It started out as a spontaneous suggestion.
Amanda Kamekona needed a number. And it was her mother who provided a stroke of brilliance.
“My mom was watching TV with me one day, and all of a sudden, she was like, “˜I got it! You should be number 47!'” Kamekona said.
“Since everybody calls you AK, you should be AK-47!” her mom said at the time.
To which Kamekona replied, “Sweet! OK, I think I can do that.”
Thus began the UCLA career of the Bruins’ only softball senior. In hindsight, it’s only fitting that the second baseman should be referred to as a weapon of sorts.
Last season, Kamekona hit .337 and led the team with 14 home runs and 46 runs batted in en route to earning first-team All-Pac-10 and third-team All-American honors.
She earned herself a place herself in the history books, collecting eight RBI on Feb. 9, 2008 against Santa Clara, a UCLA single-game record.
“I call it a blessing,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “I think she was meant to be a Bruin from day one.”
But as it turns out, things weren’t always so rosy for Kamekona. In fact, she’ll be the first to admit that at one point, it appeared as if she wasn’t meant to play softball at all.
Having finished playing just one year of softball as a senior at Ayala High School in Chino Hills, Kamekona enrolled at Cal State Fullerton and played for the Titans during her freshman and sophomore years.
Almost immediately, she began putting up the numbers indicative of a star in the making.
As a freshman, Kamekona started 49 of the 50 games for the Titans, made 162 plate appearances and finished third on the team in hitting with a .284 batting average.
Although a hand injury kept her out for nearly a month, she continued to improve during her sophomore season, making 42 starts and hitting .326 to go along with four home runs and 26 RBI.
But the stat sheets didn’t tell the whole story.
In fact, with each game and with each inning, Kamekona realized that something was missing.
Statistically, she was certainly coming into her own. On the other hand, by the end of her second season at Fullerton, her passion for playing softball had fizzled out.
“Cal State Fullerton just wasn’t a good fit for me,” Kamekona said. “It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. It got to the point where I actually just quit softball altogether.
“Don’t get me wrong, there are going to be times when you’re tired, and that’s just part of the game, but it was just beyond that. I genuinely did not enjoy playing, and that was a red flag for me.”
More often than not, Kamekona said she simply felt disconnected from her coaches and teammates.
“What I wanted out of softball wasn’t shared with the rest of my team,” she said. “In order to win, you need everyone, and when you feel alone in a team sport, that’s rough.”
And so, down on her luck, the former Titan turned to her mom for advice. But when the feedback was a lesson in patience and assurance that everything happens for a reason, Kamekona decided to shrug it off.
“When you’re younger, you don’t really get it because you don’t really have a lot of life experiences to draw upon,” she said. “So my reaction at the time was, “˜Yeah, whatever, Mom. Life sucks right now.'”
But lo and behold, the game of softball presented its student with another opportunity.
The summer after her departure from Fullerton in 2006, Kamekona worked as an instructor at the annual UCLA Softball Camp. While there, she approached the UCLA coaches who were present at the overnight camp and, yearning for a chance to step out onto the field once again, expressed to them her desire to play for the team.
From that point, it was a matter of seeking mutual interest and taking the necessary steps to making herself academically eligible, both of which panned out.
“All she wanted to know on our end was whether UCLA would be interested, and of course we would,” Inouye-Perez said. “But AK had to do her work first.”
Realizing her chance to become a Bruin, Kamekona got to work immediately.
“I took classes at (Mt. San Antonio College) when I decided to transfer over to UCLA,” she said.
“By the time I’d get here, I would be a junior, so I had to make sure to complete the GE requirements.”
In the end, the hard work paid off. Kamekona made her Bruin debut in a doubleheader on Feb. 8, 2008, going two-for-eight overall with two RBI and two runs scored.
Since then, the lone senior on the team has emerged as a leader in the clubhouse.
“First and foremost, (Kamekona) knows how to play,” Inouye-Perez said. “But she has also stretched her game in that she has made the people around her better and plays not just for herself, but for the team.”
“She’s a go-getter,” sophomore shortstop Monica Harrison added. “She brings everybody up and tends to get everybody going in the right direction.”
Based on the team’s success last season, it certainly seems as if Kamekona knows how to lead. UCLA advanced all the way to the NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla. in 2008 after failing to make it out of the first round the year before.
This season, the Bruins plan on getting just as far, with a 12th title to boot.
After all, this is Kamekona’s last season. And at the pinnacle of her softball career, AK-47 plans on going out with a bang.