Tatum Souza is happy to tell you how much she enjoys being a three-sport athlete at Napa High School and all the rewards that come with running track and playing volleyball and basketball.

Just don’t ask Souza, who completed her junior year last month, to rank the sports in order of preference.

It’s not going to happen.

She goes from season to season — volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring — giving all she has to that sport and that team. She plays club volleyball for TCA, a Napa team, during the winter months. She also competes in the heptathlon — a combination of seven events over two days — for the Napa Track Club in the summer time.

“Whatever season I’m in, that’s my favorite sport,” said Souza. “It just depends on the season.

“Just so I keep them all even, I try as hard in each of them.”

Souza had an outstanding year, starting it off by being selected as the 2008 Napa County Player of the Year in volleyball by the Napa Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. She was named Second Team All-County in basketball. She finished it by breaking the school record in the long jump (18-4) and advancing to the CIF State Track and Field Championships.

“It was more than what I could ever have imagined for my junior year,” she said. “I love all my sports. By the end of the season, I’m ready to move on to something else and just get new practice in a new sport.”

For her efforts, Souza has been named as the Napa Valley Register’s Female Athlete of the Year for the 2008-09 school year.

“She is a dominant athlete,” said Darci Lewis, Napa’s basketball coach. “I truly believe that she’s just an amazing person. Tatum has heart.

“She’s not afraid to get in and get beat up in our games. She is very tough, she is physically tough. And you wouldn’t think that by looking at her, or by her personality. But she’s a very aggressive, competitive person.

“She does not like to lose. She’s a winner. And that’s why she is as good as she is, because she has that drive to succeed.”

As an outside hitter, Souza starred for the Indians (34-7 overall), who won their second straight Monticello Empire League volleyball title, finished as the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section and Northern California Division I runner-up, and came within a match of playing for the state championship.

The 5-foot-9 Souza, the MEL Player of the Year, averaged 4.1 kills and 4.1 digs per game with a 41.6 kill percentage and 26.8 hitting percentage in 80 games.

“Her love of life and her love of the game are just so infectious to everybody,” Napa coach Scott Kostecka said.

“When somebody that talented is so humble and walks into the gym to practice and is just glad to be there — that’s probably the most infectious thing. That’s the joy she brings to volleyball.”

She did it all so very well, from blocking at the net to digging, passing and serving with great efficiency. For the year, she served 84.4 percent with 59 service aces. She also had 38 total blocks as Napa advanced to its first Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I final in 12 years.

Souza was consistent from match to match, with 21 kills, 15 digs, four blocks and three service aces in a 3-1 win over Beyer-Modesto in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs; 20 kills in a 3-2 loss to Nevada Union-Grass Valley in the SJS finals; 18 kills, 20 digs, five aces and two blocks in a 3-1 Round I NorCal win against Granada-Livermore; and 23 kills, 23 digs, three blocks and two service aces in a 3-1 win over Salinas in the NorCal semifinals.

Souza, 17, was a second-year starter in both volleyball and basketball, experiences that greatly benefited her.

“I think that it really helped that I was on varsity as a sophomore, moving up to better competition,” she said.

“I’ve had really great coaches and it helped that I moved up with a lot of girls that I had been playing with for a while in volleyball and basketball. It really helps with all the support.”

As a guard, Souza was Honorable Mention All-MEL after averaging 10.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals for the Indians in basketball.

She doesn’t slow down at all when track and field season rolls around.

This year, Souza broke Susan Jackson’s school record (18-23⁄4) in the long jump.

She will take aim on the school record in the 100 hurdles next year. She also competes in the high jump and runs the anchor leg on the 4x400 relay.

Souza qualified for the state meet with a third-place finish in the long jump at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet at Sacramento City College.

She battled a hamstring injury most of the year.

“I couldn’t really hurdle very well with it because it hurt really bad,” said Souza.

Getting to the state meet was one of the big highlights of the year for Souza, who was the MEL champion in the high jump this year and Napa’s MVP in 2008 and ’09.

“Most people will work hard if they enjoy something and they’re good at it,” said Tony Giovannoni, who coaches Souza with the Napa Track Club.

“She’s willing to work hard at anything that will help make her better, whether she enjoys it or not.

“She makes coaching very easy. Tell her to run through a wall and she’ll do it. Send a workout home with her to do over the weekend, and you know it’ll get done. She has a tremendous amount of self-motivation and she is a tireless worker. When you see that kind of desire and passion in an athlete, it makes it easy to put the same amount of effort into your coaching.

“This year she has devoted her spring and summer to track and it’s made a huge difference. She’s made substantial gains in almost every event, and right now she doesn’t really have any weaknesses.”

The heptathlon involves the 200 and 800, javelin and shot put, and the high jump, long jump and 100 hurdles. It’s a combination of running, throwing and jumping events over two days.

“The heptathlon is my favorite part of track,” she said.

Souza is also a standout in the classroom, carrying a 4.3 GPA. Being a triple-sport athlete and undertaking a tough academic load makes for quite a challenge.

“It’s just keeping the same schedule all year round and not letting yourself lag in school at all, because that makes it difficult for the sports,” she said. “It helps that my coaches really want me to play more than one sport and they really support it.

“You have to learn how to organize your time.”

Several colleges — including LSU, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara — have already contacted Souza for track and field.

“She can do just about anything you put her in,” Napa High assistant coach Steve Gonsolin said. “She is just a tremendous athlete.

“She has a great mind for any athletics. She has the capabilities to put problems behind her and just look for the finish line.”