovic takes over a Northern Kentucky program that is coming off a Horizon League championship and an NCAA Regional appearance.
The Norse concluded the 2026 season with a 26-25 overall record, capturing the Horizon League Championship title and advancing to the NCAA Division I Softball Championship for the second time in program history. NKU also posted its highest-ever finish in the Horizon League regular-season standings, finishing second in the conference.
The university has an enrollment of 15,370 students and is a short distance from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Smith hopes to gain a four-year degree to set her up for life after college. “I also want to make the most of my four-to-five years playing the sport I love, and to connect but also build relationships with new people from an area I’m currently unfamiliar with,” she said.
Smith hopes to major in business with the plan of opening up her own business someday and to be an entrepreneur.
She is expected to play catcher with a secondary position being first base.
