Team Mexico head coach Carlos Caro and his staff knew that Tatyana Forbes was a special player during its national softball squad open tryouts in 2016.

Caro was further impressed when the Redmond High alumnus went 10-for-10 during exhibition games against the United States and Japan. Forbes added a big hit to her team Mexico resume during her squad’s victory over the United States in 2017 at the Pan American Games qualifier.

Things keep getting better for Forbes, who helped team Mexico qualify for its first-ever Olympics next summer in Tokyo.

Mexico secured a berth to the Olympics with a 2-1 victory over Canada on Sept. 1 at Softball City Stadium in Surrey, British Columbia. Left fielder Forbes notched an infield single during the contest as Mexico won the World Baseball Softball Confederation 10-team tournament.

“She is an exciting player to watch and a beautiful person to be around,” Caro said. “I’m excited for her and for team Mexico in our road to Tokyo 2020. We have punched the golden ticket…now hard work and preparation to win a medal in Tokyo is our next journey.”

Forbes compiled a .545 batting average (6-for-11) and scored four runs as Mexico went undefeated and also beat Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the British Virgin Islands in the Softball Americas Qualifier. Team Mexico amassed a combined .386 batting average, a 0.36 earned-run average and committed zero errors.

Forbes, who is eligible to play for team Mexico because her mother, Marie, hails from Mazatlan, began her NCAA Division I collegiate softball career at Coastal Carolina University, then moved on to Florida International University and will play this season at North Carolina State University.

She played her freshman and sophomore years at Coastal Carolina and her junior year at Florida International before sustaining an injury and sitting out her senior year. She graduated from Florida International and will now work on her masters degree in sports management while playing her remaining softball season at North Carolina State.

After starring at Redmond High, where she was a first-team all-leaguer and two-time state qualifier, she began her collegiate journey at Coastal Carolina and made the first-team All-Big South and Big South All-Freshman squads and was Big South Freshman of the Year in 2016. She made the first-team All-Sun Belt and National Fastpitch Coaches Association third-team All-Central Region squads in 2017. As a freshman, she broke the conference and school record for hits in a season with 104 and finished fifth in the country with a .479 batting average.

Forbes’ dad, Robert, played professional soccer and naturally steered Tatyana toward the game. She was a fast and stellar player but was soon drawn to softball, which she began playing on the Little League scene at Hartman Park. Her brothers turned her from a right-handed batter into a lefty, “which tells me they knew what they were doing,” Robert said.

Robert added that Tatyana was committed and determined to play Division I softball and spent summers traveling with her teams and pushing herself to succeed.

“I always finished talking about her accomplishments with ‘The Sky is the Limit’ and she just keeps going higher,” Robert said of his humble and dedicated daughter.

Alison Mitchell was Redmond High’s assistant coach when Forbes played for the Mustangs and remembers her being a hyper-competitive athlete. Mitchell is thrilled that Forbes will soon set foot on the Olympic basepaths.

“During her time at Redmond, she was never happy to come in second and would push herself to perform at a higher level if she wasn’t satisfied with her play. Many times in competitive games, Taty was the spark that started our team’s rally,” said Mitchell, now the Redmond High head coach. “She has always been an incredible athlete and is capable of amazing things, which makes it not shocking she is now an Olympic athlete!”

Redmond’s Tatyana Forbes, ninth from left, No. 16, is headed to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with her team Mexico national softballers. Photo courtesy of WBSC.org