Athena Tongaonevai
School: Bountiful
Grade: Senior
Sport: Softball
When it comes to helping her pitcher, Bountiful catcher Athena Tongaonevai knows all the things that can help keep opponents’ bats at bay — like setting a good target, keeping the ball in front of her.
These are standard defensive measures to help a pitcher get a win. But Tongaonevai these days is thinking of offensive ways, too, and believes her current mindset is one reason she’s started off the season with eight home runs.
“What’s motivating me this year is that I know my pitcher is working really hard. Whenever we get back on offense, how am I backing up my pitcher?” she said. “How am I contributing to this win?”
The Redhawks have raced out to a 15-2 record, 8-0 in district, and pushed their winning streak to 11 straight with a recent victory over Viewmont.
Tongaonevai leads the team with a .538 batting average, with 26 RBIs to go with her homers.
Her home run total is already three more than she had all of last season.
“That one year has just totally made a difference, added to my experience,” said Tongaonevai, who added that getting one year older has benefited the whole team as well. “We’re doing well. We didn’t have very many seniors last year, so we didn’t have to go back to square one.”
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