RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Megan Faraimo has been good at softball for a long, long time. She was a star in high school, a headliner in travel ball, and didn’t miss a beat once she got to college.
Putting on a UCLA uniform can be daunting for any softball player, given the program’s legendary status, and for Faraimo, like so many others before her, wearing the Bruin colors was the fulfillment of a years-long dream.
It’s fulfillment under a different definition, though, that really gives the truer story of who Megan Faraimo is.
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The announcement was unexpected, even surprising as it came just hours before the 2021 Women’s College World Series was set to begin. After helping pitch UCLA back to the World Series and into position as one of the odds-on favorites to win their second-consecutive title, Megan Faraimo would miss the championship tournament with an injury.
While her absence didn’t exactly cripple the Bruins’ chances at a second-straight national title, it certainly did change the team’s forecast. Without their second ace, the Bruins exited the World Series in the tournament’s early round.
Faraimo, watching from home, vividly remembers her own feelings as she kept up with her team’s efforts in Oklahoma City. After that week as a simple observer – and an injured one at that – Faraimo was changed. Call it a rededication to her craft or give it whatever superlative you want, but one base fact remains the same:
“That whole experience changed my life,” Faraimo says now. “I don’t want to sound dramatic, but it did. I know I’m young and I was even younger when all of that happened, but it really felt like a bad era in my life. It honestly broke my heart not being able to be there [in Oklahoma City with the team]… I wasn’t there to help or to contribute anything.
“That became my sole purpose of the next year, to do everything that I could to be the best and to contribute and be there for my team.”
Some refer to playing in or even attending the Women’s College World Series as a necessary pilgrimage, of sorts; an experience like no other in the sport, just to be in Oklahoma City to see the sport on its biggest stage. For Faraimo, though, it took not being there to make a difference.
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Faraimo has always been talented on the softball field. For proof, look no further than the All-American awards that have followed her at every level. In high school, playing travel ball, and from her first collegiate season onward, she was heralded as one of the game’s brightest stars, one of the best in her generation of softball athletes.
Evident by the bulging trophy case and the pages-long list of awards and accomplishments, Faraimo has always lived up to the hype. During the 2022 college season, though, something seemed different. A new switch was flipped and Faraimo was on another level.
Maybe rededication is the best word after all, but Faraimo didn’t just rededicate herself to her craft on the softball diamond – she found a new lease on life in general. She felt rejuvenated and gained perspective. The changes she promised herself she would make and the mission on which she set herself fueled her in a new way.
“As a person, you go through life and you face hardships,” Faraimo said recently, as she reflected. “And you find a way and figure out how to face them. That’s where I found personal growth… and I’ve definitely become more dedicated to the game. I love putting in the work, but if you asked me to sit down and watch a few hours of video, it was a different story. That’s what I committed myself to last year softball-wise, to really learn more about the game.”
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Standing at six feet tall and casting an initimidating presence on the diamond, Faraimo doesn’t shy away from the fact that she relishes pressure-filled moments on the biggest of stages:
“It feels like that’s the moment I’ve worked for my entire life, having that opportunity to be on that stage. I don’t think of the outcome; I’m just living in the process of it,” she describes it. “I don’t know that it’s anything special that gets me to compete in those big moments. All I know is that I like to be there. When the bases are loaded and it’s a full count, I want to be in that situation every time. I always have.”
Watch a UCLA game with Faraimo pitching and a few things likely stand out: There will be a lot of strikeouts. Some pretty dominant work in the circle in general is a safe bet. The television commentators are always going to mention the Bruin Bubble, the phrase that program alumni use to refer to themselves.
Just as sure, too, is Faraimo’s trademark first pump, the emotion-filled, instinctive response to a big strikeout or a successful answer in one of those pressure-filled instances. As Faraimo has become a household name in the sport, so, too, has her reputation as a pitcher who wears her emotion on her sleeve and isn’t afraid to show them.
“I remember, when I was young, my coaches told me how I compete- I do compete with my heart on my sleeve,” Faraimo said. “Emotions play a huge part in how I like to compete against other teams. I’ve literally always been like that, since I was little… I wouldn’t say [the emotional response] is intentional. I used to be very insecure about it; I would think ‘oh, I hope she didn’t think [that fist pump] was personal’. But I think people know now that this is just how I compete. When things are a big deal to you, you care about them a lot and that manifests itself in different ways to different people. To me, that’s the fist pump or screaming really loud.”
Unflinching in the moment, Faraimo doesn’t shy away from the emotion-filled response when the situation calls for it. “I do feel like I have poise,” she says, “but when I get that strikeout or even just a strike in a big situation, the whole stadium is going to know.”
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To get a full and true portrait of Megan Faraimo, there are some non-softball characteristics that come into play. Softball fans know her skill with the neon yellow orb in hand, but for some, it stops there. Others who follow the Bruin star on social media get glimpses of her personality outside of the uniform, where traits like her self-described “goofiness” can sometimes take center stage.
Her true personality, the side of Megan that isn’t always evident when she’s in the circle, hasn’t always been something that she was willing to show off. Age and maturity, though, have empowered her to be authentically herself and to feel more comfortable doing so.
“I’ve always had a big personality,” Faraimo said. “I always like to play jokes on my team; if a serious situation comes up, don’t look at me because I will laugh. If I’m pitching, I’ll go out there and compete, game face on. And then I’m in the dugout, freestyle rapping to beats that my teammates are putting on. It’s very different, and that’s what I like about myself really.
“But who I am as a person has been very closed off to just people that I’m very comfortable with… as I’m growing up and growing into myself, so to speak, it’s easier for me to be authentically who I am. Now, I’m pretty comfortable with who I am and with how people see me.”
And what, if anything, would she change about the way people see her?
“I just wish, somehow, that I didn’t look so mean!” Faraimo said with a hearty laugh. “They know I’m competing but every time I meet someone or play on a new team, girls will be like ‘oh my gosh, I thought you were so mean but you’re totally not.’ I don’t know what it is, but I’m not mean off the field!”
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Representation is also an important part of Faraimo. She’s the grandchild of Samoan immigrants, a heritage that she holds in high regard.
“What makes me ‘tick’ is my family,” Faraimo said. “When I was growing up, I remember Keilani Ricketts pitching and she was really telling for me in terms of representation. You didn’t see a lot of Polynesian women playing softball. Being a good role model for these girls has been a huge part of why I’m doing what I do and why I want to do it. I want to represent our people well when I’m playing on the field, because that’s a part of my identity that I carry with me while I’m playing and what I do even in daily life.
“Being that role model for little girls right now is really, really important to me. It’s very important to me that I not only represent that, but that I represent it well and that I let the little girls know that there’s space for them on the field.”
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With one year of college softball still to go, Faraimo says she wants to be remembered in college softball lore first as a good teammate, “someone who had my team’s back”.
She wants to be known as a true competitor, someone who embodied competitive greatness.
She hopes people remember that she never gave up, that even in the toughest moments, “I’m still going to compete.”
And from her last year in Bruin blue? Faraimo also knows what she wants from her final season: “I just want a national championship. I don’t even care about my stats; I want another ring. The best feeling in the world is getting something with your team.”