GARCIA Rachel

General
RETURN TO UCLA
In the 2019/20 academic year she put her studies at University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] on hold, as well sitting out [red shirting] the UCLA softball team season in order to focus on training for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo with the US national team. Following the postponement of the Olympic Games it was announced in May 2020 that she would return to play for UCLA in the 2020/21 season, after which she would join the US team for Olympic Games in Tokyo. "I am beyond proud and blessed to be able to compete with my [UCLA] Bruins next season [2020/21] and still represent our great country in Tokyo 2021." (latimes.com, 07 May 2020; softballamerica.com, 16 Oct 2019; ocregister.com, 29 Dec 2019; uclabruins.com, 01 Jan 2020; justwomenssports.com, 02 Dec 2019)

PITCHING AND HITTING
In addition to pitching 315 strikeouts over 208 innings for UCLA in 2017 and 2018, she also totalled 19 home runs, 83 RBI and a batting average of .332. In 2019 her batting average at UCLA was .343. She says she enjoys being a "hitting pitcher" but admits it is challenging. "It's not easy, to be honest, being able to manage and separate the two. I absolutely love pitching, but I think I take a little bit more pride in hitting. Simply because I have to work a little bit harder than others to maintain what I can do. Growing up, as a young athlete, I was always told I wasn't going to be able to do both, and I kind of used that as motivation, and I wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. I worked harder at the hitting part of it because pitching was always easy for me. I love pitching, but I do take more pride in the hitting." (flosoftball.com, 28 Jan 2019; teamusa.org, 29 Jul 2019)

INJURY ENDS FRESHMAN SEASON
She says sitting out her first season of college softball at UCLA following her knee injury at high school was difficult. "Sitting out my whole freshman year was tough for me in general. It changed my mindset. I had moments where I would think, 'Gosh, I really don't want to do rehab today'. But that one person would always encourage me and say they were seeing all the hard work I was doing. And that's what kept me going. I do not use a knee brace anymore [2019]. I feel way more comfortable now." (flosoftball.com, 28 Jan 2019)

SIGN LANGUAGE
She began learning sign language in high school and continued studying it at university. "I'm trying to get certified in sign language for when I'm done with softball. Hopefully, in the future, I can work with kids and interpret. I took it in high school and made some friends in the deaf community. That's how I fell in love with it. Ever since then, I just stuck with it and kept practising." (flosoftball.com, 28 Jan 2019)

In 2019 while playing for UCLA she became the first college softball player to win the Pac-12 Conference's Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year awards in the same season. (Pac-12 Networks YouTube channel, 08 May 2019)