March 4, 2015
Music City is known for its overnight success stories, most of which actually required years to hit the big time. So Vanderbilt bowler Rebeca Reguero fits right in.
Reguero is one of five Commodore seniors who will be making their final home appearance at the Columbia 300 Music City Classic, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Smyrna Bowling Center.
We pick up her story not long after she arrived on campus from Glendale, Ariz. She had been spotted by Vanderbilt coaches and deemed to have potential, especially since she was left-handed.
Always a good student, Reguero jumped into bio medical engineering and soon encountered turbulence in the demanding major.
“I was putting in a lot of time and I wasn’t getting the results I needed,” she admits. “My grade point average dipped under 2.0 for a while and I was put on academic probation after my first year.”
Few would have blamed Reguero for changing majors and some even advised her so since another weak semester could see her dismissed from the school. Those advisors underestimated her determination to succeed.
She doubled-down on bio-medical engineering to begin her second year but the extra effort didn’t yield results. “I met with Neal (academic counselor Clark) and coach (John Williamson) and they suggested I step back from bowling and concentrate on academics,” she remembers.
“I could count the number of times I practiced with the team on one hand.”
After a year and a half as a Commodore, Reguero was in a tussle to survive and now she was essentially removed from the sport she loved. In a sense, she had to convert a tricky spare to hang in there.
“The first few weeks not practicing with the team were was pretty hard because I felt my whole world had been pulled out from my feet,” she recalls. “I had never struggled as a student and all of a sudden to be faced with the possibility of never coming back to Vandy and then have bowling – my one escape – taken from me, it was definitely really hard.”
Reguero got plenty of internal support and soon realized that her current routine was a matter of prioritizing.
“I always knew I was a student first and bowler second but sometimes it takes a while to understand that completely stepping back from what you love is the best thing. The degree was what was most important. This was the right thing to do.”
The sun began rising on Rebeca’s world after she changed to an Engineering Science major midway through her sophomore year. She has since made the Dean’s List four straight semesters with gpa’s of 3.8, 4.0, 3.8 and 3.85 – an impressive and astonishing turn-around!
“To put in all that work and not get a result was disheartening,” Rebeca now says, “and it took its toll. But without that experience I wouldn’t have some of the study habits I now have. I learned about myself and realized some of the things I am capable of accomplishing in terms of bouncing back and handling adverse situations.”
While Reguero was getting a firm grip academically, it took time to regain traction with bowling. After all, three semesters in and she was rarely attending practices. So she hit her default switch and went to work.
She hadn’t traveled as a sophomore and was left home the first semester of her junior year. She eventually began traveling midway during her junior season after shining during practice try-outs and she gradually worked her way into playing time.
“I had to put in a lot of work and be intrinsically motivated – shoot for something bigger than what I wanted,” Reguero remembers. “I wasn’t going to settle for making the travel roster, my goal was to become a starter. I didn’t allow myself to shut down when I didn’t travel. I thought I’d work harder and make them give a reason if they didn’t put me on the next travel roster.
“Determination and focus those are traits I improved in my academic struggles,” she continues. “If I set my mind to accomplish something I’m going to find a way to get it done. I had to find a way to maximize my time and when I went home on breaks I focused on ways to tweak little things to get to the goals the coaches had set.”
Reguero also realized that sometimes she was a part of the problem.
“It became a matter of taking advantage of my opportunities,” she says. “I had to learn to not get in the way of myself. Sometimes I still have problems with that; my engineering background makes me very analytical and I tend to over-think things.”
She was a bit tentative in her travel status. For a while she would ask her coaches if she should warm up with the top bowlers expecting to play or with the deeper substitutes less likely to get in.
Her public break-through came at the 2014 Greater Ozark Invitational, when she made the all-tournament team. She has evolved into a frequent starter on Vanderbilt’s nationally rated team, usually in the rotation’s third position.
“I have never felt it’s my position and I’m going to always have it” she admits. “There is a confidence you must have and a difference between how I’m performing and how I think I’m performing.”
Rebeca has never been the natural leader that peddles advice. Yet, as her star has risen she admits that from time to time she has helped younger teammates.
“I’ve overcome adversity and I’d love to be an inspiration to someone,” she says. I’ve probably been in a similar situation as they are and I can show them there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But I don’t vocalize it much because I don’t think it defines who I am as a person.”
Reguero just accepted an attractive career opportunity with a healthcare IT company, in a two-year leadership intern program. She is attracted to the infrastructure behind the healthcare industry.
“I have never been a quitter,” Reguero understates.
Indeed not. Her tenacity has made her “overnight success,” just another remarkable story in a campus and city full of them.