The expression, "When things don't go right, go left" is a nice little phrase of encouragement.

Cameron Kondo may have taken it a little too far.

The former Cal softball player, who graduated last weekend with her degree from the Haas School of Business, taught herself to throw left-handed after developing a case of the "yips" in high school. It was a long, tiresome adjustment that ended with her playing some outfield as a lefty this season.

"It's a great story, a crazy story, and a story that will never be forgotten," Cal head coach Chelsea Spencer said. "I can't even imagine how she did it. It's unreal."

Kondo was playing in the Surf City Showcase in Hemet with her travel team, the Cal Nuggets, during the summer after her freshman year at Carlmont High School when she suddenly lost the ability to throw. It's a rare but acknowledged physical or mental condition that doesn't appear to have any proven solution. The yips have afflicted a handful of accomplished Major League Baseball players, as well as some professional golfers.

"I just woke up one day and couldn't throw anymore," Kondo said. "I couldn't explain it."

Unfortunately for Kondo, it didn't last just that one day. As much as she tried to correct the problem, the yips persisted. Kondo, working with her family, club and high school coaches, and others, tried a variety of methods in search of a solution. There was hypnotism, sports psychology, trips to the orthopedist, physical drills – nothing worked.

Kondo was more frustrated than upset. The lack of results didn't sync with her pragmatic nature. It kept her up at night – so much so that she would literally get out of bed in the middle of the night and attempt to throw in her garage.

"I couldn't fall asleep because I was thinking about it so much," Kondo said. "I was literally in my pajamas. I was like, maybe this is the time I will fix it. I couldn't sleep. I had to go see if I could do it."

Much of Kondo's time searching for a cure was spent with Nuggets coach Haley Woods, a former All-American catcher at Cal. Woods tried a myriad drills with Kondo, working with her arms, legs and other mechanics to make the yips go away.

"She was in the facility five days a week," Woods said. "We did everything under the sun that you could think of to try to correct it. It just became one of those things where maybe this isn't going to work. Maybe we need to try something else."

Despite her throwing struggles, Kondo was still getting recruited and committed to Cal before her junior year of high school. She was a strong hitter and played first base, where she wasn't called upon to throw very often.

Kondo thought she would have her throwing problems worked out by the time she got on campus. But when it became apparent that may not happen, she started considering the idea of switching to her left hand. Others advised her to try a different sport or quit altogether, but she saw a potential switch as an opportunity.

"I can't say I wouldn't have quit," said her father, Jon. "I think a lot of people would have quit. To her credit, she just stuck with it."

One day while warming up for a Nuggets game, Kondo and her teammates started throwing with the opposite hand just for fun. When Kondo threw, it didn't feel that strange.

"You expect people to look pretty foolish doing it, and I just kind of did it and it was fine," Kondo said. "It was so weird."

Kondo spent the summer before her arrival at Cal working on making the switch. She worked with Woods and other coaches – throwing, footwork, fielding with her right hand, crow hopping the other way. She didn't have it perfected by the time she got to Berkeley, but was on her way.

"It was just revisiting the mechanics, just like you would when you are a little kid learning how to throw," Woods said. "We literally started in the facility just throwing from 10 feet distance, then trying to move back. On top of that, she had to learn how to field a ground ball and a fly ball with the opposite hand. That was another set of challenges she had to overcome."

Kondo continued to work on the switch during her years at Cal, all the while playing mostly as a designated player to get her bat in the lineup. It was during the COVID-19 lockdown that she really got comfortable with her left-handed throws, and arrived for her senior season this spring ready to play defense.

"For someone to say, 'I have a goal of getting rid of the yips, being able to play defense a little more and making myself indispensable' – she has really done that through her will to refuse to lose," Spencer said. "She refused to give up about something that some people would have seen as the end of their career. It's just a testament to what Cam Kondo is."

Since she wasn't able to play defense for most of her Cal career, Kondo felt like she needed to contribute in other ways. Aside from being a natural leader on the team, Kondo immersed herself on campus, including co-founding the Golden Girls – an organization for female student-athletes at Cal. Kondo also served as the Director of Athlete Integration for the Haas Business School Association and was a student-athlete representative for the Faculty Athletic Council.

Last weekend, Kondo was named the 2021 winner of the Anna Espenschade Award – given annually to the female student-athlete at Cal who best exemplifies the combination of academic and athletic pursuits.

"When we talk about leadership, she by far is the person on our team that is out in the community and putting herself out there and changing the world one person at a time," Spencer said. "She's someone who has immersed herself in college in ways that most other athletes don't. She's been a pleasure to coach. I'm glad she left her mark on our program in such a unique way."

Kondo will attend Georgetown's Master's of Public Policy program in the fall and play for the Hoyas as a graduate transfer in 2022.

"I've been coaching for a long time, and there is only one Cameron Kondo," Woods said. "I don't know many athletes what would have stuck with the sport. I know a lot of athletes would have thrown in the towel. What she's done is absolutely incredible. I've never heard of anyone else doing it. I'm just so proud of her for sticking with it."