Softball star crushes cancer, competition

Nikki Hunter overcomes long odds to earn MVP, All-CIF honors



CANCER SURVIVOR—Nikki Hunter, now 17, was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 5. The Camarillo native has survived and thrived, earning All-CIF softball honors this year for Rio Mesa High. ROB VARELA/Acorn Newspapers

CANCER SURVIVOR—Nikki Hunter, now 17, was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 5. The Camarillo native has survived and thrived, earning All-CIF softball honors this year for Rio Mesa High. ROB VARELA/Acorn Newspapers

Thomas Hunter was sitting in his living room with his wife, Pearl McClain, and their 5-year-old daughter, Nikki.

The girl asked him a question he’ll never forget, he said.

“I can just remember this one time, she’s sitting there playing on the floor, and she turns to my wife and I and just says out of nowhere, ‘Am I going to die?’” Hunter said.

He told her no, that she’d continue to undergo cancer treatment and everything would be fine, but when she went back to playing on the floor, he left the room with his wife to cry.

“That’s not a question you want to answer of your 5-year-old,” Hunter said.

Twelve years later, Nikki Hunter is not only alive, but she is thriving.

The Camarillo teen is a rising senior honors student at Rancho Campana High, where she sports a 4.5 GPA. Because Rancho Campana does not have an athletics program, she plays softball and volleyball for Rio Mesa.

On the softball diamond, she helped propel the Spartans to a Pacific View League championship and a CIF-Southern Section playoff berth this spring. The pitcher earned the league MVP award and a spot on the All-CIF Division 2 team.

 

 

Her high school softball coach, John Ashley, offered advice to opposing batters.

“You should pack a lunch because it’s going to be a long day if you think you’re going to beat this kid,” the skipper said.

• • •

If someone had told him 12 years ago what his daughter would grow up to accomplish, Thomas Hunter wouldn’t have believed any of it.

Nikki had just finished her second season with the Camarillo Girls Softball Association. She seemed to be on the path to a normal childhood, yet she tended to get sick after going on routine errands. Frequent fevers alarmed her parents and prompted a trip to the hospital, where an oncologist confirmed the family’s worst fears: Nikki had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that affects white blood cells.

The family sprang into action, transforming their home into the safest possible environment for Nikki. McClain sprayed every surface with Lysol constantly, between frequent library runs to pick up books for Nikki to read.

Nikki rotated between chemotherapy appointments, classes, and Geronimo Stilton stories, keeping up with her schoolwork thanks to teachers who wore masks and taught arithmetic in the family living room.

“I was kind of put into a little bubble,” Nikki Hunter said. “I was just kind of like, ‘All right, I’m getting great treatment. I can have any books that I want ’cause my mom will go get it for me. I’m kind of living the life here.’”

One thing was clearly missing. Nikki’s weakened immune system made playing softball, or any sport, impossible.

She missed the game, yet her family remained hopeful that she’d be back on the field soon.

After months of chemotherapy, Nikki’s doctor gave her the news she’d waited for: If she wanted to, she could play softball in the upcoming spring. She’d be weak, but she could play.

For Thomas Hunter, his daughter’s return to the field was hard to watch at times.

Though she tried her best, monthly chemotherapy treatments weakened her physically. She credits her coaches and her parents with helping her develop, spending extra time with her to teach her the game she loves.

“ Sports was my anchor throughout this whole thing,” Nikki Hunter said. “That’s why I say my childhood was still fairly normal.”

After three years of treatment, she was declared cancer free at age 8.

Now she could go on vacations and see her extended family, but her parents remained cautious during this period of remission.

They were afraid that the cancer could come back.

• • •

Five years later, not only was she still cancer free, but she was finding her stride on the diamond.

At 13, she was playing the highest available level of travel softball, suiting up in a U-18 division.

“I felt like I was thrown into a fire,” said Nikki Hunter, who recalled an encounter with a UCLA commit that resulted in a home run that never seemed to land. “I was definitely scared because some of those kids looked like they were going to take my head off if I hung a pitch over the middle, but the fire forges metal. It definitely made me stronger.”

She said never backed down from a challenge.

Playing against stout competition prepared her for high school and taught her more about the game.

“It definitely helped sharpen my physical abilities as well as my mental abilities because softball is a sport of failure,” Nikki said. “If you don’t know how to deal with the failure, you’re never going to be able to move forward.”

She started her high school career in the spring of 2020, pitching the second game of an opening day doubleheader and allowing only one run in a 2-1 Rio Mesa win. When the season was shut down early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was just another setback for Nikki to overcome.

The Spartan has been a force in the circle the past two seasons.

Standing 6 feet tall with red hair and freckles, Nikki strikes an intimidating pose with the ball in her hand, made even more so by her habit of releasing a grunt or a self-described “mini scream” when she uncorks a pitch.

“We call her the big red horse,” Ashley said. “When we saddle up, we go out to ride until that horse is done running.”

Nikki lives up to her nickname.

The Spartan went 10-1 with 101 strikeouts and a 0.63 ERA as a sophomore. She completed all 15 games she started this season, notching an 11-5 record. She struck out 115 batters while allowing only nine walks.

Nikki’s spirit, attitude and unrelenting work ethic are more impressive than her herculean statistics.

“She knows that there are kids that started with her on the (treatment) regimen that didn’t make it,” her father said. “She’s just thankful every day that she has these opportunities.

“She’s had to work a whole lot harder than others. It was always a challenge because she was always behind. She never gave up, she never quit. She never wanted to quit.”

Ashley offered his insight on Nikki as a cancer survivor.

“That puts things in perspective. For a lot of these young ladies, the worst thing that happens might be they drop their cellphone and break their case,” the coach said. “This young lady fought for her life—and she won.”

Through adversity, she has learned how to cope and flourish.

Her parents focused on the positives throughout her battles. They instilled in their daughter a mentality she uses in softball and in life.

“In this game, you can’t overthink things,” Ashley said. “The game will eat you up and spit you out. Nikki knows how to stay even on her good days and bad days and in-between days.”

Nikki’s positivity stems from those darker days.

“We always found the silver lining,” she said, “and that really impacted me now because I always find a way to find the silver.”

• • •

As she prepares for her senior season, Nikki has attracted interest from some of the top academic universities in the country.

She declined to name her offers, but there are no shortage of suitors. She wants to verbally commit before high school starts in the fall, pending various academic requirements.

The Spartan has big plans.

Inspired by the community that gave her so much, Nikki said she wants to become a doctor.

She’s a cancer survivor, but she’s so much more than those two daunting words.

Reflecting on her journey, Nikki Hunter finds more silver.

“I definitely wouldn’t change what happened at all,” she said. “It’s dictated who I’ve become. I wouldn’t wish to have it again. I wouldn’t wish that I would not have had it. It’s definitely scary looking back at it, but I still think about it very positively.”

Colin Beazley is co-editorin chief of The Villanovan, Villanova University’s student newspaper. The Viewpoint alum led coverage of the Villanova men’s basketball team’s run to the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans. Follow Beazley on Twitter @colin_ beazley.