PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Lugging around heavy hose lines while wearing firefighting gear is not for the timid.
Adult men struggle with the physical toll such a job inflicts.
For 17-year-old Ciara Toven, it’s a passion that she enjoys. The toil has helped sculpt who she has become.
(Pictured above, Punxsutawney’s Ciara Toven waits on a pitch during a game this season/submitted photo)
Toven, who will be a senior at Punxsutawney High School, is a volunteer junior firefighter for the McCalmont Township Fire Company. She’s a third-generation firefighter. Both of her grandparents — Arthur Toven and Thomas Hudock — battled blazes and founded the McCalmont Township Fire Co.
Her father, Kevin, is also a firefighter with the company.
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“They started it and I wanted to be able to continue what they started a long time ago,” Toven said.
Her work with the fire company helps her on the softball field for the Chucks.
There is no workout, she said, like helping fight a fire — or the training to battle one.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” she said. “We run drills and stuff like that, too, so we can keep those skills fresh. It’s a great workout, for sure.”
Toven’s strength can be seen on every one of her swings.
She doesn’t set out to hit home runs. They just seem to happen at a regular rate.
Toven blasted 11 homers as a sophomore last season. She hit 12 this year to lead all of District 9.
“I know I have that kind of power, but I have to go into the box thinking just get base hits,” she said. “If you’re thinking about hitting home runs, you’re gonna end up popping up or something. You don’t want to try to do more, do too much. You have to go in there with an approach in mind.”
Toven’s approach has certainly been working.
In addition to her power, Toven also hit for average this season, leading the Chucks in batting at .522. She also had eight doubles and drove in a team-leading 34 runs in just 67 at-bats.
There was a time when Toven tinkered with her swing.
A lot.
Now, she tries to keep it as consistent as possible.
(Ciara Toven works a scene of a fire as a volunteer junior firefighter for the McCalmont Township Fire Company/submitted photo)
“I keep it pretty much the same,” she said. “I focus a lot on loading on my back foot so I can put more force on the ball and hit it harder. I had some better contact and I was able to get to more different pitches than I did before.”
Toven, who is also a pitcher, had an up-and-down season in the circle.
She had a 3.45 ERA, giving up 98 hits and striking out 87 in 85⅓ innings pitched.
Punxsutawney played a challenging schedule this season and went 10-10. Of those losses, though, five came by two runs or fewer, including a 5-3 setback to Chestnut Ridge in the Class 3A subregional championship.
“We had a lot of close contests that we just weren’t able to come out on top of,” Toven said.
She is already working this summer on her pitching craft. Once a week, she meets with a pitching coach.
The goal for next season is to win more games and make a deeper push into the playoffs.
“I think it’s possible,” Toven said. “We have a good group coming back, especially some of the younger kids — they are a strong group that I think can contribute and help us make the playoffs and go father.”
Next season will likely be Toven’s last in a softball uniform.
Toven, who also plays volleyball for Punxsutawney, had wanted to continue her softball career in college. But before her junior season, she decided instead to focus solely on her studies in criminology with a minor in cognitive science and then eventually attend the police academy.
She also wants to continue her work as a firefighter.
“I do love (softball),” she said. “But I don’t think I love it enough to want to continue doing it. It’s hard because I just started to think about the other day that this will be the last time I will play volleyball. That this will be the last time I will do this and this and this. I’m thinking about that for softball, too. There’s gonna be a lot of lasts coming.”
Punxsutawney Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
