Socorro junior Reyna Alvarado is an outstanding softball player for the Warriors.
Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain

 

 

Socorro High School junior Reyna Alvarado is a Warriors softball player.

How long have you been playing softball?

For the school, I started, my freshman year, but because of COVID we never really got to start. So officially, I started my sophomore year, which was last year. This was just for the school. Growing up, I played for three years. Then I stopped, then I started again last year.

What made you want to get back into it?

Mostly because of my family. Mostly my dad. He plays baseball and he was like come on play, if you don’t like it then you can stop. Then I started playing and I started liking it. I started having fun with all the girls and all that.

What do you like most about it?

I like having fun and getting to relax and have fun with the girls. They’re really fun. Just interacting with others and getting your mind off of something.

So your freshman year you signed up, but there was just no season because of COVID. You guys didn’t even get to do any practices?

We usually do, before the season, we do a little bit of conditioning. We did that, and then we were going to have our first game during spring break. We got a message that was like, everything’s canceled. COVID hit. We were so excited because everything was about to happen, it was our first game.

What was it like coming into your sophomore year and being able to finally have the first game?

I was really nervous because all that time, being home, not doing anything. Kind of not even working out or anything. It was just like; I hope I still have that conditioning and I get to it. I was so nervous because I didn’t know if I was doing everything right.

Do you condition and work out in the summers between school years?

Yeah, because I don’t only play softball, I play volleyball also. During the offseason of softball, I’m on volleyball, so I get that conditioning. In between, in winter, that’s whenever I do it by myself. I run at the park or do some workouts here at school. It makes me stay in shape.

What is it like to transition from volleyball to softball?

It’s hard because it’s two totally different sports, but it’s kind of easy at the same time because I have that time period where I don’t do anything. It helps me okay, now I have to start doing this. I have to start catching. I play catch with my dad. Or I start hitting off at or something. I start slowly coming back to softball and forgetting about volleyball.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to in your senior year?

Just having a really good season and having fun and not worrying about are we going to win, are we going to lose. Just have fun and if we win, that’s great. If we lose, well we know what we have done worse and then we’ll make it better. It’s kind of scary being a senior next year. It’s sad because it’s going to be our last year.

Have there been any highlights of the softball season so far?

It’s not my highlight, but the latest game that we had, it was in East Mountain and it was an amazing game. Even though we lost by one, it was an amazing game. One of our teammates Marissa, she did a home run and we were so happy. Everybody just started hitting and playing good and having fun and laughing. No one was down. The energy was up, and I love that.

Are there any famous athletes you look up to?

I know it’s not for softball, but I look up to Kobe Bryant. Just his mentality of even if I’m hurt, even if something’s wrong with me, I’m still going to play and push through. That’s kind of what inspires me, which helps me if I’m hurt. I might not be 100 percent, but I’m still going to go and try and whatever I can do is whatever I can do. Say my arm is hurt, I’m not going to throw as hard, but I’m still going to go and do it and try.

Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain Editor