SB: THE YEARS FLY BY

Washington's four seniors prepare for their next steps // By Mason Kelley

By Washington Huskies

May 7^th, 2019

At a recent practice, Taran Alvelo was struck by a memory. She started thinking about a moment her freshman year.

The Huskies were playing a game called “21 outs.” It was Alvelo’s first collegiate practice.

“I was so nervous,” the pitcher said. “I had no idea what we were doing.”

She tried to motivate herself.

“OK, I have to do what I do and play my position,” she said.

And then, with all of the nerves that come with being one of the new kids in the program, Alvelo received some advice that would make former NBA star Allen Iverson proud.

Kimberlee Souza, a senior on that team, noticed the nerves Alvelo was working through and said, “Why are you so nervous? It’s just practice.”

All of a sudden, the nerves were gone.

“It is,” Alvelo said. “It’s just practice.”

Now Alvelo is that senior.

“Here I am, it’s my senior year and I’m doing it,” she said. “It’s second nature to me now.”

One of four seniors on Washington’s roster this season, Alvelo is trying to squeeze as much as she can out of the remaining moments.

“When I’m in the locker room, I’m trying to be in the room a little bit more and not be on my phone or secluded to just my locker,” she said. “I try to talk a little bit more and just enjoy the presence of the people I’m surrounded by.”

Sometimes, on days when the sun is out and there is a cool breeze blowing off of Lake Washington, Alvelo will walk out onto the field, find a place to sit and think about the memories.

“I’ll never get this back,” Alvelo said. “I’ll never get to come back and be with this group of people and do what we do on a daily basis – play games and work toward a common goal.”

While Alvelo has spent time this season thinking about the path that pushed her to this point, Amirah Milloy isn’t quite ready to look back.

“Honestly, I’m trying not to think about it too much,” Milloy said. “I’m just trying to focus on one week at a time. It’s a little bittersweet, because I did it, but I’m also really sad to leave this environment and leave all my friends.”

So much happens over a four-year career: Good times and bad. Growth and frustration. It is a ride that helps teenagers transform into adults through competition and camaraderie.

“We all find our identity within these four years,” Milloy said. “It’s one of the most important times of our life, kind of figuring out who we are outside of our family, outside of our friends from back home. We’re just trying to figure out our identity as a team and as players.”

With one more weekend of home games before the postseason, Washington’s seniors are entering a transition period. The end of one career before the start of another. In fact, Rachel Ogasawara already has a job waiting for her when the school year ends.

“I just accepted a job offer,” Ogasawara said. “I will be a recruiter in training at Aerotek. Literally, right across the water.”

But, while future is looming, Washington’s seniors are working to extend the present as long as they can. The next step can wait.

“I just kind of think back to my freshman year, think back to the advice I was given from the athletes who wore 18 in the past,” Ogasawara said. “They told me to cherish every moment, because it’s going to fly by. I always heard that and I just didn’t take it too seriously. I’ve got four years. I’ll be here forever.

“They really meant it when they said it will fly by.”

For Brittany Werre, the past four years have provided the opportunity to live out a dream. She grew up in Manhattan Beach, Calif., but always wanted to be a Husky. She didn’t always want to play softball – her initial goal was to be a cheerleader – but it was easy to envision spending her college years in Seattle.

By the time she was in sixth grade, though, softball had captured her attention, coinciding with the Huskies winning the 2009 national championship.

“For me, a lightbulb went off and this was what I wanted to do,” Werre said. “I want to play softball here. To be able to pursue that childhood dream and have it all work out in my favor has been amazing, such a blessing.”

For Werre, the past four years have been a dream that sparked another. She joined the Washington Student Athlete Advisory Council as a freshman and started a journey toward a career as an administrator in an athletic department.

“I was super enamored with how our athletic department functions, how the NCAA functions, all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes we don’t know about unless we dive in to learn about it,” Werre said.

Werre has paid close attention to the way Jen Cohen runs the department, using the athletic director as inspiration for what she can accomplish in the future.

“I’m just so thankful to have a female athletic director who showed me that, being a female, working in athletics and being a mother and wife, you can do it,” Werre said. “I’ve gotten to experience things outside of school and softball that has changed my perspective on life and led me to pursue a career in college athletics.”

Over the past four years, this group of seniors have grown close. And, during the games that remain, they will work to make a few more memories before moving on to the next stage in their careers.

“These seniors mean the world to me because they’re such intelligent, strong, powerful women,” Ogasawara said. “I just thank God, honestly, for giving me the opportunity to get to know these people, knowing they’ll be in my life for the rest of it.”

SB: THE YEARS FLY BY

Washington's four seniors prepare for their next steps // By Mason Kelley

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