By Kenton Brooks
It’s only natural to see Trena Mims’ hand wrapped around a softball.
The 10-year-old Muskogee girl has become quite adept at playing it or just throwing it.
Mims will compete in the softball throw in the girls 9-10 division at the annual Hershey’s Track and Field Meet in Hershey, Pa., on July 30-Aug. 2. She qualified for the national meet after winning at state last Saturday at University of Oklahoma in Norman with a throw of 122 feet. Before that, she won the local competition at Indian Bowl in March with a throw of 116 feet.
“You have to stay behind the line when you throw,” Mims said. “You can either stand and throw it or run up and throw it. I ran up and threw. I’m excited about going to the national meet.”
Mims, though, is also torn about going to nationals. Her softball team, the Wilkerson Child Care Angels, are playing in the 10-under World Series at the same time in Orlando, Fla.
Her mother, Cynthia Mims, has that figured out.
“We’re going to fly here (to Hershey) and she’ll come back to Florida to play with our team,” Cynthia Mims said.
Trena Mims, who celebrated her birthday June 19, plays catcher for the Angels. After a game, she typically stays and just throws the softball with her mother, also the Angels’ coach.
“I’ll throw it 20 times,” the younger Mims said, adding she’s been playing since she was 3. “Being a catcher helps me in throwing because I have to throw to second base in a game, and that’s pretty far.”
But Trena Mims makes it look easy. She’s also played basketball, soccer and tackle football. Her mother said she’s a tomgirl.
Trena’s also a member of a talented and athletic family.
Her mother played on Muskogee’s 1983 slowpitch softball state championship team, while an older brother (Stanley Titsworth) played college basketball at Missouri Southern, another brother (Rell Lewis) is a wide receiver at University of Kansas and another brother (Greg Mims) competed in a singing competition in Las Vegas three years ago.
“I push my kids and encourage them,” she said. “I really have been blessed.”
Trena Mims, entering the fifth grade at Grant Foreman Elementary School, also placed in the standing long jump and 50-yard dash at the Hershey’s state meet, but her distances didn’t qualify for the national meet. She’s happy about going to nationals in the one event.
“I think it’s going to be fun,” she said.
