Aleena Garcia makes the whole lot glance simple off and on the diamond. In some way it’s, however best as a result of she has devoted such a lot effort and time to the 3 issues she values maximum: circle of relatives, religion and softball.
A senior shortstop at Whittier Christian Prime in L. a. Habra, Garcia leads her crew in almost each and every offensive class, and her 12 house runs rank No. 12 within the state and tenth within the Southern Segment. She is 3rd easiest in California in runs scored (49) and boasts a .692 slugging proportion, a .610 batting moderate, 50 hits, 17 doubles, 3 triples, 33 RBIs and 5 stolen bases.
Now not an afternoon is going by way of that Garcia does now not fortify herself intellectually, spiritually and bodily. An ordinary 24-hour length starts with a 5 a.m. run, and then she spends half-hour writing in her magazine or studying the Bible earlier than getting in a position for college. She has categories from 8 a.m. to at least one:40 p.m., then highschool observe for every other two and a part hours. Sooner than getting house for dinner she’ll have compatibility in an additional exercise on her personal till darkish. Thankfully, she by no means will get uninterested in the regimen.
“I began baseball on the age of three and when I used to be 6 I went proper into commute ball,” she remembers. “My dad was once additionally my trainer, which I’m satisfied about. Between the ages of 8 and 10 I gained 3 nationwide championships, which everyone doesn’t get to do and from then to now I transitioned into commute softball on the best possible stage.
“It’s a little ironic that during baseball I at all times performed outfield however taking part in with boys rising up helped me grow to be a greater participant sooner and it additionally helped me competitive-wise as a result of boys are very aggressive from the day they’re born.”
Garcia attempted shortstop for the primary time when she went to her first softball tryout and has performed the placement ever since.
“I like it,” she admits. “You’re shifting essentially the most. I am getting to make use of my athletic skill there.”
Of the entire instruction and recommendation she has absorbed alongside the best way, even though, her father, Rudy, has had essentially the most affect.
“He’s been an enormous a part of my luck and my adventure on this game,” Garcia stated. “For the reason that day I began taking part in sports activities, he’s driven me to be my easiest however he additionally is aware of who I’m as an individual. He’s helped me grow to be a greater particular person and participant.”
Residing with two brothers, one older and one more youthful, additionally sped up Garcia’s private and athletic expansion.
“It’s a blessing,” she says. “Now not everybody has brothers who compete at a excessive stage.
“My older brother Andy performed baseball when he was once more youthful and he won’t are aware of it however I’d at all times you need to be as just right as him and be like him. My little brother Aaron was once in the market operating round since he was once in diapers. Now we teach in combination at all times and it’s pageant on a daily basis.”
Andy attended L. a. Serna Prime and performed baseball till he was once 11 earlier than switching to golfing. He’s now a sophomore at the the lads’s golfing crew at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Aaron, in the meantime, follows in his sister’s footsteps as a shortstop and catcher.
“We teach in combination at all times, we’re by no means with out every different,” says Aaron, who’s finishing 8th grade and is raring to start out his personal highschool occupation at St. John Bosco within the fall. “We push every different and make every different higher.”
Garcia spent her freshman 12 months all the way through the COVID-19 pandemic honing her talents at EM Pace and Energy, a coaching facility in Rancho Cucamonga focusing on high-intensity, full-body workout routines. When the pandemic eased, she enrolled at Whittier Christian, a faculty with 428 scholars about 10 miles from her house in Pico Rivera.
“An enormous reason why I got here right here was once my religion,” she stated. “We’re now not ashamed to discuss God and we’re allowed to, so being right here is helping me develop in that side of my existence as smartly.”
Dale Van Duyn is in his 18th season at Whittier Christian and believes Garcia is essentially the most whole participant he has ever coached.
“Throughout, unquestionably,” he states with out hesitation. “She will be able to hit, catch, throw, play protection, run the bases … she’s the entire bundle. Generally in case you have a in reality just right participant they’ve an perspective to them and although she’s very aggressive, she’s additionally a ravishing teammate. She leads by way of her movements.”
Van Duyn is fast to show that for all of her God-given skill, Garcia’s luck will also be attributed to hours and hours of repetition.
