The life of a student-athlete can get overwhelming while balancing practices, games, schoolwork and other daily responsibilities. Miranda Viramontes, pitcher for the University of Utah women’s softball team, has experienced such challenges firsthand. As she enters her fourth and final year as a Ute, she is thriving on the idea of future plans.

Viramontes, who is from Chino, California, is a well-known softball player, both in Utah and the Pac-12 conference. She hopes to help lead her team to the playoffs later this year.

When Viramontes is not competing, she is working toward her sociology major and health minor. She changed her major from exercise and sports science after her sophomore year because she was no longer interested in studying math. She discovered she enjoys sociology, and now she has goals of becoming a social worker.

“I learn about all different types of people in my sociology classes, and it is interesting to watch the girls on the team and learn about them from a new perspective,” Viramontes said. “It is interesting to relate the information that I learn in class to my interactions with friends and the girls on the team.”

Viramontes is interested in classes with topics surrounding juvenile delinquency, substance abuse and women in crime.

Assistant coach Cody Thomson works primarily with the pitchers on the team, so he has gotten to know Viramontes a little better than other players.

“Miranda is one of the only players on the team who has a really fun personality. That is a part of her game and how she approaches softball,” Thomson said. “She is intense during games, but off the mound and off the field, she is super fun and energetic.”

Thomson has been working with Viramontes for the past two seasons and praised her for her dominance as a player on the field. He said she is a hard worker, which is evident in her athletic and academic life. Thomson says the coaching staff does their best to not be overly analytical of their players’ studies, but the program does take pride in the fact they graduate every four-year player who comes through the program. Viramontes leads by example by sticking to her routine and preparing herself to graduate.

“She acts like she has everything completely under control,” he said. “She has balanced everything for the last three years, and she is ready for one last season.”

After she graduates in the spring, Viramontes is planning to take a full year off from school before applying to graduate schools. She wants to remain in Utah for her future education and work, but she is willing to settle anywhere she can pursue her goals.

In her time off, Viramontes will be a member of the Mexican national softball team for the first half of the summer. As part of the team, she will travel all over the world to play softball for Mexico against other countries. After the season ends, she is hoping to get a job at a rehab treatment center working with young troubled girls. Between traveling the world and working, Viramontes plans to lay low while she considers her future plans for the next year.

“Eventually, I would like to come back to softball as a coach,” Viramontes said. “It would be cool to keep being around the game in some way.”

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@caseyoverfield