Soccer Season Nurtures Skills Of Surfrider Softball Star

Wednesday - April 29, 2009
By Jack Danilewicz
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The Kailua Surfriders’ shortstop powerhouse, Tiffany Pereza. Photo from the Pereza ohana.

Count Kailua High School softball coach Bernard Victor among those who buy into the old adage that speed kills - at least when it comes in the context of watching his shortstop, Tiffany Pereza.

“She’s reliable, and she’ll do anything you ask of her,” Victor said of Pereza, a senior and four-year player at for the Surfriders. “She makes good decisions, and what really makes her a really good player is her speed.”

Pereza proved it all again this winter when she joined the Kailua soccer team and quickly asserted herself as a key contributor for a team that captured the Division II OIA title under Wil Kimura.

“She picked up some speed, too,“Victor said of her soccer season.

Added Pereza: “It was really fun playing soccer and really competitive. It was actually a good (transition) to softball because I was in better shape from running so much.”

In past years, the soccer and softball seasons coincided, leaving Pereza to choose between them. With softball now in the spring, she was able to finally take up soccer again.


 

Her focus now is on this week’s OIA Division I softball tournament. The Surfriders went into their season-ending doubleheader over the weekend in position to possibly secure the No. 2 seed out of the East. That would move them into a Thursday quarterfinal game at home and leave them only a win away from one of the league’s five berths for the upcoming state softball tournament.

Anything lower than a second seed would mean a Wednesday first-round matchup. Pairings and sites for the tournament, which runs Wednesday through Saturday, were to be finalized late Saturday.

Late last week, Victor also was concerned about how the weather might affect this week’s tournament. Heavy rains hit the campus last Wednesday and Thursday, canceling the baseball team’s OIA semifinal game on an adjacent field, and Victor moved his players into the gymnasium Friday morning for his own team’s practice.

If they are forced to make up their doubleheader from Saturday, it would likely be early in the week, eliminating rest for his pitching staff.

For her part, Pereza is hoping to go out in style in the coming weeks, and she thinks the best may be yet to come.

“Everyone has to want it enough. I feel like we’ll be a better team than we were in the regular season if we can continue to come together. Everyone gets along well. I still think we can play better. There’s always room for improvement.”

Hitting has been a point of emphasis for Pereza and the rest of the team in

recent weeks. Kailua took a modest team batting average of .284 into the weekend. As the lead-off hitter, she finds herself in a position to set the tone for her team, offensively, with good at-bats.

“Our defense is pretty solid, so we try to hit a lot in practice,” she said. “We have worked real hard on it. I think I should start hitting the ball better too as I become more selective about what pitches I want to hit.”


In the field, Pereza also covers a lot of ground with her speed and quickness. In addition to soccer, she played baseball before switching over to softball.

“My mom (Kelly) and dad (Kaleo) put me in both sports, and I always liked them,” she said.“My dad has always been a coach on the side for me, and my mom is really supportive.

“Sports kept me active. It really motivates me - especially when we win, knowing it (the work) pays off.”

In the fall, Pereza plans to attend University of Hawaii for a year before moving on to UNLV for her sophomore year as part of a nursing exchange program. She currently volunteers in the pediatrics section at Kapiolani Medical Center on Sundays by way of health-directed classes she takes at Kailua High School.

“You get to see what they really do instead of just reading about it in books, which is good,” said Pereza, who had logged 40 hours already this year. “You get to talk to the staff and ask questions, and sometimes I also get to interact with the kids.”

As for her softball career, she knows her eligibility clock is ticking, but she envisions good things for the program.

“I think they’re going to be really good next year,” she said. “I’ll miss being around the field and the girls.”

 

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