Five months of recruiting conversations left Kyla Palpallatoc undecided. One phone call changed everything.

Kyla had been talking with college coaches for months, considering universities and community colleges throughout San Diego County. She had taken visits and weighed her options, but nothing had clicked.

Then she got on the phone with Coach Wes Perryman.

“I committed on the spot,” Kyla recalled. “When I was talking to him, he just felt like the leader and mentor I was looking for.”

She became Perryman’s first commit at Grossmont College. Two seasons later, after following him to MiraCosta College and helping the team reach the state championship game, she still talks to him every day.

Kyla grew up in San Diego in a family that lived and breathed basketball. She found her way into sports early, often signing herself up for whatever she wanted to try. Track came first because she liked being around athletes. By age seven or eight, she had also tried football, volleyball, softball, soccer, and basketball.

When it came time to think about college, Kyla knew she wanted athletics to remain part of her life. She had ambitions to continue playing basketball and wanted to find the right place to do it.

During her first year at Grossmont, she led the conference in scoring and earned first-team all-conference honors.

Then came another transition.

MiraCosta College hired Perryman as its full-time women’s basketball coach. After the success Kyla and her teammates had experienced with him during her first year, they were ready to make the move with him.

For Kyla, that decision came with a demanding commute.

Living in Chula Vista, she traveled to Oceanside every day. Her mornings started at 6 a.m., when she would ride north with a teammate or assistant coach. She arrived at MiraCosta around 9 a.m. for a morning workout, completed coursework on campus before lunch, then went to practice and the weight room before making the drive home to finish her homework and sleep.

It was difficult, but Kyla believed it was worth it.

“From the beginning we wanted to continue the success we had as a team,” Kyla said. “Even with our new teammates, we made an effort to make everyone part of one big family. I really think that helped us get as far as we got.”

As the season progressed, more people across campus began paying attention. Staff members started showing up to practices, and students began filling the stands at games.

“It was a different feeling,” Kyla said. “That energy was so infectious and we fed off of it.”

As one of the team’s captains, Kyla led mostly by example. She was among the players with the longest history under Perryman, and she understood the standard she was expected to model.

“Day in, day out, I made sure to show my team what hard work meant and what was expected of us as a group,” Kyla recalled. “Coach Wes gave us the tools and the direction, and it was our responsibility to put that into practice.”

The season ended in the state championship game, capping a year in which Kyla had played nearly nonstop from April through March.

But the final score is not what stayed with her most.

Practices came with music and jokes alongside the work, and the team learned how to compete while still enjoying the experience.

“When you play happy, you do better,” Kyla said. “He looks at you as a person first, and that made me want to play harder for him.”

Perryman’s support also extended beyond MiraCosta.

Since Kyla’s freshman year, the two had talked about where basketball could take her next. He had promised to help get her in front of the right programs.

When Kyla watched UC Merced play and saw an opportunity to help the team grow, Perryman moved quickly. Within 24 hours, he had connected with the head coach and introduced Kyla.

“Just seeing everything coming to reality from what we were talking about when I first met him, it was so surreal,” Kyla recalled.

When Kyla visited UC Merced, she looked for the same qualities that had mattered to her when she first chose to play for Perryman. She wanted a coach she could talk to and a roster that had grown close.

“Culture was the one thing I was really trying to see,” she said.

This fall, Kyla will move north and continue her journey as a student-athlete at UC Merced.

She plans to study public health with an interest in physical therapy or athletic training. She is also considering becoming a head coach someday.

“One day I would love to have the same impact on players that Coach Wes did for us,” Kyla said.