Salen Hawkins is a 2023 infielder for the Explosion 18U – Denio/Hagberg team and last year she was ranked in the Top 50 of the 2023 Extra Elite 100 rankings with a bio that read, in part:
Salen is a slick starting shortstop and lead-off batter who makes elite defensive plays look routine. She brings speed and power to the lead-off spot with her 2.7 home-to-first speed and plays with a swag and confidence. Salen is a fierce competitor who makes everyone around her better.
The success and accolades have been impressive, especially over the last year, but it’s been anything but an easy journey for the Southern California high school junior.
Salen has been playing softball since she was 6-years-old. She used to watch her father, Steve Hawkins, play competitive softball when she was very young and chose to get into it at a time where it would prove to be “her escape and salvation.”
On August 20, 2016—five and a half years ago—Salen’s mother, Akiko Saggio (Aki for short, pronounced “AHH-kee”), passed away unexpectedly due to medication causing a blood clot in her leg, which broke free and went to her heart and lungs.
So sudden and stunning was the tragic death that—less than 24 hours later–Salen chose to go to the first day of softball practice for her new team, telling her father: “It might take our minds off of things.”
Steven looks back at that time and marvels at the maturity of his young daughter.
“At 11 years old, Salen was right. She and I were experiencing a loss that words cannot describe but for three hours that day, softball was our salvation. Softball continues to be our salvation as we continue to grieve, but Salen practices and plays very hard to honor her mother and to try to make her proud.”
Today, Aki’s remains rest under a tree on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and father and daughter visit there frequently to remember and pay tribute to her.
“In July of 2016, we traveled to Hawaii for vacation—it was the first time Aki had ever been there—and she absolutely loved it. When she passed away only a month later, we decided to have her cremated and took her to Hawaii in December of 2016. I found a giant tree near Diamond Head and that is where she was placed. Salen and I try to go there two or three times a year to visit.”
“It is a large component in the maintenance of our mental well-being,” he adds. “We might find ourselves living there one day; we find much peace in visiting Aki’s tree and playing catch there.”
As Steve, Salen and her older sisters — Damara, who is 25 now and a high school teacher, and Marisa, who is 22 and a senior at Cal State Fullerton–continued to adapt to life without Aki privately, a much more public-impacting disaster was looming: the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February of 2021, dad and daughter moved to Arizona to try to escape all the shutdowns and impacts of the Coronavirus that was particularly tough in Southern California.
“We moved in hopes of escaping the lockdowns and returning Salen to a ‘normal’ life,” Steve explains. “We were able to find that in Queen Creek, Arizona, and were living in hotels until we could buy a home in Arizona. We weren’t able to move into our Arizona house until June 15, but by then we were traveling all across the country for camps and tournaments.”
It was challenging for Salen to live out of hotels with her father for six months and train at the same time in order to play at an elite level.
“She was steadfast in her mental fortitude both on and off the field,” her father says with pride. “After high school softball was completed, she and I really buckled down with the training. Our goal was continuous weekly improvement in hopes of her performing at her best in Oklahoma for the Alliance Championship.”
How did Salen do?
She was selected to the Extra Inning Softball 2021 16U All-Summer Team after she batted .475 with 20 RBIs and 10 walks and had a strong performance at the Alliance Championship where she hit .533 with a .696 on-base percentage and had a 1.629 OPS.
After working the rust off from resting most of August, Salen finished the Fall ball season on a tear.
From November on, playing with the Explosion in some major showcases and tournaments against many of the best 18U teams in the country—such as Corona Angels – Tyson, Batbusters – Stith, SoCal A’s Richardson, Mojo Fischer and so on, Salen’s stats for November, December and January included a .529 batting average in the leadoff spot and a .600 on-base percentage.
Here are some great highlights of Salen at the PGF Shootout in October 2021:
Still, her new life in Arizona was anything but easy… and it wasn’t all just because of COVID.
“We moved in order to escape the lockdowns and get her back into school and associating with other kids,” Salen’s father remembers, “but it turns out that did not help and might have made it worse. She didn’t know anyone and had zero friends at first.”
“Unfortunately, everything takes its toll so we moved back to California on January 3, 2022. We live in Orange County now, so Salen is in school and her high school is just now starting its season. Still, even going through all that she was experiencing, softball and the weight room was, and continues to be, her escape.”
Playing with the Explosion in the Fall also opened up the recruiting process big-time for Salen.
After she did not receive a single call, email or text from college coaches on September 1, 2021, since then she has had interest from 12 different schools and has been offered a full athletic scholarship from a Power 5 school.
Here is a highlight reel of several top plays from the Fall of 2021:
Although the recruiting process got off to a slow start, it’s definitely been picking up as of late.
“We have visited three schools and one is being strongly considered,” reveals Steve. “All of the other schools weren’t considered due to location or they didn’t have the field of study Salen wishes to pursue. Salen is hoping to play some amazing softball come June and possibly commit to a school by the end of the summer season. Fingers crossed!”
Her Explosion coach strongly believes that the high school junior has a very bright future.
“Salen is a coach’s dream,” says Coach Bret Denio. “The kid works hard every day of the week—she never lets up. Salen is a human highlight reel and makes the difficult plays look routine. Nothing surprises me at this point and I believe she is one of the top P5 shortstops in the country, a true 5-tool player. Somebody is going to get a gem late in the recruiting game.”
*****
Extra Inning Softball caught up with Salen recently… here’s our one-on-one interview with her to talk life on and off the field…
How did softball get you and your family through the awful time of losing your mother?
