Highlander Highlight

Fresh Face

All eyes are on this freshman with big-league ties.

By Madeline Adamo

Haylee Kela usually knows the first question people are going to ask her when they meet — it’s in the way they stare.

“Where are you from?”

It doesn’t bother Haylee, who is half Hawaiian and half Portuguese, and she’ll usually ask what their question is with a knowing sparkle in her eye.

“People are always so surprised,” after they learn of her unique heritage, Haylee said.

They might also be surprised to learn that Haylee is the starting center fielder for the UCR softball team — a rare feat for a freshman. She took over the position from Jenna Curtan ’18, who left big shoes to fill after breaking many Highlander records.

But given the confidence she exudes, it’s obvious nerves aren’t Haylee’s problem. Besides, the 19-year-old biology major comes from an esteemed baseball lineage, which includes her older brother, Keone, 26, a pitcher in his first season with the Pittsburgh Pirates after playing with the Texas Rangers since 2015.

This is the first year Haylee didn’t make it to his opening day game, a first since her brother started playing Major League Baseball in 2012. That’s because she’s too busy helping the Highlanders make headlines, including the team’s 13-game winning streak in March, and her Big West Freshman of the Week award on March 11.

Haylee’s two younger brothers also play baseball. It’s sort of an unwritten law in the Kela household, she explained. Her parents usually have to split time between her games and those of her brothers.

“It’s all my dad,” Haylee said of the role baseball plays in the family. “I am just another one of his sons, for sure.”

Sports have kept the Long Beach family close. Their tight bond is one reason Haylee chose UCR after graduating from Lakewood High School.

But the start of her first season as a Highlander was hard, and there were a number of losses that gave the team pause.

“It’s never good when we lose,” she said. “I am super competitive — everything about me. I just want to win. There was this one game where we kind of just said ‘no more.’ Now we just feed off of that and keep doing our thing. Everybody (on the team) has that will.”

Despite their competitive nature, Haylee and her teammates have plenty of fun together, including frequent trips to get ice cream, hanging out at each other’s apartments, and lots of laughing.

And they’ve always got each other’s back.

“I was telling my teammates I hadn’t hit a home run yet, and they kept telling me it will just come randomly. And then I hit it,” Haylee said of her two-run blast to left field in the team’s 8–2 win over Santa Clara on March 23. “I’m really close with our senior Hannah (Rodriguez), and in that moment I looked over, and she’s just crying. She was like, ‘I am so proud of you.’”

Haylee also has nothing but praise for the coaches who believed in her and have helped her during her first season.

“Coach (Nikki) Palmer … me and her have, like, a special relationship because she is my outfielding coach, and I was her first recruit here,” Haylee said.

Beyond softball, Haylee has a specific career goal in mind — one that she remembers having as a little girl.

“I want to be a family practitioner. That’s just who I am; I like to give,” she said, noting science and math are her “thing.”

UCR’s School of Medicine is on her radar, but she knows it’s tough to get in. Haylee acknowledged she’s still figuring out how to manage softball and her academic workload.

“It’s hard,” she said. “I am just growing older and trying to find out where I am and who I am.”