Former Wesleyan softball player Jenna Putala '20 passed away after a two-year battle with a rare form of sarcoma on Sunday, August 9, 2026. She was 28 years old.
Putala joined the Wesleyan softball team as a first-year in the 2017 season, starting 22 games while posting seven doubles, two home runs, 10 walks, and 11 RBI. While Putala's playing career with the Cardinals was cut short due to knee injuries, she stayed on with the team as a manager during her junior year and a student-assistant coach and team captain her senior year. She was co-recipient of the team's Jones Award for her dedication to the team during her senior year. After graduating in 2020, she went on to coach at both Nichols and Babson. She also restarted and led the Western Mass Warriors travel softball program in the late 2010s, an organization that currently fields four teams. Prior to Wesleyan, Putala led Turners Falls High School softball to back-to-back Massachusetts state championships during her junior and senior seasons. She was also honored as Western Massachusetts Player of the Year in both of the seasons.
While at Wesleyan, Putala worked for the Sports Information Office. She worked the sidelines of many Wesleyan athletics contests, tracking stats and writing post-game summaries. She was selected for the prestigious CoSIDA Division III Student Program in June 2019 and spoke about her experience as a student assistant at Wesleyan while participating on the D3SIDA Day panel at CoSIDA. After graduation, she became the Sports Information Graduate Assistant at Nichols College before deciding coaching was the profession she wanted to pursue.
Doctors diagnosed Putala with PEComa, an extremely rare and aggressive form of sarcoma, in May 2024. Through her fight, the softball word - and especially the Wesleyan community - stayed close by her side. In the fall of 2025, Putala attended a Red Sox game with former Cardinal Isabella Secaria-Cotto '25, who worked for the Boston MLB club at the time, securing batting practice passes for her. That day, Putala found herself on the field standing just feet away from Pedro Martinez and spoke for nearly an hour with MLB pitcher and cancer survivor Liam Henriks. "It truly made my entire year," Putala recalled.
In December 2025, Putala was named the 2025 recipient of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's Donna Newberry "Perseverance" Award, recognizing strength in the face of adversity. For the softball community, and anyone who got to know Jenna, she was a teammate, mentor, coach, and friend to all, and someone whose impact extended far beyond the field and will be felt for years to come.
