Extra Star Power PA Strikers 2024 RHP Lucia Sanchez… Celebrating Her Puerto Rican and Filipino Heritage & “Enjoying the Best of Both Worlds!”

Hannah Montana sang about “the Best of Both Worlds,” but PA Strikers 16U National 2024 right-handed pitcher Lucia Sanchez gets to live it every day, in just about everything she does.

The oldest of five, Lucia is the proud daughter of Cornell University alum JP Sanchez, a Puerto Rican American, and Michelle (Legaspi) Sanchez, a Filipino American who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucia is in constant awe of her parents and how hard they had to work to achieve their goals.

How fitting that October celebrates not only National Hispanic Heritage Month but also it is Filipino American History Month as well, giving Lucia a full dedicated month to celebrate her diverse heritage and enjoy the best of both her multi-cultural worlds.

But Lucia’s diversity isn’t just her heritage.

“Cia” is a high school junior at the Westtown School, a private, co-educational day and boarding school located in beautiful West Chester, Pennsylvania about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Small in size, but big on education and opportunity, Westtown enrolls about 350 high school-aged students, many of whom are from across the country or are international.  Cia toured several college preparatory high schools, but chose Westtown because of its diverse and friendly community and its high academics – all of which are extremely important to her.

At Westtown, Cia is the captain of her softball team, was voted MVP and, in the Spring of 2022, earned the prestigious Waring Award which recognizes the student athlete who— simply put—has dedicated themselves day in and day out, in service of their school, teammates and coaches.

For the PA Strikers 16U National Team, Lucia is a team leading right-handed pitcher who throws a fastball in the low 60’s and finds success in working her curve and screw on the corners, mixing in a change of speed and throwing an occasional rise ball.

Lucia compares pitching to a chess game.

“There is a special thrill that comes with figuring out the strategy that’s going to sit a batter down and result in success for our defense,” she explains.  “That’s the most fun for me, that’s what I enjoy most.”

And while Cia dedicates close to 10 months out of the year to practicing or playing softball and has big goals to play at the collegiate level, softball is not the only extra-curricular passion that she enjoys.

The epitome of a student-athlete, Cia is also an academic standout with a pristine transcript filled with classes such as Calculus II, Advanced Molecular Biology, Advanced Chemistry, Computer Science, Advanced Physics and Engineering.

She scored a 1400 on the SAT her sophomore year and plans to take them again this winter to improve her score.

Enter more diversity and a whole new world!

Many talented athletes like Lucia use their “off season” to participate in another sport, but Cia is different.

She spends her winter and spring staying in softball shape, but also honing in on her love of academics by competing with her high school’s National Robotics Team – aptly named the Metal Moose.

Through Robotics, Cia has learned how to design, build and code robots that compete in national competitions.  If you’re thinking “Battlebots,” it’s similar in some ways, but very different too.

And, because the seasons don’t overlap, Cia gets to enjoy the best of both her athletic and academic worlds with little to no conflict.

“I just love Robotics because it combines my academic interests with my competitive edge,” Cia gushes when asked about her second “sport.”

This past spring, Cia and her Metal Moose team qualified for and competed in the National High School Robotics World Championships held in Houston, Texas and ironically being an athlete helped Lucia play a critical leadership role for the team.

“My Robotics coach selected me as our team’s Drive Coach because he said, as an athlete who competes at a national level, I would be great at understanding the strategy of the game, thinking fast on my feet, staying cool under pressure, and communicating with all members of the team,” Cia added with a smile.

“At Westtown, Robotics doesn’t usually attract a lot of athletes, so it was exciting to have my Robotics Coach appreciate the skills and qualities I learned from softball and credit them for the leadership role I hold on my Robotics team.”

In general, competing never gets old for Cia—and she just loves the thrill of it all.  And while her co-ed Robotics team won’t begin to work together on their new assignment for at least another month, Cia recently took advantage of a wonderful opportunity to stay on top of her Robotics game.

Last weekend, along with an all-female contingent of her Westtown Metal Moose Robotics Team, Cia traveled to compete in and win GirlPOWER, an off-season, Women in STEM Robotics competition geared towards encouraging young women—especially young women of color—to pursue a career in a STEM related field… something high on Cia’s list of personal goals.

Winning GirlPOWER was extremely motivating for Cia and her success comes at a perfect time.

Over the next two months, Cia will travel almost every weekend with her PA Strikers National team to compete in some of the biggest national fastpitch tournaments and college showcases.

A self-proclaimed “athletic #STEMinist,” her ultimate goal is to attract college coaches who will allow her to balance her time between her two very diverse passions the same way she lives her life as a multi-cultural Hispanic/Filipino American: enjoying the best of both worlds!

— Camille Hayes, special contributor to Extra Inning Softball

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More FUN FACTS about Lucia…

• She volunteers. Lucia’s parents met as teenagers when they were volunteer counselors at Camp Dreamcatcher, a camp for children touched by HIV/AIDS.  They volunteered there for many years often taking Lucia with them when she a little girl.  Lucia found such joy from being at camp, she now volunteers there each summer as well.
• She’s 50% Hispanic and 50% Filipino, and while she dapples in understanding Spanish and Tagalog, she speaks English and studies Chinese as her second language.
• She tutors her PA Strikers teammates when on the road and they love her for it! Calculus is her go-to subject.
• The eldest of five daughters, Lucia is a big sister to seven-year-old triplets (Alma, Mila and Zita) whom she affectionately calls the “Trippies”.
• Her other younger sister Delia is also a RHP and plays for the PA Strikers 14U National team.
• Her guilty pleasure/favorite hobby (stemmed from COVID) is film writing, directing and editing. She often casts her sisters in her films but admits it’s all just for fun. One of her favorites is a spoof on Home Alone, called Trippies Alone. Click HERE to watch it!
• She’s a credited researcher. As part of a program based out of Stanford University and in conjunction with her Advanced Molecular Biology class, Lucia is currently studying fruit flies to learn about their genetic traits.  The data she and her classmates collect through their research and experimentation is available to scientists nationwide.
• She and her PA Strikers 16U National Team played at the 2022 PGF Nationals and Cia stayed in CA for an extra week to help coach her younger sister’s PA Strikers Team who also participated at PGF Nationals this past summer.
• She loves to read. Her favorite genres are Dystopia, Fantasy and Science Fiction, but she loves Adventure novels too. Harry Potter, Ready Player One and The Poet X are just some of her favorites.
• She has one dog, a King Charles Spaniel named “Boba” (think Star Wars) and a cat named Shuri after the Princess of Wakanda in the Black Panther
• She is a Marvel movie junkie!
• Her favorite store is Target because she says she can buy anything she needs there and like a typical teenager, she LOVES to shop.
• Her grandparents do missionary work in the Philippines, so it has always been her dream to join them one day on a missionary trip.
• Family is everything to her. Knowing the struggles her grandparents and her parents overcame to achieve their goals is her biggest inspiration. The Filipino side of her family is large and they all spend quite a bit of time together.  She is so thankful that everyone in her family is so supportive of her and her goals.
• People are often surprised to learn that Puerto Rican and Filipino family traditions, languages and even food are similar because both Puerto Rico and the Philippines were colonized by Spain.
• She’s a typical kid who loves foods like Chicken Parm and Mint Oreo Ice Cream, but she absolutely loves traditional ethic dishes as well like Menudo—a Filipino dish but popular in Puerto Rican culture as well.
• Lucia wouldn’t change one thing about where she came or how she grew up. She’s loves to dream big and is excited to be a woman of color who makes a difference in the world.