More Than Meets the Eye: Zailees Seda Journey to Saint Peter’s Softball is Inspiring and Unconventional

It doesn’t take long into a conversation with Zailees “Z” Seda to feel positive energy and excitement. Her big smile and warm personality greet people almost immediately. It’s incredibly sincere. It’s also remarkable though because when she was a little girl who moved to the United States at just seven years old, she was afraid to go to school and her personality didn’t shine through to the fullest extent.

(Photos courtesy of Zailees Seda and Team Pennsylvania Softball)

Could many readers imagine coming to the United States in elementary school and not know how to speak English? Maybe a few of you. And to you, I give you the utmost kudos for making it through and fighting to learn how to fit in and communicate with peers. But when you’re a seven-year-old little Puerto Rican girl who suddenly left her island for Arizona, it’s difficult to just immediately blend in. Especially when you can’t immediately communicate with many of your classmates. “I used to pretend I was sick,” Seda said. “But my mom pushed me to go even when it was really hard at first.”

It’s an early tale in the journey of Seda’s that brings a tear to your eyes. Even if you speak to her for a few minutes, you think to yourself, ‘who could ever be mean to this young lady?’ She’s the true definition of a hype woman on and off the softball field. There are few things and people who can crush her spirit. Even if moving out west was hard at first, Arizona eventually became the place where her friendships blossomed and her love for competition and staying active through softball started.

Just when she really started to settle and grow into her own in the Grand Canyon State, she was met with another challenge; the family was moving to Pennsylvania. She needed to start over to find her friends and even find a sound travel softball organization to be a part of again. But from research, she and her parents, Luis Seda and Shayla Fas, found the Westmont Hilltop School District and the Pennsylvania Cardinals softball organization. Not long after the relocation to Cambria County, the travel organization folded. Back to the drawing board, she went. She discovered Team Pennsylvania not long after, which became the organization that changed her life.

She played for Team Pennsylvania under Richele Hall, who was crucial in her recruitment and finding out about Saint Peter’s University. Coach Hall and Saint Peter’s Head Softball Coach Chris Stelma enjoyed a long conversation in one of her early tournaments as a high schooler speaking about Seda and the kind of player she was and had the potential to be at the college level. The conversation eventually progressed to alerting Seda that the Peacock’s head man was interested in talking with her and having her on campus for a visit. It didn’t take her long to be convinced to make the trip to Jersey City, New Jersey. Less than a week, in fact. It also did not take her long to fall in love with the campus, the hustle and bustle of the city, and what kind of culture Coach Stelma was instilling on campus.

She verbally committed early into her high school career and she stayed loyal to her word and the program stayed committed to having her as one of their infielders in the future. A few years went by and the moment where she takes the field for the program for the first time is around two months away at this point. She’s slated to play third base; a position she’s shifted to over the last two years of her high school career to help get ready. “Saint Peter’s has been electric to me right from the start. There’s always a lot of action going on and the team was welcoming and upbeat from the start. I can’t wait for the season to start. I couldn’t be more excited to take the field.”

The former Hilltopper had perhaps the best high school career in program history. In just three seasons, she collected 107 career hits and broke the all-time program hits record. She also helped the team to the District 6 playoffs three times, became a three-time all-Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference (LHAC) selection, received the John P. Horly Award for outstanding softball player, was awarded the heart of a champion award, was named all-state, and was even called the best leader she’s seen at the high school level by her high school head coach Monica Cox; a 20-plus year veteran in the coaching world.

It was unquestionably a high school career for the record books, but it also featured some difficult moments along the way. Seda and her teammates never reached the mountain top of District 6 after falling to Bald Eagle twice and Forest Hills once in the district tournament in her career. She also missed what would have been her only state playoff game, as she was back in her native Puerto Rico to mourn the loss of her paternal grandmother. She also missed her entire first high school season because of COVID-19. These tough moments have just made her work harder so she can hopefully experience that feeling of hoisting a trophy at the end of a season with her teammates.

The Peacocks program won 30 games in the 2023 season and will look to increase their win total for the third straight season and qualify for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament. The team is doing the little things that may often be overlooked, like scheduling regular team bonding activities, eating nearly every meal together, getting extra reps and swings during breaks in class, getting enough study time in, and even getting involved on campus in events. It’s this sort of buy-in that can help take a good team to a great team. More often at the college level, games are won and lost because of the mental side of the game. Not wanting to let that girl next to you down and competing hard for your coaches and teammates truly makes a difference.

Seda continues to be excited about not just being at Saint Peter’s and playing college softball, but also studying exercise science with plans to become an athletic trainer and earning a master’s degree in the field. Since she can remember, she’s always been on the go and keeping busy. In this career choice, there’s not much down time and the action is constant to help athletes recover, rehab, and rediscover the abilities of their bodies after being injured. She’s also looking forward to coaching travel softball for the first time in the summer to give back to young women who are excited about their futures in the sport and getting ready for high school ball in the coming years.

Zailees Seda’s story to Division I Saint Peter’s differs greatly from many stories I’ve been lucky to tell. It’s a story that didn’t even begin in the continental United States, includes a young lady who didn’t speak English until she was in the second grade, involves a move to Pennsylvania in her formative years, and involves making history at Westmont Hilltop and feeling her future fall into place in the perfect way. Through it all, “Z” worked and cheered hard for herself and all her high school and travel ball teammates. She led by example and through her words. There’s no doubt that she will continue to do the same as she gets ready to kick-off her college career come February.