Former South City star Karizma Bergesen to play Aussie softball

“I still really want to go build roller coasters,” Bergesen said.

Bergesen recently earned her civil engineering degree from San Jose State University, and indeed dreams of someday working for Walt Disney Imagineering or Universal Creative. In the meantime, Bergesen is looking to build softball internationally, having recently committed to take the

Aussie route with the A-League team Hills Heat Softball.

“I want to travel and play softball at the same time while I have the ability to,” Bergesen said. “Trying to go get my playing out of the way. I hope to go back and forth between Australia, New Zealand and Europe, hopefully for the next few years.”

After three years at San Jose State, Bergesen’s college career ended at Boise State in 2024. Returning home and joining the varsity coaching staff for Mercy-Burlingame in the spring, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever play again.

A 2019 graduate of South City, Bergesen played her last official softball game for Boise State in 2024, closing her collegiate career with an eye-popping performance in the Mountain West Conference Softball Championship tournament, batting .381 through eight games, including a 1-for-3 batting line on May 11, 2024, the last day of her collegiate career.

“There was some feeling maybe that was my last game,” Bergesen said. “So, when I was doing that and coaching at Mercy, it was like: ‘Maybe I’ll just stay here and start my career in engineering.’”

That’s when some mutual softball friends came calling the way softball friends will — with a plea to join their slow pitch softball team. Bergesen couldn’t refuse, and ultimately signed up for two teams, including the co-ed squad Got Grubb that plays Sunday games at Twin Creeks Sports Complex in Sunnyvale.

Bergesen, who was already entertaining the notion of traveling abroad to continue her softball career, used Got Grubb to hone her chops, especially at her natural defensive spot on the left side of the infield.

“That actually helped me out,” Bergesen said. “The grown men hitting softballs to me at third base helped me out a lot.”

Now, Bergesen expects to play something of a mentor role for Hills Heat.

The Adelaide Softball Association is organized like American travel softball, with different age groups age groups starting at youth levels. The difference is the Australian league spans through adult ages, with the A-League comparable to semipro ball in the U.S.

Hills Heat recently retired one of its longest tenured players, third baseman Megan Williams. Bergesen was brought in to fill her shoes not just at third base, but in the leadership department for a young roster.

“The team is pretty young,” Bergesen said. “It’s a new team ... but I think my biggest thing is ... just helping the program grow in terms of being competitive on the field. So, I think being able to help engrain that in their culture, if that’s what they say they want, and being able to help them win more games (this season) ... and being able to help them win more games in the the future.”

Bergesen knows the importance of mentorship. It is, after all, how she discovered her affinity for roller coasters. It was her seventh-grade journalism teacher Miss McHale that inspired the dream with a 20 time project. Bergesen went to the old Toys “R” Us store in Colma on Black Friday for inspiration. She came home with a model roller coaster and went to work.

With one season as a high school coach on her resume, Bergesen said she intends to return to Mercy in the spring. The Adelaide Softball Association spans through the winter.

“As of right now I’ll still be coaching at Mercy when I come back in March,” Bergesen said. “That’s the plan. I don’t know exactly where my life will be going. I do have a lot of love for those girls ... so I would like to be able to see all that through.”