BYU Cougars catcher Hailey Morrow (20) high-fives a coach previous to a sport with Boise State in Provo on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
BYU Cougars catcher Hailey Morrow catches throughout a sport with Boise State in Provo on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
BYU catcher Hailey Morrow (20) and her teammates huddle previous to a sport with Boise State in Provo on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Bike rides and road tag — that’s what you do with your folks if you find yourself 12 years outdated. Hailey Morrow and her neighborhood friends had been no completely different — with one exception. As Hailey peddled round Centennial Hills in Las Vegas, the preteen already knew the place she was going to school.
BYU’s Gordon Eakin provided her a scholarship to play Division I softball and he or she accepted — when she was 12 years outdated.
“I used to be so excited to return to BYU that the toughest factor was ready all these years of highschool to get right here. I wished to get to BYU and begin my journey. It was fairly powerful to be affected person.” — BYU softball catcher Hailey Morrow
“After I acquired the provide, I keep in mind feeling very grateful for the chance,” Morrow informed the Deseret Information. “I don’t suppose numerous my pals even knew what it meant.”
How might they? They had been all nonetheless making an attempt to navigate by the eighth grade.
“That’s when the arms race was on to commit children early,” Eakin stated. “Hailey was an LDS child that got here to our camps. Her athleticism intrigued us.”
There was only one massive downside. The wait. Morrow was nonetheless attending the Somerset Academy Sky Level constitution faculty and beginning her profession at Shadow Ridge Excessive was nonetheless months away.
“I used to be so excited to return to BYU that the toughest factor was ready all these years of highschool to get right here,” Morrow stated. “I wished to get to BYU and begin my journey. It was fairly powerful to be affected person.”
Eakin had provided younger gamers earlier than. Some made it to BYU, some didn’t. Morrow is the final of the younglings as NCAA guidelines now prohibit contact between faculties and youngsters earlier than their junior yr of highschool.
“BYU has been my dream faculty since I used to be little,” Morrow stated. “(Even at 12 years outdated) I knew it was the best place for me.”
What she wouldn’t find out about for the subsequent 6 ½ years was the shock that was ready upon her arrival.
The curveball
The drive from Las Vegas to Provo is usually six hours, relying on who's behind the wheel. Morrow wrapped up the Christmas break in Southern Nevada and was on the highway to her BYU debut when the cellphone rang.
It was coach Eakin.
“We had been doing our January softball camp within the IPF (Indoor Observe Facility),” Eakin stated. “We requested her when she was getting right here and requested if she might drop by the IPF as quickly as she received on the town.”
Morrow arrived a couple of hours later and was surrounded by the employees.
“They requested how the Christmas break went and so they had been like, ‘So, how are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I’m good,’” she stated. “However I might inform one thing was up.”
What was up was the truth that so many catchers had been down — with accidents.
The chain response began when sophomore Natalie Sicairos all of the sudden retired on account of again points earlier than the 2022 season. Macy Simmons stepped in and began all 50 video games final yr as a junior. As Simmons ready for her senior season, she too developed a again downside and had season-ending surgical procedure in December.
Sophomore Angelina Camen was introduced in from the switch portal to again up Simmons, however it was found after her arrival that the labrum surgical procedure she had at her earlier faculty didn’t heal proper and needed to be redone — costing her the season.
“That is unprecedented for us,” stated Eakin, who has 779 profession victories. “It pressured us to determine one thing out.”
What they figured was going to require Morrow to do one thing she had by no means achieved earlier than.
BYU Cougars catcher Hailey Morrow catches throughout a sport with Boise State in Provo on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
The massive thought
There is no such thing as a means BYU soccer coach Kalani Sitake would ask tight finish Isaac Rex to maneuver over to beginning quarterback 4 weeks earlier than the season opener until he was out of choices. What Eakin was about to do was the equal of such a transfer.
“Now we have one thing to speak to you about,” Eakin stated because the IPF dialog continued. “We dropped the bomb that Macy was out, and we thought we might shore issues up behind the plate if she would swap positions.”
Morrow is a center infielder. That’s all she has recognized since selecting up her first softball. Not one time had she ever performed catcher — and even thought-about it.
“I might see a bit of ‘Oh my heck!’ in her eyes,” Eakin stated. “And possibly a bit of worry and a bit of surprise.”
It took only some seconds for the brand new child on the town to say sure.
“In addition to being nervous, I feel I’m a really aggressive particular person. I’ll do no matter it takes. I need to win and be there for my teammates,” Morrow stated. “It was a straightforward resolution after I thought in regards to the massive image and what the staff wanted.”
The second Morrow agreed to the swap, the clock began ticking.
“Coach Todd (Choose) informed me I had 30 days to turn out to be a catcher,” she stated. “I knew it was going to be a tough 30 days.”
On the clock
Life behind the plate is a distinct life. A tough life. It requires full concentrate on each single pitch and the athleticism to dam balls within the dust, throw out baserunners, defend the plate when opposing runners attempt to rating, and, possibly essentially the most difficult of all, is the part-time work as a pitcher’s psychiatrist.
Eakin believed Morrow was made for this second. He noticed it in her, even at 12 years outdated.
“The identical actual factor that prompted us to recruit her within the eighth grade was her athleticism,” Eakin stated. “She’s only a large athlete. When you're gonna attempt to do one thing she hasn’t achieved earlier than, it’s the athleticism that makes it potential.”
Morrow’s transition started by placing on a catcher’s masks, which opened her eyes to an entire new world.
“We began with the fundamentals so I might get basis,” Morrow stated. “We added one thing new day-after-day.”
After pitch and catch classes within the bullpen, she moved behind residence plate.
