Softball players reflect on journeys from Hawaii to mainland

Left, Tracie Okumura and right, Mykala Tokunaga. Sophomore Okumura grew up playing softball in Oahu, while junior Tokunaga would travel there from Hilo to compete at a higher level. MIA FORTUNADO Photo Editor

As I sat in the bleachers, preparing to speak with Chapman softball players Mykala Tokunaga and Tracie Okumura, coaches on Chapman’s home field of El Camino Real Park make sure it’s freshly groomed for the team’s Feb. 15 afternoon game against University of Redlands. But, before I can get a question in, a coach manicuring the dirt sees the two Hawaii natives and shouts through the fence, “Mahalo!” Tokunaga and Okumura laugh, because this makes no sense. ‘Mahalo’ means ‘thank you’ in Hawaiian. With the laugh comes a hint of familiarity.

“We get a lot of the Hawaii jokes,” Tokunaga said. “If the ‘Lilo and Stitch’ song plays on our pregame playlist, everybody is like ‘Aaaah’ and pointing at us. If some of the girls learn a Hawaiian word from one of their friends, they’ll be like ‘Oh, look what I learned today,’ and we’ll be like, ‘Oh, fun.’”

Tokunaga, a junior, hails from Hilo, Hawaii, while sophomore Okumura is from Mililani, Oahu. The two have been playing baseball and softball most of their lives, eventually playing in the same club of Na Wahine – which means “the women.” With Hawaii boasting a wealth of accomplished athletes within softball, Tokunaga and Okumura have been exposed to stiff competition throughout their careers. They faced some of the best athletes they’d ever played against during club.

“In Hawaii, softball is more than just a sport,” Okumura said. “A lot of people use it as a way to get to college, because sometimes it’s like scholarships are the only way some of these kids are going to get to college.”

In the offseason, Tokunaga would travel to Oahu every weekend to find better competition, which is how she and Okumura met before their Chapman careers. It’s a common practice for talented players, they said.

“I’ve played with a lot of people who have made it really far,” Okumura said. “Whenever there’s a good player on the Big Island or the other small islands, it’s like ‘Come on over, join the party.’”

After high school, Tokunaga spent a year playing softball at Sonoma State University. Ultimately, her and Okumura – who often refers to Tokunaga as ‘Mikey’ in an abbreviation of ‘Mykala’ – ended up at Chapman for the same reasons: strong academics coupled with the opportunity to play softball.

Once at Chapman, the two found softball on the mainland to be slightly different than what they were used to. Athleticism was prioritized over fundamentals, they said.

“The girls over here just have different ways of playing softball, like techniques,” Tokunaga said. “It’s interesting to see that, versus at home, because a lot of people at home are just big girls who swing as hard as they can.”

However, Tokunaga and Okumura carried a few of the customs they learned in Hawaii to their team at Chapman. Among them is a sense of discipline that they’ve tried to implement within their current program. Whenever their coaches are performing tasks like carrying equipment from place to place or setting up a drill, Okumura tries to help. Other players have caught on and will also help, she said.

While they said they’d had fantastic experiences at Chapman, both Okumura and Tokunaga plan to return to Hawaii once they’ve graduated. They don’t anticipate a future in softball beyond college, but both hope to become teachers of their sport and give back to the community that enabled them to have their collegiate experiences.

“I definitely want to go home and help the girls – just to educate them about the college experience, how to get recruited and the different things to expect when coming to college in the mainland, because it is a really different environment – the food, the way people talk,” Tokunaga said.

In Hawaii, it’s extremely difficult to get recruited, Okumura said. Softball players generally only have one chance a year to play in the rest of the states and sell themselves and their abilities to scouts. Over winter break, Okumura plans to speak during informational clinics for parents and their kids who hope to be recruited into a collegiate program on the mainland.

“I didn’t know anything about what college ball would be like coming into it,” Okumura said. “So I’m more than happy to help them understand.”