Tori Maeda will give softball try after hoops season is over

Tori Maeda’s final athletic appearance in ‘Iolani’s red and black came while wearing a softball jersey instead of a basketball uniform.

Just recently, she decided the same might hopefully hold true at Central Washington.

The 2019 ‘Iolani alumna, whose final high school game was when the Raiders won a softball state championship, recently decided not to take an extra year of athletic eligibility to play one more season of basketball.

That doesn’t mean she’s going anywhere, though. After a four-year break from the game, Maeda is going to give softball one last shot.

She will use her fifth year of eligibility to attempt to walk on to the Central Washington softball team while she finishes up her academic work.

“I was definitely always basketball focused once I got to college because I feel like that was easier for me,” Maeda said in a phone interview Tuesday. “As I’ve gotten older, I don’t want to regret not trying to play softball.”

That challenge is yet to come. For now, Maeda is in the middle of trying to help the Wildcats’ women’s basketball team duplicate a first in program history.

Last year, Central Washington won the first Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament title in school history.

It went on to play two games in the NCAA Division II West Region tournament.

“That was crazy. It was our first time for our school, so we had a lot of support there,” Maeda said. “It was definitely a different type of feeling for each (NCAA Tournament) game. I feel like it compares to a state-tournament game (in high school) but on a whole new level.”

Maeda is the youngest of five siblings, and sports have always been a big part of her life.

A knee injury kept her from playing her senior season of basketball, in which ‘Iolani also won a state title — the first of three straight entering this year’s tournament that concludes Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

She was cleared by a doctor to play softball to finish high school, but was back in the gym in college during a freshman season in which she started exactly half of CWU’s 30 games.

For her career, the 5-foot-6 point guard has started 64 of 83 games played. That includes her COVID-19-shortened sophomore season, when the team only played twice in March 2021.

Before that, Maeda had an extended break in Hawaii, returning to campus in September 2020. If she stayed home any longer, she might have never made it back.

“I’m really close with my family and I feel like I was just too much of a home body,” Maeda said. “Looking back on it and seeing how many of my classmates stayed home after COVID, I think I would have been one of those people as well.”

Her reward was a stellar junior campaign in which she finished fifth in the league in assists per game and earned the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s a feeling she hopes to go through one more time next month.

“Team goals we want to repeat and get in the GNAC Tournament and make the NCAA Tournament because of that whole different atmosphere that is just super cool,” Maeda said.

The Wildcats are 15-5 overall and in third place in the conference at 7-4.

They lost the GNAC Player of the Year and their leading scorer from a season ago but have been able to stay near the top of the standings.

Five of their last seven conference games are on the road, including Saturday’s tilt at league-leading Western Washington.

“We’ve done surprisingly well,” Maeda said. “We thought it was going to be a rebuilding year, so that was a nice surprise.”

CWU’s last two home games at Nicholson Pavilion are next week against the two Alaska schools.

“I went back and forth on whether or not to come back to play (basketball), so it hasn’t hit me yet,” Maeda said.

Whatever happens to finish the basketball season, Maeda seemed content with her decision. She wanted “no regrets,” as she put it, and no matter if she gets to play softball or not, it won’t change her outlook on the time she’s had up until now in college.

“I’ve really enjoyed my experiences,” Maeda said. “(Ellensburg) is like a super small town, but I like how close our team is because of it. I feel like if we were at a larger school, we wouldn’t have been as close. We hang out a lot in our free times and I think being in a small town has really benefited me.”

TORI MAEDA

>> School: Central Washington

>> Position: Guard

>> Height: 5 feet 6

>> Class: Senior

>> High school: ‘Iolani (2019)

CAREER STATISTICS

YEAR G-GS MPG PPG RPG APG STL

2019-20 29-15 21.1 2.8 1.4 1.9 11

2020-21 2-0 24.0 6.0 2.0 1.5 1

2021-22 32-29 29.3 3.9 3.0 3.3 25

2022-23 20-20 32.2 5.0 4.1 4.6 15

TOTAL 83-64 27.0 3.8 2.7 3.1 52