“She needed to learn to body pitches, however the largest problem was studying find out how to block pitches within the dust,” Eakin stated. “After a pair weeks, we began placing batters in entrance of her and have them swing when she was making an attempt to catch and block pitches.”
A lot to Eakin’s delight, Morrow was progressing shortly, however at the same time as a real freshman, she was sufficiently old to know there was nonetheless a serious hill to climb — she needed to persuade the pitchers that she might do the job — with the season opener quick approaching.
Making her pitch
Chloe Temples set BYU’s single-game strikeout document final yr when she fanned 15 Saint Mary’s batters. The bond between her and catcher Macy Simmons appeared unbreakable. However because the switch from Stetson ready for her senior season, she watched the veteran catcher go down and a transformed second baseman transfer in to switch her.
“After I first heard the information, I used to be positively apprehensive,” Temples stated. “It was nothing towards Hailey, however it scared me a bit of bit. When you're snug on the mound to throw any of your pitches, it adjustments the sport for me. Final yr, me and Macy had been on the identical web page.”
Morrow had little time to waste as soon as the announcement was made. At the same time as a brand new catcher, she had a pitch to, nicely, pitch — to the pitchers.
“I assumed they had been apprehensive,” she stated of Temples and freshman pitcher Kaysen Korth. “The bond between a pitcher and catcher is so necessary. Somebody who hasn’t caught earlier than may not perceive that.”
The following day, because the staff labored on conditioning within the weight room, the freshman noticed a possibility to make a senior-like transfer.
“I keep in mind going as much as Chloe and I put my hand on her shoulder and stated, ‘Chloe, I received you and we received this,’” Morrow stated. “We're going to work some magic.”
“I can inform that we're beginning to get there,” Temples stated. “We're open and trustworthy. Hailey will come as much as me and ask, ‘What do you concentrate on this?’ or ‘What am I doing on this pitch that you really want achieved higher?’ I can inform she genuinely believes in me.”
Like Morrow, Korth is in her first season at BYU. The promising former Max Preps Utah Participant of the Yr from Riverton Excessive additionally had an preliminary pace bump to clear.
“I used to be nervous, particularly having somebody who hadn’t caught earlier than. However she is loopy good,” Korth stated. “I'd have by no means anticipated her to choose up all the things so nicely. She frames like she has been a catcher for 10 years. She is forward of the sport. She is each pitch. She is aware of what’s working for me. And, to throw out Division I runners stealing from first base to second — is unreal.”
To make issues much more attention-grabbing and borderline determined, freshman catcher Jolee Benson joined the damage checklist with a fractured elbow. It was now apparent, for the Cougars’ probabilities at a closing WCC championship, the ‘Morrow Experiment’ needed to work.
No strain. Proper?
The catching debut
The Morrow household likes to joke round, and when Hailey informed her dad and mom, Jon and Heather, that she switched from second base to catcher, they didn’t consider her. So, when the household flew to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, to look at the Cougars tackle Wisconsin on Feb. 9, they had been in for a shock.
“Once they noticed me run out of the dugout and get behind residence plate they'd the most important smiles on their faces,” Morrow stated. “They thought I had been joking the entire time.”
It was no joke, and it didn’t take however the first batter to persuade Korth that Morrow was the best second baseman for the job.
“The very first batter,” Korth stated. “She blocked a ball, and I knew there was nothing I needed to fear about.”
For Morrow, it took a couple of extra pitches.
“When Kaysen received that first strikeout, I might simply really feel the power,” she stated. “I knew we had been going to be advantageous. My mindset stepping into was to play with out worry and play the sport how it's presupposed to be performed and the remainder would maintain itself.”
Korth and Morrow teamed up for a three-hit shutout together with 9 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory.
“As I walked again to the resort, I simply took a deep breath and thought, ‘We will do that! We will win. We're a stable staff,’” Morrow stated. “At that second I used to be simply excited for what the season would convey.”
Morrow is now 21 video games into her first season as a D-I catcher, and of the 20 video games she has performed she has began each one among them. She can also be hitting the ball. Her .378 common is finest on the staff. Morrow additionally has 4 residence runs; her first towards Portland State won't ever be forgotten.
“That was in all probability the most effective emotions in my life. I knew as quickly as I hit it that it was gone,” she stated. “My favourite half was watching it on movie and seeing my teammates leaping up and down. They're my largest supporters.”
A glimpse into the longer term?
Whereas Morrow was driving her bike round Centennial Hills as a 12-year-old with a scholarship provide in her again pocket, Eakin was busy teaching the 2017 Cougars to 46 wins and an look within the NCAA Match.
Now at 19, Morrow is lastly on the roster, however she’s doing one thing the coach had by no means achieved in his 22 earlier years at BYU — flip an infielder right into a beginning catcher.
“I’ve seen it one time in my profession when Arizona did it. That’s what gave us the concept that it could possibly be achieved,” Eakin stated. “Hailey is a uncommon athlete. What she has achieved is phenomenal, distinctive and unusual on this sport.”
Subsequent yr as BYU begins play within the Huge 12, Eakin expects to have Simmons, Camen and returned missionary Kailey Erickson competing for time behind the plate, which can ship Morrow again residence to second base.
“Hailey might begin behind the plate, at third base, shortstop or second base,” Eakin stated. “We’ll see what occurs subsequent yr. Her complete sport is fairly darn spectacular.”
What about pitcher?
“She’s by no means pitched, and he or she gained’t,” he stated with fun.
On second thought …
BYU catcher Hailey Morrow (20) and her teammates huddle previous to a sport with Boise State in Provo on Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Dave McCann is a contributor to the Deseret Information and is the studio host for “BYU Sports activities Nation Sport Day,” “The Put up Sport Present,” “After Additional Overview,” and play-by-play announcer for BYUtv. He's additionally co-host of “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com.