Weiser High’s Aburto signs letter of intent to play softball at TVCC

Aryssa Aburto recently signed a letter of intent to play softball at Treasure Valley Community College. Pictured above, from left, is TVCC coach Rick Moeller, Jose Aburto, Aryssa Aburto, Kristina Aburto, Annalisa Aburto, and TVCC head coach Gordy Ogawa. The group poses after Aryssa’s official signing, which took place Wednesday, March 6 at Weiser High School. Photo courtesy of WHS
By:
Philip A. Janquart
Weiser High School senior Aryssa Aburto has signed a letter of intent to play softball at Treasure Valley Community College.
Family, friends, coaches, and others surrounded her in the school’s foyer on Wednesday, March 6 as she scrolled her signature across the bottom of some official paperwork.
Aburto is in her fourth season as a Wolverine pitcher and third and first baseman.
She has also participated as a cheerleader while at WHS.
“It’s really exciting,” she told the Signal American. “I’m really excited to extend my softball career past high school.”
She said TVCC head coach Gordy Ogawa recruited her primarily for her talents as a defensive player.
“I’ll do a little pitching when they need it, but I think defense-wise I’m there for third and first base,” she said. “I like the foot movement and all that stuff, but I’ll pitch whenever our coach wants me to.”
Ogawa took over the Chukar softball program in 2009, guiding the team to its first NWAC (Northwest Athletic Conference) appearance in school history, in only his second season. The Chukars have qualified for the NWAC Championship in eight of the last 11 seasons, placing third in 2014. There were no championships held during the pandemic.
Ogawa coached at Ontario High School from 1994 to 2004.
Aburto said she plans on studying nursing.
“I’ll be taking courses under their pre-nursing program,” she said. “I plan on transferring to extend my education, but I won’t know that for sure until mid-second year.”
To this point, softball has been her entire world, playing club softball between high school seasons.
“I play mostly year-round, during the summer and fall,” said Aburto who has played with several teams, including the WC Warriors, Idaho Crush Fastpitch, and Dirtdogs 18U Black.
Her favorite aspect of softball, she noted, is the relationships, but has also been able to up her level of play.
“I really like traveling, the experience of meeting new people,” she said. “I get to meet a lot of new girls, new umpires, a lot of new people when I travel. I’ve gained a lot playing for these teams. Honestly, I wouldn’t be where I am right now mentally and physically if I hadn’t done that.”
Aburto will finish out her club-playing days this summer with the Dirtdogs before reporting for TVCC for fall ball.
She also has one more season at Weiser High School. Last year, the Wolverines were able to capture a fifth-place finish at the 3A State Softball Championships.
“We did alright last year,” she said. “We had a lot of complications with pitchers’ arms getting hurt, but other than that, we still did pretty good as a team.”
This year could be successful, but it depends on a couple of key factors.
“This season, I think we are looking alright; we have a new coach, and we didn’t have a lot of people come back from last season,” Aburto said. “We have a lot of freshmen, you know, new faces. We’ll have to build trust and communication between teammates; that’s what we are trying to do right now, so that we are comfortable with each other. We want to make sure we have a good start to the season.”
Head coach Aimee Wootton is in her second year coaching the Wolverines. She is also a teacher at Weiser High School.
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