Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians made history ahead of spring training, hiring their first female field coach in team history.
Amanda Kamekona, a former softball standout at both UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, was announced Feb. 8 as the Guardians’ hitting development coach for their academy in Arizona.
Before graduating from UCLA in 2009, Kamekona had earned a slew of honors, including being named to the All-Pac-10 first-team and third-team All-American honors as a junior, after leading the Bruins in home runs (14), runs batted in (46), runs scored (47), doubles (17), and slugging percentage (.663).
The 36-year-old native of Glendale played both softball and baseball at Ayala High School in Chino Hills, earning letters in each sport. She also played volleyball and water polo at Ayala, as well as club softball with Gordon’s Panthers.
After college, Kamekona played nearly a decade of professional softball, and founded a junior Olympic-level softball club in Chino Hills. From 2019-22, she served as the softball head coach at Bishop Amat High School in La Puente.
She will be based at the Guardians’ year-round complex in Goodyear, Ariz., where she’ll work with developing the team’s Rookie League players.
Kamekona joins a growing list of female coaches garnering on-field opportunities. The New York Yankees hired Rachel Balkovec to helm their Single-A team in Tampa last season, making her became the first woman to manage a minor league affiliate.
Alyssa Nakken became the first female coach on the field in a regular-season MLB game last year when she coached at first base for the San Francisco Giants during a game against the San Diego Padres.