The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
Long Beach Poly junior softball star Ki’ele Ho-Ching has always loved representing her family, her city, and her school. Now she’s going to have a chance to represent her country, as the Oklahoma commit was just named to the USA Softball U18 women’s national team.
Ho-Ching is one of 16 players from 10 different states to receive the honor.
Ho-Ching and her older sister, Tiare (now at Arizona State) have both been multi-sport stars at Poly, killing it in both softball and in flag football. Ki’ele was ranked the No. 3 recruit in the junior class when she verbally committed to Oklahoma last year. They’re part of a lineage of talented Ho-Ching sports stars at Poly including their uncle, Poly and Oregon running back Herman Ho-Ching, and their father, Daniel Ho-Ching, who played football at Poly and Hawaii.
The Moore League has produced a ton of softball stars, including Lakewood alum Jessica Scroggins who was an All-American at Baylor, but the league hasn’t had a USA Softball Youth National Team player per USA Softball’s archives.
Ho-Ching joins local sports icons in Lisa Fernandez (Long Beach native who attended St. Joseph) and Tiare Jennings (a San Pedro native who attended St. Anthony) in putting the “USA” jersey on–both Fernandez and Jennings were on the Senior National Team, with Jennings one of its brightest young stars.
The USA U18 squad will be coached by Kyla Holas, and will compete in this year’s WBSC U18 Women’s Softball World Cup against the rest of the world’s best.
Ho-Ching will lead a talented Jackrabbit team this year hoping to unseat perennial Moore League champ Millikan. In addition to Ho-Ching, Poly boasts Cal commit Emoni Lam Sam, Bethune Cookman commit Kween Tauala, and power bat Janelle Morris among other experienced returners.
