Ruby Rojas: From Student Athlete to Olympian to Coach
Rubilena “Ruby” Rojas | she/her | CLAS ’03
B.A. Women’s Studies, Minor in Sociology
To Rubilena “Ruby” Rojas, playing softball was who she was. It had been her life for most of her adolescence. But even more, being a softball player was who she was. It was during her senior year of high school that she was being recruited to play Division I Softball. Each player was allowed up to 5 college visits. Rojas chose Notre Dame, Northwestern, Tennessee, New Mexico, and the University of Virginia. As she progressed through each of her visits, she narrowed down her choices based on factors such as scholarship money, academic rigor, and the weather. Rojas, being from Southern California, never had or wanted to experience winter. When she visited UVA on a beautiful spring day in April 1998, she figured it would never get cold there, given her limited knowledge of east coast weather patterns and beautiful campus. That’s why when UVA, the #1 public school at the time offered her a full ride scholarship, she could not refuse.
When she came to her parents with her decision, they were disappointed to know she would be moving cross country, but they were even more proud of her accomplishment as a first-generation college student. Her Venezuelan father and Mexican American mother had sacrificed a lot of her to pursue her passion of softball. So when Rojas shared her news of receiving a full ride scholarship, her mother jokingly said “I paid for that full-ride from all the lessons, all the hours of practice, private lessons, and travelling.” Rojas agrees that her mother has a point, and it was because of that sacrifice that she continues to develop her identity as Ruby Rojas, softball player to Ruby Rojas, ACC Softball Player for the University of Virginia.
When Rojas arrived at UVA, she lived in the first-year dorm, Tuttle where most student athletes at the time were housed. For Rojas, there were always student athletes around. Her roommate was a Women’s Basketball player and her suitemates played on different teams. When she wasn’t in her dorm, almost every component of her day - from practice, training, study hall – was spent with other student athletes driven to excel in their sport. Rojas notes that this close-knit and routine-like environment made her transition into the college somewhat familiar and easier than she expected. Given she was coming from a prestigious sports-centered high school, Rojas was used to dedicating her daily schedules to class and softball. When interviewer Kayla Dunn asked how she enjoyed this experience, Rojas replied that priority at UVA was to excel as an athlete and play softball, so to her, it’s what she needed to do to succeed.
During Rojas four years, she was ACC Rookie of the Year, a three-time all ACC athlete, and was appointed to the 50th anniversary all-ACC team. Simultaneously, Rojas was also a member of the Venezuelan national Softball team – training and playing in tournaments on an international scale all while fulfilling her duties to her team and academics at UVA. When reflecting on this experience, Rojas recounts that hard work and competitiveness helped her achieve these accolades, but it was also her UVA Softball teammates that made the experience worthwhile. Their bonds of friendship have even transcended Grounds, as Rojas has attended baby showers, weddings, and other major life events of her teammates throughout the years. Rojas also shares how much she loved spending time with other student athletes, especially going to support them at their games when she could fit in her schedule.
“I was a major jock and I absolutely loved it”
Although Rojas had been placed within a community that she genuinely enjoyed, she recognized how few Latinx students were athletes within the athletic community and she missed the cultural environment she had back home in Southern California. Rojas reflects that there was a stark difference in the ways members of various racial and cultural backgrounds interacted with each other, in comparison to her diverse hometown in southern California. At times, her own identity as a Venezuelan and Mexican American woman was questioned by students born in Latin America, sometimes feeling like she didn’t belong anywhere – “ni de aqui ni de alla.” Additionally, Rojas was the only Latina on her team and wished for the opportunity to find that piece of that home, somewhere at UVA. It was through her friendship with one of the founding members of the Gamma Alpha chapter of LTA, that she was able to find a group of women of diverse backgrounds to bring her that sense of home on Grounds. That is what made LTA so special to her – because she had found this community of women, from diverse backgrounds, who interacted and supported each other’s stories and truths. She felt like there was a space that she seen, heard, and belonged.
“ni de aqui ni de alla”
In four years, Rojas had an incredible tenure with the UVA Softball team and her LTA sisters, which Rojas mentions being the best four years of her life. After graduation in the Spring of 2003, she unexpectedly felt lost in what her next steps would be. Even more so, now that she was no longer a student athlete, she felt like her entire identity she had built was being dismantled. She was starting to unlearn the notion that softball was all she was, and began learning that it was simply something that she loved to do. This process of redefinition led Rojas to attend graduate school to achieve a Masters in Kinesiology so she could coach other softball athletes in the future.
While she was in graduate school, Rojas continued to play for the Venezuelan national team. Then in 2007, the team qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. After qualifying, Rojas put aside her other commitments, moved in with her parents, and began to train full-time at home. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and she was going to treat it as such. At the Olympics, represented her country playing the sport she loved at the highest level of athletics. And to top it all off, she even got to meet famous USA athletes like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. After returning from the Games, she had finished her Masters and was now looking for the next part of her journey.
“I was broke as hell but I was an olympian so whatever”
Soon after Beijing, she was hired as a Kinesiology Professor and Head Coach at a junior college part-time from 2008 to 2013. Throughout the process of teaching and coaching, Rojas recognized that she loved this type of work. So in 2013, Rojas retired from playing softball so she could dedicate herself to her career. Around this decision, she was hired full-time as a professor and coach, and not too long later, received a call from Auburn to be their coach, helping to run an elite softball program. Being such an incredible opportunity, Rojas accepted.
While coaching, she was really intrigued by the “mental game” that athletes play and how it affects their performance and motivation so they can figure out how to perform mat their highest level. Inspired by this, she is currently working towards her doctorate in sports psychology. After coaching, she would love to be a consulting sport psychologist, helping teams on their mental game.
When reflecting on Rojas journey, you witness the transition from how she intertwined her essence with the sport of softball to becoming an adult who used the sport she loved to define her career and impact the lives of others. The path softball took her on was not always expected, but she realizes how grateful she is to do something she loves.
“There are so many ways to get to your final destination whatever that is and sometimes you are going to fail a lot but that’s learning lessons for sure in life.”
To UVA students, Rojas advises them to “Savor every moment and minute because it will go by so fast. You blink and it’s over. This is the best time of your life. The tests, the work, it is worth it. The experience as a whole. Secondly, Learn as much as you can. Meet as many people as you. And finally, value people for people. Don’t be afraid because there is always a story and something you can learn from them.”
