She has baseball in her blood, soccer in her heart and placekicking as a work in progress.
Now
Bonita Vista (Chula Vista, Calif.) junior
Devon Roncoroni has something few female athletes have ever dreamed about, let alone attained - an all-conference selection in football.
Roncoroni, a kicker on the Bonita Vista football team in the fall, a girls soccer star in the winter and the granddaughter of former Major League outfielder
Merv Rettenmund, was named this week to the All-Metro Mesa Conference (San Diego Section) football team.
Devon Roncoroni on the soccer field.
Courtesy of Devon Roncoroni
After apprenticing with the Bonita Vista freshmen and junior varsity football teams her first two seasons in high school, Roncoroni totaled 32 points kicking for the Barons (3-7-1) in 2011. She nailed a career-high three field goals - the longest 37 yards - and registered 11 points in a game against Chula Vista Eastlake on Oct. 28, and also had a five PAT game against San Marcos on Sept. 23.
As a sophomore in 2010, she kicked a 42-yard field goal in a junior varsity game.
Soccer is probably the path she's going to follow in college and beyond, but for the present, the 5-foot-5, 130-pound Roncoroni is an all-star football kicker, as voted by the conference coaches.
And she has one more season to work on it.
"I was extremely surprised and grateful that what I did was able to benefit the team," Roncoroni told MaxPreps," and was appreciated by the (Metro Conference) coaches."
Most of all, it was appreciated by the people closest to her, namely her teammates and coaches.
"When she came to Bonita as a freshmen, she was going to play tennis," defensive line and kicking coach P.J. Castro said. "But we got her convinced to try out for the kicker spot. She made the team, and from then on, she and I have worked together.
"What sets Devon apart from other kickers I have coached," Castro added, "is her competitiveness at all things. She's definitely earned it. She really expects the best from herself at everything."
The latter may be part of her lineage. Her grandfather, Flint, Mich., native Merv Rettenmund, played 13 Major League seasons with the Orioles, Reds, Padres and Angels, earning World Series rings in 1970 and 1975 with Baltimore and Cincinnati, respectively. He was also a football standout in high school at
Flint Southwestern in the early 1960s.
Roncoroni first played varsity sports for the Bonita Vista
girls soccer team as a freshmen in 2009, and scored two goals during her sophomore season in 2010. She is off to a fast start this winter following her exceptional football season, recording a team-leading five goals and one assist through her team's first six games. She also plays the famed Nomads premier soccer club of San Diego.
In addition to her athletic achievements, Roncoroni is an International Baccalaureate (International studies) candidate, and has considered playing soccer in South America. She is fluent in Spanish and Taiwanese.
"This football thing is wonderful and I think she is enjoying it," Rettenmund told P.K. Daniel of the
San Diego Union-Tribune, "but soccer is her game."
Jim Stout is the CBS MaxPreps Media Manager for the Eastern
U.S. He may be reached at 845-367-2864 or jim.stout@cbsi.com.
