Mikaila Reyes puts on her backpack and glances at the pages of her planner. The sheets have carefully-written notes under each day's heading, reminders that are needed for balancing the busy schedule of a student-athlete pursuing a career in the medical field. That planning will be key as she works to achieve her goals. Meticulous planning, a lot of hard work, and maybe a bit of a destiny have helped Reyes achieve her childhood goal of being a Triton student-athlete, and that is what she hopes will continue to lead her to success as she chases even more dreams.
Reyes recalls that she was only four or five years old when she started playing softball, fondly remembering her kindergarten teacher cheering her on at one of her games. While it is hard for her now to remember a time in her life without softball, the journey began by chance.
“My parents saw a flier and randomly signed me up for it,” Reyes said about her spontaneous start to the sport. “Ever since then, I've been hooked.”
Reyes continued to play softball throughout her childhood, and her family and friends noticed the passion she had for the sport. At 10 years old, there was a moment that Reyes, currently a utility player on the UC San Diego softball team, will never forget.
“My dad was dating someone, at the time, who went to UC San Diego,” Reyes explained. “She got me a UC San Diego softball shirt and there's a picture of me holding up the shirt. It's surreal that I'm here right now and that I'm on the team."
Although the experience is a dream come true for Reyes, it was by no means coincidental. Playing for the Triton softball team was all part of her plans. Those plans began to form shortly after she received that shirt.
“Since I was around 12… I've known I wanted to be a doctor,” Reyes recounted. “I wanted to go to UC San Diego. I wanted to play softball at UC San Diego… It's funny seeing everything fall in line with how I planned it.”
Reyes' path to the UC San Diego softball team was not a simple one. High academic and athletic standards were something that she strived to meet, with the pressure rising as she started high school. A San Diego native, Reyes attended Torrey Pines High School, which ranks as one of the top-50 California high schools by U.S. News.
“I played softball and field hockey in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, and then in tenth grade, academics really started to take it up a notch,” Reyes remembers. “I made the decision to quit field hockey because it wasn't something that I loved as much as softball. That was one of the points where I decided I couldn't manage all of it at once.”
Her decision to pursue softball paid off, as Reyes helped the Falcons to a CIF Division I Championship and finished her career with numerous athletic and academic accolades. She excelled on and off the field, even finding the time to engage in an academic passion outside of the classroom: oncology. Reyes' pursuit to become an oncologist came from the passing of her grandmother after her fourth battle with breast cancer.
As a junior in high school, Reyes interned with the Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA), which is a program run through UC San Diego. Through dissections, DNA analysis and other learning experiences, she learned about cancer and reproductive biology.
That same year, Reyes' hard work and planning paid off. She was able to commit to UC San Diego.
“I came in as a human biology major,” Reyes said. “Then I switched to physiology and neuroscience before my sophomore year because I thought it sounded more fun,” she laughed.
From the start, Reyes was confident that being a Triton athlete and her dreams of becoming an oncologist would not clash.
“I'd heard things about UC San Diego biology majors,” Reyes recollected. “'Oh it's so hard,' but I had teammates who were also human biology majors and I thought 'I can make it through.' That means it's doable with our softball schedule… There was never really an 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this' moment.”
In fact, being a student-athlete has been more than achievable for Reyes; the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American Scholar Athlete has a nearly-perfect GPA. She brings her academic pursuits to the field with her, receiving encouragement from her teammates and coaches.
“I recently worked at my stepdad's program management company and I did a lot of work with personality tests,” Reyes shared. “I did it with the team too. I had everyone take the tests and send them back to me, and I'm going to give them a report next week.”
Reyes' college experience has been one that may not be typical of the average college student, but she does not want it any other way. It reflects careful plans formed a decade ago, and hard work ever since.
Thinking about her busy days filled with softball practice and classes, along with all that has led her to this point as a Triton student-athlete, it is a simple analysis for Reyes: “It definitely is worth it.”
About UC San Diego Athletics With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country. The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in summer 2020, will transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference. UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent. A total of 80 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 36 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. In competition, more than 1,300 UC San Diego student-athletes have earned All-America honors.
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