Valerie Orona will be recognized on-field during World Series this fall
By Brooklynn Wong
It was announced last week that Valerie Orona, a graduate of Anaheim’s Loara High School who now attends Cypress College, has been named a winner of the Jennie Finch Empowerment Award.
Four women, from four different softball organizations, are given the Jennie Finch Empowerment Award annually.
Finch is a prolific softball player, having played at La Mirada High School, and then at the collegiate and Olympic levels, as well as on the US National team. She now is an ESPN commentator and an ambassador for softball and girls in sport.
Finch presented the award in person to Orona at a national softball tournament in Florida, where Orona was playing as part of the Angels’-affiliated Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities softball team.
Orona, a 17-year-old Anaheim native, along with this year’s other winners of the Jennie Finch Empowerment Award, will have donations made to the MLB Youth Foundation in their names, and will get to attend Game 4 of this fall’s World Series with Finch and appear on-field.
Orona is a first baseman who will continue her softball career at Cypress College.
Finch called Orona “a silent leader [who] leads by the example that she sets.”
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