Victoria Gran Hayward (born 11 April 1992) is Canadian, former professional softball player and current assistant coach for Washington. She played

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

for Washington from 2011–14. She most recently played for the

Canadian Wild The Canadian Wild, officially the Canadian Wild of Southern Illinois, were a professional women's softball team based in Marion, Illinois. They were founded in 2019 as part of National Pro Fastpitch and are partnered with the Canada women's nation ...

in the National Pro Fastpitch. She played in the inaugural season of the

Athletes Unlimited Softball Athletes Unlimited Softball is a women's professional softball league in the United States, founded in 2020. League history Athletes Unlimited was founded by Jonathan Soros and Jon Patricof. There are no team owners, and league investors are c ...

league and finished in third place overall in points earned. She is an outfielder and bats and throws left-handed. She has played for the Canadian Senior Women's softball team since June 2009 and helped them win a bronze medal at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Early life

Born in Toronto, Victoria grew up in Mountain View, California and went to Mountain View High School (MVHS). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Political Science from the University of Washington and a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts.

Playing career

College

She attended the University of Washington for four years from 2011 to 2014 and played outfield for the Washington Huskies softball program. She was a 2014 All-American and a four-time All-Pac-12 selection. With the University of Washington, she won four NCAA Regional Championships and advanced to the 2013 Women's College World Series.

Professional

Hayward was drafted 19th overall by the

Pennsylvania Rebellion The Pennsylvania Rebellion were a National Pro Fastpitch softball team based in Washington, Pennsylvania. They were added as an expansion team for the 2014 season, receiving the roster and draft position of the recently defunct NY/NJ Comets. The ...

in the

2014 NPF Draft The 2014 NPF Draft is the eleventh annual NPF Draft. It was held March 31, 2014 8:00 PM ET in Nashville, TN at the Ford Theatre at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The first selection was Arizona State's Dallas Escobedo, picked b ...

. She played professionally for the Rebellion in 2015 and 2016. She joined the

in 2019 and in 2020 became the first player to sign with the

league.

National Team

Hayward has played with the Canadian Women's Senior National team since 2009 and at 16, was the youngest player to appear for the Canadian national team. She has won five medals competing for Canada - two Silver at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

and three Bronze medals at the World Championships. She was named to the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

team that won Gold, but was unable to compete due to injury. She represented Canada at the

, where she recorded six hits to hit .300, including two during the bronze medal game to defeat Team Mexico 3–2.

Coaching career

After finishing her college softball career, she joined

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

in 2015, where she helped guide the team to a third-place finish at the Women's College World Series. In 2016 and 2017, she was an assistant coach for the University of Massachusetts helping them to back-to-back winning seasons in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, she was an assistant coach at Maryland and was Director of Operations for

UCF Knights softball The UCF Knights softball program represents the University of Central Florida in the sport of softball. The Knights compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the American Athletic Conference (The American). ...

team in 2019. On August 26, 2021, Hayward was named an assistant coach for San Diego State. On August 2, 2022, she was promoted to associate head coach at San Diego State. On June 12, 2023, she was named an assistant coach for Washington.

Statistics

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayward, Victoria 1992 births Living people Canadian softball players Competitors at the 2022 World Games Softball players at the 2011 Pan American Games Washington Huskies softball players Sportspeople from Toronto Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Pan American Games medalists in softball Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Pennsylvania Rebellion players Softball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic softball players for Canada Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in softball LSU Tigers softball coaches UMass Minutewomen softball coaches Maryland Terrapins softball coaches San Diego State Aztecs softball coaches