You can find Junior, Kady Okamura, on the outfield or at the track these days. She has been playing softball and running short distance in track since her freshman year. For people who may not know, OIA softball and track are both spring sports. Most athletes have busy schedules from one sport, but Okamura is able to handle playing two varsity sports in one season.

Okamura first started playing baseball at 5 years old, but when it came to high school baseball she did not find any huge interest. She said that high school baseball meant having to do weight training and she did not want to work so hard for little playing time.

However, she did love the sport and switched to softball. 

“Softball requires quick thinking,” she explained. “Like, what am I doing next?” 

This makes the game stressful because she says it’s hard to recover from mistakes. Not only that, but mistakes cost the entire team.

Her teammates push her through, and she says they make all the long games and practices worth it. 

“Kady’s fun to have on the team,” Kina Guerro (12) said, one of Okamura’s softball teammates. 

Softball isn’t her only sport, however; she also does track and field.

Okamura joined the Track & Field team her freshman year, running the 100 meter, 200 meter, 4×100 meter relay, and 4×400 meter relay. She is now competing in her third OIA high school season.

“Kady is the team’s fastest returning sprinter, and an integral part of the team,” Coach Brooke Nasser said. 

She loves the positive environment at the track with so many athletes out there who push themselves.

“I wanted to do track because it seemed fun,” Kady explained.

She also likes how in an individual sport she can be more independent. 

“For track, I can just run and if I don’t do good then it won’t hurt a team,” she said. “I just push myself to do better for me.”

Okamura also likes the amount of time between each event during a track meet, which allows her to meet runners from other schools and relax. 

Her advice to those who are considering two sports is that you can do it as long as you push yourself and put in the effort. 

Okamura admits she has struggled to keep a steady schedule and balance her time. In order to get all of the workouts in, she often comes to morning practice for track and is thankful for the flexibility. 

“Schedule’s gonna be tighter and doing school work and stuff,” she explained. 

Her track coach, Brooke Nasser, recognizes that Okamura has to work twice as hard because she is a two-sport athlete. Okamura does her track practice with Nasser three days a week at 6:45 a.m. before school in order to keep in shape. In addition to that, Okamura has softball practices after school and makes time for both softball games and track meets. 

“I wish all of my trackies were that dedicated,” Nasser said.

Ultimately, Okamura loves track because she sees her progress. Her PR in the 100 M is 13.33 and to qualify for the State Championship meet in May she needs to get it down to 13.04. With this goal, she pushes to qualify. She found herself naturally good at the sport but still has to work hard to cut time.

However, for Okamura, there are some drawbacks to track, like always getting injured.

“[It] sucks cause you’re gonna be out for a long time depending on your injury,” she says. “The longer you wait the more you’re gonna get better and recover but the more you’re not getting better in the sport.”

Okamura recently had a tight hamstring from jumping too early into a hard track workout. She says that now she knows to constantly work in the offseason.

“Do what you don’t want to do now so you can do what you want later,” she said.

She just pushes through because she knows that her hard work will pay off and her soreness and exhaustion won’t last.