KANSAS CITY -- Sixty top high school softball players will showcase their talent this weekend at the annual Softball Breakthrough Series. The event is made possible through a partnership between Major League Baseball and USA Softball.

The participants come from across the continental United States as well as Puerto Rico and Hawaii. One such athlete is 16-year-old catcher Jayla Medeiros from Kapolei, Hawaii. Medeiros follows in a long line of athletes, where all of the women in her family played softball before her.

“It was just something that everyone did,” Medeiros said. “In my family, everyone did something athletic, and the women did softball.”

As a little girl, Medeiros saw herself playing in the NFL until she began competing in softball and realized that was a more realistic goal she could accomplish. Softball isn’t as big as football and baseball in Hawaii, and the girls start off playing baseball with the boys before they part off to softball. Medeiros said she benefited from playing with the boys because it made softball that much easier due to the competitiveness of the boys’ style of play.

“Playing with boys made me have more confident, and with their attitude being different, really changed how I am about the game and perspective about how I play,” Medeiros said.

During baseball season, no one wanted to be the catcher, so Medeiros stepped up and it was fate. She fell in love with the position. Being able to see the entire field and be in control made it the perfect fit for her.

Being a catcher taught Medeiros how to communicate better on and off the field as well as give direction to her team. She understands that one wrong call can affect the entire game, so she focuses a lot on communication.

In the seventh grade, Medeiros began to play competitive softball, where she took with her everything she learned from playing with the boys -- and most importantly, her position. Medeiros also plays basketball, but it doesn’t compare to the love she has for softball.

“I love everything about being on a team and working together for the common goal,” Medeiros said. “Everyone brings something different to the table, and I like how everything comes together.”

As a kid, Medeiros looked up to Olympic gold medalist Jennie Finch, but now that she is older, she follows the career of University of Oklahoma's Jocelyn Alo, who is also from Hawaii.

Although the other women in the Medeiros family played softball before her, she will be the first woman in her family to attend college.

“My mom and sister had the talent, but the exposure is different for me than it was for them,” Medeiros said. “With the change in technology, highlight tapes and camps, this could be something I could do not just as a hobby.”

Medeiros aspires to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) like former Bruin Hall of Famer and Olympian Natasha Watley.

“UCLA is a school of excellence, so my advice would be to make sure you have your grades, because without those your athletics won’t follow,” Watley said. “UCLA has the most national championships (11), so knowing that there are expectations the day you walk in that you should know what you are signing up for and know you are required to perform at a certain level.”

With UCLA’s successful softball history, the athletes don’t have a transition phase. The first day is go time. As a youth softball ambassador, Watley is one of the many great coaches, U.S. Olympians and Nation Team members instructing at the Series, which is designed to promote softball as a viable collegiate option for youth from underrepresented and underserved communities.

“To be able to have the access to people here like the girls do is unheard of and rare,” Watley said. “I would have benefited from a program like this 100 percent.”

Medeiros would like to study kinesiology at UCLA and become an OB-GYN.

“In Hawaii, everyone goes to the same doctor, and a lot of the time they are male doctors, so I think it could be more comfortable if it was a female instead of a male,” Medeiros said.

Although UCLA is expensive, it is close to home for Medeiros. She can also relate to head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, who has roots in Hawaii.

Medeiros hopes attending this program, which focuses on developing players on and off the field through seminars, mentorship, gameplay, scout evaluations and video coverage, will help her to become more knowledgeable about her game and learn from the different coaches’ experiences and aspects of their lives.

The advice Medeiros would give young girls would be to always take advice, even if you don’t use it, and try new things.

“I’m still learning new things and it has worked for me so far,” Medeiros said.