Bruins' Gillespie chooses Y.

OREM — After traveling to Pepperdine, Vanderbilt and San Diego State University, Mountain View basketball star Mallary Gillespie decided going to college didn't necessarily mean she'd have to leave home.

The three-time all-state selection decided on Saturday to commit to BYU and stay close to her Orem home, delivering the news to BYU coach Jeff Judkins.

"I love the coaching staff," said Mallary, a senior this season and already an all-state shortstop in softball and state champion in track. "I'm excited to play with Danielle (Cheesman) and Heather (Hansen) and Holly (Hansen) again."

Gillespie said she started the recruiting process open-minded and received offers from teams in the MWC, SEC, WAC, Big 12, Big West, Sun Belt and Pac 10 conferences. She narrowed her final five choices to Pepperdine, SDSU, Nebraska, BYU and Vanderbilt. "I was really surprised," said Gillespie's mother, Laura. "The whole way through this process, she's kind of wanted to go out of state. . . . We'd resigned ourselves to the fact that she'd be gone. We were figuring out how long it would take us to drive to her games."

Now it'll take about 15 minutes instead of half a day.

"I've never missed any of her ball games," Laura Gillespie said. "I'm so glad."

In the end, it wasn't the prestige of the SEC and playing teams like Tennessee or the beaches of California that appealed to the soft-spoken shooter.

"She just really grew to love coach Judkins and his staff," Laura Gillespie said. "And she also didn't want to miss out on Jeremy playing football or Travis playing baseball."

Mallary Gillespie's brother Jeremy is a tight end for the Cougars, and Travis Gillespie will play baseball at UVSC when he returns from his mission next year.

The 5-11 shooting guard is currently considered one of the top prep players in the country. She attended the Nike All-American Camp this summer, where USA Basketball dubbed her a player whose "stock is on the rise."

She's helped the Bruins to three state titles and a national championship in her three years as a starter. She maintains a 3.8 GPA and was recently honored by the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce as its Athlete of the Year.

"It was cool," she said. And she's honored to have been recruited by so many programs.

"It's had it's moments," she said of the stress, "But it was an awesome experience."

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