Perez has lifetime’s worth of focus on one goal
UVU softball is off to its best start in program history, garnering a 20-8-1 heading into the weekend. Kevin Bryan/UVU Review
Amanda Perez has her priorities in order. She is a team player who wants nothing more than to see her senior season end in a winning fashion.
UVU softball has never won the Pacific Coast Softball Conference (PCSC) title, a mark that Perez hopes to change before she graduates in April. If the team can advance beyond the PCSC, they will have the opportunity to compete for an NCAA championship.
“I just want to go to the NCAAs,” Perez said.
When Perez was a prep player at La Serna High School in La Mirada, Calif., UVU head coach Todd Fairbourne recruited her during her senior year. After looking into the school further, she fell in love with the atmosphere and the people, as well as a notable love for the Utah mountains.
Perez credits her father as the reason she has attained the level she has in her softball career. At a young age her father encouraged her to try all kinds of sports. Softball became Perez’s greatest love and she has stayed with the sport all the way into her senior year of college, where she has helped the Wolverines to a record of 19-7-1, good enough for first place in the Great West Conference.
Perhaps the greatest way that Perez helps the Wolverines is through her hitting. She loves to step into the batter’s box and mash.
“All I want to do is hit the ball hard,” Perez said. “I love to play first base, but I mostly love to hit the ball. I love to hit home runs.”
In the Wolverines’ Wednesday game against University of Missouri-Kansas City, she recorded three RBIs, which went a long way to helping her team hang a 10-spot on the scoreboard and defeat their opponent by three.
“If the ball gets in the way of her bat it’s going to go fairly hard,” Fairbourne said. “She can hit the ball hard and she’s a good kid.”
Perez is a big threat in the middle of the Wolverine’s lineup and ranked second on the team in home runs and RBIs heading into the weekend.
When she leaves the team, Perez stated that she would like to leave behind a legacy of people enjoying their time at UVU and being a member of the first team to win a PCSC title.
As a veteran, Perez always tries to have a positive attitude about her because she understands that if everybody is negative, the team does not benefit. If a teammate is down, she always tries to pick them up.
Perez is a psychology major at UVU and hopes to attend graduate school at Vanguard University where she will continue studying to be a marriage and family therapist, working with children in that field.