Valencia’s Blair Rune is leaving behind a legacy that far exceeds the work she’s done on the softball field.
After earning Foothill League first-team honors, all-California Interscholastic Federation athlete honors in 2025 and hitting above .400 over the course of 90 games across her four-year varsity career, Rune leaves for Cornell University proud of the work she’s done — off the field.
Over the past two years, Rune has participated and served on the board of the Assistance League of Santa Clarita, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization. And throughout the past year, Rune served as the chair of Project Prom, an initiative under the Assistance League of Santa Clarita dedicated to donating prom dresses to high school students.
“I’ve only been in [the Assistance League] for two years because I just discovered it my junior year,” Rune said in an interview with The Signal. “I was the person who had to get everyone together and text and email everybody … I would say I spend about 20 hours a month on it.”
Project Prom, which is composed of volunteer students, helps coordinate with local high schools in Santa Clarita Valley.
The 2026 graduate worked specifically with Canyon High School’s personnel and donated prom dresses to the Cowboys community, including her own.
Rune said that across all the high schools who coordinated with the program, over 100 prom dresses were donated to students in the Santa Clarita Valley.
“This was something I’ve always wanted to do. I just love prom dresses, and I just feel like everybody should be able to have a nice dress to wear for one of the best nights for any high school student,” Rune said. “So, I sent out emails and talked to my friends and asked everyone for prom dresses, and we were able to collect a lot. I think we got over 100 prom dresses.”
For Rune, having the opportunity to help out on the initiative was a project that she gladly devoted all her time to.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any challenges for Rune as she balanced softball, schoolwork, her participation in the Assistance League, and other extracurriculars at Valencia High School.
As Rune prepares to attend Cornell University, the soon-to-be Ivy League student-athlete plans to major in biological sciences with the goal of exploring the sports medicine field.
Rune is excited to see where her major will take her and even got a taste in her desired career field at Valencia High School with the Medical Science Academy.
“It was really hard because outside of softball, I’m also in the MSA academy in which we had to get a certain amount of hands-on work-based learning hours,” Rune said on how she balanced all her commitments. “I had to work during games and my own practices as I was trying to take prom dresses, so it was honestly a tough year. But I’m so grateful for all of it. I’m kind of a person that doesn’t like to have free time on their hands so any chance I got to help out, I was perfectly happy.”
Rune said there were days throughout her senior year she caught behind the plate during softball games at the Donna H. Lee Stadium and then traveled to the other side of campus to the baseball field or gym to help with the MSA program.
With the commitment of being in the MSA program, catching for Valencia’s softball team, and responsibility leading Project Prom, Rune still made time for the classroom.
According to Cornell’s official applicant information, there is no GPA cutoff for admission when applying. And in Rune’s case, a 4.7 GPA was more than enough as she earned this year’s CIF Southern Section academic award during her senior season.
“I was never looking for recognition but being able to get [the award] for all the hard work through high school … getting into Cornell was not the easiest thing,” Rune said jokingly. “I was very grateful for that award. It honestly meant the world.”
Rune is set to continue her academic and athletic career at Cornell University and play for the softball team after signing her national letter of intent.
As she departs, Rune is grateful for the relationships she’s established and is hopeful that others follow her path with the standard she set as a Viking for those she played alongside in the softball program or served in the Assistance League.
“I absolutely loved the past four years as a Viking. I think some might say that they’re ready to be done with high school … that was not the case for me,” she said. “I’ve met the best people that I will forever have, and I hope to keep … I’m hoping to carry it all into college. I just absolutely could not be more grateful, and I loved my time as a Viking.”