“She works on her swing continuously, she takes a minimal 200 swings an afternoon,” provides Van Duyn, who piloted the Heralds to back-to-back Southern Segment Department 5 titles in 2009 and 2010. “She works on each and every side of her sport, now not simply hitting. In truth, she’s progressed her base operating essentially the most. She’s now not best the quickest I’ve had, she’s additionally the neatest. I haven’t any doubt she’ll be successful on the subsequent stage. If she struggles, she’ll paintings herself out of it.”
Requested what side of the sport she likes maximum, Garcia’s resolution isn’t a surprise:
“I experience they all, however I’d say hitting. There’s a large number of luck, however there’s much more failure, and a large number of other folks aren’t as just right at coping with all sides. I don’t get too excessive or too low. The psychological facet of hitting is one thing I in reality, in reality experience going thru and the house run feeling doesn’t examine to the rest!”
Regardless of being an influence hitter, Garcia isn’t one to swing at choices out of doors the zone. She is a glass’s worst nightmare in that she’s going to paintings the depend, take a stroll if there’s not anything to assault, and pounce on any mistake. She has struck out best as soon as in 82 at-bats this season.
“One key to hitting is to paintings on it at all times,” she says. “It’s no secret … the extra you hit in observe, the simpler you’ll hit in video games. Every other secret is the mindset, which now not many of us bring to mind. A hitting mindset is so vital since you’re going to fail so much on this game. It’s a sport of failure. If you happen to’re failing you don’t wish to get too low, when you’re succeeding you don’t wish to get too excessive. Stay the mindset that you’re just right sufficient to overcome any one and you’ve succeeded earlier than so each and every time up you imagine you’ll do it.”
On March 15, Garcia clouted 3 homers and batted in six runs as opposed to Mary Big name and within the Heralds’ closing sport she went 3 for 3 with a double, a triple, one RBI and two runs scored in a 13-2 rout of Los Altos. For all of her hitting prowess, she has additionally been stellar on protection, posting a zero.925 fielding proportion with 22 putouts, 40 assists, two double performs and best 5 mistakes in 67 overall probabilities.
Stats like the ones will draw the eye of any Department I program and, certain sufficient, when Sept. 1 rolled round her dad says Garcia gained 15 provides, together with from Oregon, Stanford and Texas A&M. Even if Rudy was once hoping she would pick out Stanford, Aleena opted for UCLA and cited a number of causes:
“First, it simply felt like house when I used to be there. I felt at peace with the coaches and the gamers in some way that was once other than the opposite puts I visited. 2nd, it’s one of the vital winningest methods. I may well be there subsequent 12 months and in an instant be competing for the nationwide championship. 3rd, it’s with reference to house. I really like my circle of relatives and being that shut it’ll be more straightforward for them to come back see me play than if I went in other places. Fourth, softball isn’t endlessly. I see myself being an Olympian, psychology pursuits me too and L.A. has a number of connections.”
Garcia can not stay up for the day she will get to don the powder blue uniform.
“Committing to UCLA was once the most productive second of my existence as a result of that’s been a dream of mine since I began taking part in softball,” she says.
“I may see myself residing with them on a regular basis for 4 years there and proceeding that courting after school. The best way they push every different, their competitiveness, how they compete in the whole lot they do … it’s a spot I wish to be.”
Using Garcia’s scorching bat, the Heralds have been victorious of their closing six regular-season video games, outscoring the opposition 68-5 within the procedure, and completed 8-0 in Olympic League play. Actually, in 3 seasons Garcia’s crew hasn’t ever misplaced a league sport.
Garcia needs not anything greater than to cap her prep occupation with one of the vital best issues she nonetheless has now not completed at the diamond: a CIF championship. In her sophomore 12 months the Heralds misplaced to L. a. Mirada within the first spherical in Department 1, and closing 12 months they made the Department 2 quarterfinals, dropping to Grand Terrace regardless of a Garcia homer.
“This 12 months we’ve got an overly robust crew with a large number of younger gamers who got here in and feature in reality advanced,” Garcia says. “However we older women are nonetheless right here to guide, all of us have an excellent courting with every different, so I believe we will win the name this 12 months.”
This tale at the start seemed in Los Angeles Instances.