Avery Hayward considers herself to be just one of the girls on the Naperville Central softball team.
But the senior third baseman, who has played four positions during her three-year varsity career, actually got her start in sports as a girl among boys.
Baseball was her first sport.
“I’ve known Avery literally since she was 5 years old,” said Naperville Central softball coach Andy Nussbaum, whose sons Aaron and Daniel were on the same T-ball team with Hayward. “It kind of takes a little bit of courage to be a girl and play with boys, even at the age of 5.”
Hayward doesn’t play baseball anymore, but she does play ice hockey for the Chicago Hawks club team, and she plans to play for the club team at Michigan State.
“My grandpa has always been a big Blackhawks fan, and then my uncle got into it,” she said. “Then my mom one day signed my brother up for hockey, and I asked if I could come with. She was like, ‘Sure.’”
More than a decade later, Hayward’s love of hockey hasn’t diminished. Neither has her passion for softball, which she started around the same time as hockey.
Hayward plays center in hockey and likes being in the thick of the action.
“I love the aggressiveness of it, like you’re always working hard,” she said. “All of it is fun, and I also like being a part of a team and being around my teammates. You always have people to pick you up if you’re down or form a special bond with them.”
Hayward said she was never able to pick just one sport, so she stuck with both. She’s better in hockey, where she has learned traits that carry over to softball.
“In hockey, you’re always taught to work hard, give it your all every single time and just push through no matter what,” she said. “That definitely carries over to softball.”
So does the toughness Hayward acquired playing hockey.
“This is something I haven’t said to them as a group, but toughness is not necessarily unfeminine,” Nussbaum said. “Toughness is a quality for people to have.
“We usually think of it as a masculine type of quality, but you can name off a lot of people who are tough. So it’s nice to bring that kind of element to our team.”
Hayward has played third base, left field, right field and catcher for the Redhawks (11-9, 5-2), who are in second place in the DuPage Valley Conference. She’s hitting .286 with two doubles, two triples, two stolen bases, seven RBIs and 10 runs scored, and she has made three errors in 27 total chances in the field.
Hayward was 1-for-2 with a sacrifice fly to help Naperville Central beat DeKalb 9-3 in conference action in Naperville on Wednesday.
“She’s definitely one of our strong seniors,” Naperville Central senior pitcher/infielder Shea Meech said. “She’s really playing hard, and I feel like she really adds a lot to the team overall with her dedication and hard work.
“Like we’ll go from a game like this where she’s playing and then she’ll go straight to hockey.”
That sometimes requires sacrifices.
“When we win away games, we go to Dairy Queen,” Nussbaum said. “She missed Dairy Queen last night because she had to go home with her mom to get to hockey practice.”
Hayward is part of a burgeoning number of girls playing hockey.
“When I first started, there were really no girls on the older teams, but it’s definitely grown,” Hayward said. “The club I’m at now has multiple teams for their younger age groups, which is pretty cool.”
Nussbaum embraces Hayward’s hockey background. Depending on the day, he calls her Wayne, Cammi or Alex, after hockey legends Wayne Gretzky, Cammi Granato and Alex Ovechkin.
Hayward is one of seven seniors on the softball team. The other six will play college softball.
“Some of these girls I’ve been playing with since I was 12 years old,” she said. “It’s fun to get a last year in with all of them. I’m enjoying every single moment, making the most out of everything.”
Hayward has gotten a lot out of hockey too.
“I think it will help me throughout college,” she said. “It’s helped me stay motivated and determined, so I can put up a fight every single time. It’s made me the person I am today.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
