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BYU softball's Lauren Flanders: The art of being 'where your feet are'

“Alright, Cougs, three up, three down!” yells third baseman Keila Kamoku, as the team takes the field.

Her teammate, Lauren Flanders, gets into her position in the outfield. As she waits for the first batter to get to the plate, she glances down and traces her finger over the stitching on her glove. It reads: “Be where your feet are.”

This idea — being where your feet are — is how Flan (as Lauren is affectionately called by her teammates) lives her life. She's an NCAA softball player, STEM major, ROTC reservist and future pilot.

The quote serves as a reminder to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way, and to keep her attention in the moment she’s in.

As a child, Flan’s father, who is a pilot, took her flying for the first time and she “just fell in love with everything about it.” She decided to add flying to her impressive arsenal of passions.

Flan has to schedule flight times at the Provo airport in between practices. Sometimes she will leave practice early, do her flight training, then come back to finish practice.

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Photo by Keila Kamoku

But when she arrived at BYU, she discovered a love she wasn’t expecting; computer engineering. She came to campus with the intention of studying civil engineering, but took a computer engineering class on a whim, discovered a passion for it and decided to switch majors.

“I always have to be busy," she said. "I’m really enjoying my life when it’s full of things to do … even when it’s overwhelming and stressful. I’d rather be overwhelmed and stressed than bored."

This past offseason, Flan said that she spent her summer a little differently than she had before. Her summer consisted of a 9-to-5 systems engineering internship in Washington DC while fitting workouts into mornings and evenings. This was a huge change of pace from her typical softball-centric schedule, but she was thriving.

“I was getting to do two things, so I liked it a lot,” she remembered.

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Photo by Keila Kamoku

Flan’s unmatched work ethic and skills landed her a job offer upon graduation in April. As soon as she finished her internship and got back to Provo, she was back in the cockpit to finish her flight training,

“I’d love to do as much as I can until I eventually find my way to ‘this is what I feel like I should be doing’... I lucked out, everything I’ve tried, I’ve loved," she said.

As an aspiring pilot who thrives in a team environment and has three influential family members who are pilots, it’s no surprise that Flan was attracted to the US Air Force. She joined the BYU ROTC program here freshman year and is currently working as a reservist. He is pursuing both computer engineering and the Air Force, but she’ll commit to whichever sticks first.

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Photo by Keila Kamoku

For right now though, her feet are planted in softball. The 2025 season starts on Feb. 6 in La Jolla, California, against UC San Diego. In preparation, Flan spends her days running drills and lifting so she can “leave it all on the field” for her senior season.

Last year, the Cougars joined the Big 12 and had a historic inaugural season. In April, the team traveled to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on the University of Oklahoma Sooners. In the first game of the series, the Cougars fell to the Sooners 8-0, but Flan said back at the hotel that night the vibe shifted, they “came out swinging the next day” and defeated the Sooners 9-4.

For those unfamiliar with NCAA softball, the University of Oklahoma softball team doesn’t lose very often. The Cougar victory was one of only seven times the Sooners were defeated last season and was the first home-field loss since 2017.

To pull out that victory, the team had to be intentional with the second game. The Cougars had to go in with clear heads and confidence. They couldn’t let the fact that Oklahoma was hunting for a four-peat national championship that season get in their way. As a team, they had to be where their feet were, and they accepted the challenge.

As the season progressed after the OU series Flan and the Cougars were able to use that victory as a jumping off point to finish their inaugural season ranked sixth in the Big 12, missing the postseason by just one spot.

Flan looks forward to taking on this season, finishing her flight training, graduation, and starting her career as systems engineer or Air Force pilot, or, perhaps, both. To meet such demands, Flan has to meticulously calculate her life day-to-day, by being where her feet are.

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Photo by Keila Kamoku

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Photo by Keila Kamoku