Softball has been bigger than words can describe in helping us deal with the loss of my mom. It continues to help us now, but in that first year after losing my mom, softball allowed us to temporarily escape the enormous feelings of pain and loss. My dad didn’t sleep in his bedroom. He slept on the living room floor with the TV on so as to keep his mind busy with whatever was on the TV. He did that for two and a half year years.
He would record softball games on the DVR and replay things frame by frame in order to study how the good players hit and fielded balls. My dad stopped working and dedicated his life to me with softball. He coached my 12U rec ball team and was asked to manage the All-Star team. He was the commissioner for the 8U division, also. The 8U and 12U teams were the only ones to make it to the B level State tournament that year.
Today, I still practice with my dad all the time. It is through softball that my dad teaches me to compete and have discipline, focus and mental fortitude. It’s because of softball that I learned that word “fortitude!” If we weren’t practicing or playing softball, my dad and I were traveling to watch softball. He went to the University of Washington, so if UW’s softball team was anywhere within traveling distance and our schedule allowed it, we were there!
Coach Heather Tarr knew about my mother’s passing and became a mother figure to me. She allowed me to be the bat girl almost any time I came to watch a game, and even hang around during their practices. I LOVE Coach Tarr! My dad took me to watch UW play at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, along with some other places they would go to – Las Vegas, Palm Desert, and Oklahoma.
Every place we went, he would take me to learn about the campus and its surroundings. My dad created a non-profit organization and created a softball team in order to secure permits with the city to use the local high school’s field. For my second year of 12U and first year of 14U, I played with my dad on the travel ball team he created.
He would hold free camps for girls all around our area and made our team take part in teaching softball to them. We also helped a local organization that catered to special needs kids by playing softball with them. I can write a lot more, but it’s like I stated earlier: softball has been bigger than words can describe in how it’s helped me to deal with the loss of my mom.
What does softball mean to you, on and off the field?
Softball is more than just a sport to me, it’s a coping mechanism. The day after I lost my mom, my dad and I went to practice to help forget the pain for a little bit. It worked. I love softball. It makes me happy and I am blessed beyond words for the opportunity to play it.
Softball has challenges just like normal life. The loss of my mother has given me perspective. A strikeout, or a team loss is nothing to cry, or get too upset about. There’s a lot of people experiencing more difficult things in their lives, so I try not to get upset over what might be considered little things.
I must say that softball has also taught me the importance of sportsmanship, courtesy and conducting oneself with manners and class. There have been times that I hit a home run and girls on the other team gave me a high five as I rounded the bases. Catchers that pick up my bat and hand it to me after foul balls or home runs. I have so much respect for girls that do those kinds of things, and I want to be like them.
I see the acts of kindness in softball, and I learn from it. I want to be a good person on and off the field!
What are your goals and desires in softball? Do you have plans for college and beyond?
My goal is just to work as hard as I can in the short amount of time I have with my dad. The time I have with my dad is like an open window that’s slowly closing. Once I’m 18 and off to play in college (if I should be blessed to do so), that window with my dad will be closed. I will never be able to reopen that window so while that window is open, I want to get in as much work as I possibly can in order to get better with my hitting, fielding, agility, speed, and strength. Yes, I would love the opportunity to play softball in college. My plans for college as of right now is to major in exercise science, or something similar, in order for me to help others be the best they can be in their respective sport. Maybe one day I can own a gym/training facility and help other girls with softball.
Do you want to work in softball?
I’m focused on working hard right now to get better with softball, but I won’t rule out the possibility of coaching in the future. My dream is to major in Exercise Science. As I get older and if I’m blessed to have a family, maybe I’ll coach my kids’ rec ball teams!
How has your dad been a source of leadership in your life, in softball and in the family?
My dad is definitely someone I look up to. Just like everyone else, he isn’t perfect, but he tries to be a good person, which I recognize and try to be as well. He pushes me to be the best I can be, and to be mentally tough. He’s helped me and my sisters realize that yes, we experienced a great loss in our lives, but we should be grateful for who, and what, we do have.
We may have traveled a difficult road, but there are people out there who have it much worse than we do. Those people are still powering through strong, so we can too! I know it hasn’t been easy for him, but he works as hard as he possibly can in trying to raise me. It is because of him that I work as hard as I can in hopes of everything working out in the long run. He has been very strict with me about giving my absolute best when on the dirt. He says it’s like life. You open the front door and go out into the world, you give it your absolute best. Coming back home is like stepping off the dirt. You can relax then!
You are a workout warrior! What drives you to be the best you can be?
Thank you so much! I started working out with my dad when I was 10 years old. That first year, all we worked on was executing good form. When the pandemic hit, being locked down afforded little opportunity to do things that were fun, but I did like to work out in our home gym. We had a mirror in there. I would see myself and the weight I had on the bar. I would ask myself: “Am I really pushing myself as hard as I can?” From then on, I started to push myself even more.
How do you try to honor your mother and make her proud?
On the field I do the best I can, hoping the work I put in during practice will transition to the games. My mom always supported me in all the sports I played – soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball. She did not want to miss any games. I cherish my memories of her cheering for me in the stands. I know no matter how I do, she’s looking down at me with pride.
When I’m off the field, I try to always be there for my dad, my sisters, or any loved ones and friends. My mom was an amazing person. She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. I aspire to work hard in everything I do, but to be kind and a good person, number one. If I can be half the woman she was, I would consider myself successful.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
