Crown Point freshman Hayden Brock seemed nonplussed.
For Brock, a narrow window between practices for softball and for track and field on Thursday was par for the course. She has contributed considerably to the softball team’s regional title and has qualified for the state meet in the shot put.
“That poor child trying to balance that schedule,” Crown Point softball coach Angie Richwalski said with a laugh. “I don’t know how she does it. But she’s doing great.”
Brock said mental preparation and healthy eating have been among her keys to success.
“I’ve really stuck with it,” she said. “I knew what was coming. I knew what to expect. We’ve figured it out.”
A plan has been devised for Saturday, which shapes up as an especially long day for Brock.
She’ll miss the noon semifinal of the Class 4A West Lafayette Harrison Semistate between Crown Point (28-4), which is ranked No. 4 in the state coaches poll, and No. 12 Fort Wayne Carroll (23-5-1). Instead, she’ll be competing in the state meet at Indianapolis North Central, with the shot put scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
If things go according to plan for the Bulldogs, Brock will be back for the 6 p.m. semistate championship game.
“I have no regrets,” she said. “Softball helps so much with track with me being a thrower. Swinging for softball correlates so much to the movements for throwing. And my throwing helps so much with my swings with my hips. It just makes me so much stronger. I’ve gained like 5 miles per hour on my throws just because I was doing track.
“We all support each other throughout everything. No one’s angry about it. Everyone’s been so supportive of me. They’re there for me. It’s a great group of girls with softball, and same with track. They’re all just great girls to be around.”
Brock is hitting .422 with five homers, tied for second on the team behind only junior third baseman Ashlyn Kita‘s eight, and 19 RBIs. She has put up those numbers in only 45 at-bats in 23 games.
“She’s a great kid,” Richwalski said of Brock. “She’s working her butt off. I don’t know how she’s keeping her head on straight, quite honestly. She’s just super athletic, and you can see that in the fact she’s doing both sports and that we’re both like, ‘Come when you can be here and we’ll use you. We’ll figure out how to use you when you’re here.’
“And as tough as it is for her to find a groove with that in and out because she’s not here for every game, she’s still had big moments, and she’s done a good job dropping in like, ‘Oh, here’s a line drive at Penn. Oh, here’s a game-winning hit against whoever.’ She’s done a really good job of showing up and still making an impact. She’s a great kid to have.”
Brock primarily catches senior pitcher Lexi Smith, and sophomore Evi Cuevas works with junior pitcher Paige Liezert.
“Hayden is always a positive light on and off the field,” Smith said. “She never fails to make me smile or calm me down. Despite our age difference, while I’m warming up pitching, I can always count on her to help me fix what I need to or just make me smile when I’m overwhelmed. Hayden is always uplifting to not just me, but all of our teammates.”
Brock and Smith formed a bond from the outset.
“Lexi loves Hayden,” Richwalski said. “Hayden walked in this year, and Lexi can identify talent, can identify an athletic kid. She was like, ‘You come with me, here we go, let’s throw.’ Hayden was like, ‘OK, whatever you say,’ because you don’t tell Lexi Smith ‘no.’ So that’s what we say — Lexi Smith blessed you.”
Brock received the blessing from both coaching staffs to participate in both sports.
“We kinda sat down at the beginning of the season and went over the schedules,” Richwalski said. “I sent her, ‘Here’s the ones where we need you to be with us,’ and track said, ‘Here’s the ones where you absolutely have to be here with us.’ We had a couple of times where she would go to track practice and meet us at Merrillville for a game or meet us at Hanover for a game. Her parents had to drop her off. We did a lot of running.
“I kept a sheet on my desk that was Hayden will be here, Hayden will not be here, Hayden will be here, Hayden will not be here. Every day, it was just keeping it as straight as we could, and she was really good about keeping the communication open.”
Not long ago, Brock hadn’t even considered juggling both sports.
“My dream has always been to go big in softball,” she said, referencing an upcoming camp at Florida State. “I’ve always been softball, softball, softball. I always wanted to do that.”
Brock didn’t begin throwing shot put until last year.
“I have fun with both,” she said. “I’ve been doing softball since I was 5 or 6, since you could start. Track I just picked up last year in eighth grade, and I fell in love with it. I was like, ‘Wow, I kinda like this.’ I didn’t think I would be good at it. But I went out there, and I was like, ‘I’m pretty decent just going out there. This is great.’”
Brock came in first place in virtually every meet last year, catching the attention of Crown Point’s track coaches, who floated the idea of her doing both this season. Richwalski was on board.
This season, Brock finished third in a sectional and then second in a regional to advance to the state meet, where she will be one of two freshmen in the event.
“I didn’t expect as a freshman to be going out there, my first year,” she said. “It was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m going to state.’ I don’t expect to place. I’m just going to go out there and do my best and see where it falls.”
Brock’s best tends to fall favorably.
“She’s managed to keep herself healthy on top of all of it,” Richwalski said. “It’s pretty impressive. I can’t imagine doing all of the reps she’s doing and not being some sort of sore. She’s doing a good job of taking care of herself.
“I checked her grades all semester, and she did good there too. She didn’t fall behind. I don’t know how she pulled that off too.”
