Hofheins ready to join the Pirates next spring

MOSES LAKE — Being a dual-sport athlete is no easy task, but Raegen Hofheins has done it her whole life. In fact, she had trouble narrowing down to two sports when she got to Moses Lake High School.

“I have always been a pretty active person. When I was little, I played probably five sports at a time, and once I hit middle school, going into high school, I had to decide on which ones were my favorites, and I have played softball since I was 4 years old,” Hofheins said.

Hofheins also opted to keep up with volleyball during her time at Moses Lake.

“I really enjoyed volleyball also, and grinding through that throughout high school was super fun,” she said. “I just never thought that I would ever play both sports (in college).”

Having been so involved in sports growing up, staying in shape was never an issue, she said. It came down to being in shape for either sport specifically when their respective seasons came around. According to Hofheins, each sport is demanding on different muscle groups so that element would have to be worked out when new seasons start.

“I’m a pretty motivated person, and I love competing and being with my teammates, and that made it so much easier,” she said. “The people I was surrounded by were just amazing.”

Early on in her high school career, Hofheins said she had another dual-sport teammate to look up to in Jazlynn Torres. Like Hofheins, Torres balanced playing volleyball and softball throughout her time at Moses Lake High School.

She spent a lot of time learning from her as Torres grew in her own ways as an athlete, she said. She said it was emotional to see her graduate since they grew close over their time as Mavericks.

“I don’t even know if she knows this, but she was just an amazing player, and I had an amazing time learning from her. She was a libero, and that was the position that I always enjoyed playing,” Hofheins said.

Libero is a defensive player position that is focused on back-row defense and serve receptions.

As she grew up, she began to work with her dad, Mavericks head softball coach Mike Hofheins. This allowed her to get to know the team before ever becoming a student at the high school.

She said while some may expect athletes to not like their parents also being their coaches, this was not the case with her. According to Hofheins, she gained a lot of work ethic from being coached by him.

“A lot of people don’t like their parents as coaches, but he is probably the best coach that I’ve ever had,” she said. “My work ethic comes a lot from him, because he worked so hard as a coach that it made me want to work even harder as a player. I think that has carried over into college and as a person in general.”

In softball alone, Hofheins was a first team All-League player in the Big Nine and won the Columbia Basin Big Nine Defensive Player of the Year award. She also picked up All-League honors in the last two seasons as a volleyball player, as well. Head volleyball coach Krystal Trammell said she was excited when Hofheins joined her team.

“She is a firecracker. She’s one of those people that just makes a difference. Whether it’s on the court, the field, in the classroom, whatever Rae Rae does is amazing,” Trammell said. “She went to Columbia (Middle School), and I was her counselor there, and so I could see how much of a leader and how dynamic she was in middle school.”

Trammell touted Hofheins’ leadership while she was a Maverick. She said Hofheins was respected by her teammates and was knowledgeable when it came to the sport itself.

As her career was nearing its end, Hofheins began looking at colleges that she would be able to compete at. A pillar to her decision was the ability to continue being a dual-sport athlete. She said that was what ultimately led her to commit to the Walla Walla Warriors.

“At the end of my visit, the softball coach said that he had been communicating with the volleyball coach, and just like, ‘She would love it if you came and played for her,’ and that was it for me. I was like, ‘Well, if I can continue to play both, then I’m going to,’” she said.

What she could not have predicted was how her experience at Walla Walla would unfold. She said her volleyball season was fun and she was able to make a lot of friends in what was a rebuilding year for the program. However, she said, she went there expecting to play softball and volleyball was an added bonus.

As she was nearing the start of her first collegiate softball season, Hofheins suffered a torn ACL at practice one week before the opening game. According to Hofheins, it was too cold outside to practice so they did it indoors.

“I was just running, and it snapped, and that was pretty much it,” she said.

She said her team was supportive of her through a trying time; one teammate even stayed with her in urgent care for three hours when she initially got injured. She was hurt in February but could not get surgery until April, which was the most frustrating part for her, she said.

However, she still showed up to practices and supported her teammates the same way they supported, she said. After the season wrapped up, she knew her volleyball career was over since she would not be able to play this fall, and Walla Walla is a two-year school.

“I was prepared to have one more year of volleyball and be done. I was ready for that, and right when I tore my ACL, and the doctors told me, ‘You’re not going to be ready to play.’ That was really hard.

This led Hofheins to make a tough decision and transfer to Whitworth University, where she will be focused solely on playing softball for the Pirates. She said the choice to go there was made easier knowing that her sister Taylor Hofheins and her dad went there, so there was familiarity with the school.

“I think that’s going to be super fun. I also am really looking forward to the teammates, because I’ve met some of them already, and they seem amazing. Whitworth (University) just got a new coach, and he coached at a D1 school,” she said.