Enough was enough.

The day was May 9, 2018. The place was Montgomery, Ala. The Prairie View A&M softball team had just taken a tough 5-3 loss to Eastern Division champion Alabama A&M in the opening round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Softball Tournament.

Laurisa Hernandez had seen this story before. 

A junior at the time, the struggles of freshman and sophomore year – as well as the ensuing frustration and overwhelming hunger for victory from them -- were still fresh on her mind. 

The Lady Panthers slugger thought about how her team had started their two prior forays into the double-elimination tournament with losses. Though she always led by example, she recalled how they never made it past the second day in either of those instances.

“I did my best to set an example for everybody, and at times it was so frustrating,” she said of her first two years. “I would wonder when we were finally going to win.”

Most importantly, she remembered that this team wasn’t the Lady Panthers teams of past, leaning on the mindset that the entire dugout had following their most recent setback.

“My junior year, we were adamant that we’re not going home. There was no way we would let all of our hard work and dedication fall by the wayside,” she said. “I think that after that loss, we decided (the tournament) was ours. We had the same goal and it was a sense of ‘If you want it, I want it, so let’s go get it’ in the dugout. No one could take that from us.”

Though it sounds simple … actually doing it was an entirely different matter. So the focus shifted toward being in the moment. One game at a time. One inning at a time. One pitch at a time. One unifying motto that was three words long.

“There’s a saying my dad always told me whenever I had trouble either on the field or during life in general, and that’s ‘Si se puede,’” Hernandez said. “That means ‘Yes, you can.’ The season we won the title, anytime we were down … you could ask any member of the team, ‘Si se puede’ is what I’d always say in the dugout.”

The rest, as the saying goes, was history. 

To the shock of some – Hernandez included – the Lady Panthers improbably reeled off six straight wins, three of them on the final day, and ended a 20-year title drought for the softball program. Hernandez was the difference-maker for one of the most impressive tournament runs regardless of sport in the league’s history, punishing opposing pitching on her way to the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.

“I couldn’t feel my legs in the last two games, but I knew we had to push through,” Hernandez recalled with a laugh. “We had this urge to take it, and we took what was ours. I look at my (all-tournament and tournament MVP) trophies, I look at my ring every day and know that we deserved every bit of it.”
 

Before Hernandez came to Prairie View A&M, she was a three-sport star back in her hometown of Fremont, Calif. 

A natural athlete, Hernandez put her all into the arena of play, taking part in soccer, basketball and softball.

Of course, the latter stuck.

“My heart found softball, and that was just my thing,” she said. “I love it to this day, and whenever I get the chance I pick up a bat or my glove and play catch with somebody. I love it so much.”

The sport became perhaps the most integral tool to her development on the academics side. Having struggled with dyslexia, Hernandez said she wasn’t even sure if college was a certainty for her. 

“I wasn’t the smartest kid in class and I always thought you had to have the best grades to get to college,” she said. 

Luckily for her, Hernandez’s prodigious ability on the diamond would help forge her path toward the Hill. That combined with an impressive work ethic, a little luck and a taste of divine intervention ultimately forged her path toward something that she previous thought impossible.

“My dad always told me that where I get my A-plus is on the softball field. That was my forte,” she said. “If you needed me to do something, I could do it. It was just a matter of being taught, and that was it. Being dyslexic actually helped me be the softball player I was. When I learned lessons on the field, I kind of transferred them into my everyday life and into school.

“There were some up and downs with balancing school, playing and practice, but I received the helped I needed for academics. If it wasn’t for God, then I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. There’s always a plan He has set out. I didn’t even think I would even go to a four-year college due to my learning disability. But somehow softball and dyslexia combined together to help me succeed on and off the field.”

As for that little bit of luck? Well, that came about during a trip to the Lone Star State for a travel-ball tournament. It was the first time Hernandez had set foot in Texas and a bit of a culture shock for the West Coaster.

“That’s when I first met Coach (Vernon) Bland and Coach Rollo (Joseph Lane),” she said. Before then, I would have never imagined myself coming to Texas. If I had the choice to go anywhere else, I still would have picked Prairie View. They were so welcoming.”

In particular, the player-coach bond between her and Lane helped shape Hernandez to who she is now, part of which is being an instructor for the Timbergrove Sports Academy as part of Lane’s Full-Potential Sports Academy, which works with athletes across the greater Houston area to help them unleash previously untapped ability on the diamond.

The coaching staff is comprised of collegiate athletes, and of course Hernandez was one of Lane’s most preferred choices to help lead the future of one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. She hopes that the program can eventually have some sort of presence across the entirety of the SWAC’s geographic footprint.

“He really invested his time into me,” Hernandez said of Lane. “He hand-selected players that he felt had best represented the idea of reaching full potential. I love coaching and sharing my knowledge of the game. It’s something I’m good at, and I don’t want to keep it to myself. I want to make people better than I ever was and help them achieve their dreams.”

After living out some of her wildest dreams, Hernandez now enjoys helping others do the same.

Benevolent in her actions, she hopes that her journey can inspire others.

“In general, I like to give back and want to tell girls to follow their dreams,” she said. “If they want to play collegiate softball or go pro, I can tell them it’s possible because I did it.” 

After all, as Hernandez notes, there’s a pretty good chance that she’s been in the same place that those who make up the future of her sport have been. You just have to believe.

It also helps if you have a little pride in what you’re doing and where you’re going. Even if you experience a setback, the one affectionately known as “Ya-Ya” says that the most important thing she could ever tell someone hoping to following in her footsteps.

“I enjoy being a role model and I want them to be better than me because I know they can. I always tell people that, whether they are slumping or in a low point. There are times where athletes are stuck at a wall and are struggling to figure out how to get around it or how to plow through it. Sometimes it gets so tiring and you feel like you’re not getting any better. If you’re positive and change your mindset to ‘Si, se puede’ then you can do it. That and having heart are the main two things. If you don’t have heart in what you want to do, it makes or breaks you. Sometimes you lose, but it’s a lesson learned.” 

It may be difficult to imagine that something as simple as saying ‘Yes, you can’ would be the foundation for a legend of Lady Panthers softball, but the proof is in the pudding, or in this case, resume.

Hernandez ended her time at Prairie View A&M as a two-time all-SWAC honoree. She’s a two-time all-tournament honoree as well, winning MVP honors in 2018. She ended her Lady Panther career as a career .340 hitter, belting 24 home runs with 20 doubles and 126 RBI. She was the first in school history to play softball professionally.

By any measure, she is one of the greatest offensive players in the history of Prairie View A&M softball. Nevertheless, her current calling is to help others do even more than she did, no matter their destinations.

“Even if you have a similar story to mine or not, you never know how those words can help someone,” Hernandez said. “Just those words helped me get to where I am. I can’t give up because I have a story to tell. I just have to keep going and keep fighting to where I’m going to be.”

You can choose to doubt Laurisa Hernandez going forward if you feel so inclined, but be advised that doing so is likely a fool’s errand. 

Don’t believe that? Then ask her yourself. Her response will be the same as it is when faced with any sort of adversity … 

“Si se puede.”

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