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Victoria Hayward’s softball career began with Mountain View’s Bobby Sox Little League, her father setting up a pitching mound in their side yard. She had “never really even seen it played,” she said, but her family signed her up when they moved from Toronto, where she was born.
Little did they know, Hayward would go on to become an Olympic team captain and bronze medalist as well as an NCAA Division I head coach, now playing softball in her final professional season in a new league that she helped found.
In 2020, Hayward was the first player to sign with Athletes Unlimited (AU), a new network of U.S. women’s professional sports leagues in softball, volleyball, basketball and formerly lacrosse. The creation of Athletes Unlimited provides more opportunities for female athletes to continue their careers professionally, and athletes participate in a profit-sharing program. Members of its board of advisers include Abby Wambach, Kevin Durant and numerous other notable athletes.
In June, Athletes Unlimited launched a new softball league featuring four teams playing a 30-game season in a traditional format to complement the existing AU Pro Softball Championship Season, which started in 2020.
Led by former Miami Marlins general manager Kim Ng as commissioner and backed by an investment from Major League Baseball, the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) is touring the country for its inaugural season, playing in 10 cities until the championship series this weekend.
The Talons (17-5) – Hayward’s team – have won 12 of their last 14 games and will take on the Bandits as the No. 1 seed July 26-28 in the best-of-three championship series, which will be broadcast on ESPN. Last week, the Talons welcomed the return of another player with Peninsula ties who had been sidelined with a hamstring strain – former UCLA star Maya Brady, niece of former NFL quarterback and San Mateo native Tom Brady.
While AUSL is wrapping up its inaugural season, the final games also mark the end of Hayward’s 12-year career as a professional softball player. In the fall, the 33-year-old outfielder will return to her position as head coach of the University of Nevada’s softball team, where she was recognized as Mountain West Coach of the Year this year.
“Beyond grateful to spend my final season with the @ausl_talons, building the future of our sport,” Hayward wrote in an Instagram post published on AUSL opening day June 7. “Here comes the victory lap.”
From the Spartans to the Talons
Hayward grew up in Mountain View and attended Mountain View High School, where she played softball, soccer and volleyball. Before her junior year, she went to Canada to try out for the national softball team “with no expectations,” she said.
She would go on to play for the national team from 2009 to 2022, serving as a captain for at least half the time. Having joined the team at 16, she is the youngest player ever to represent Team Canada.
“Playing in the international track allowed me to compete with people who had been there, done that – (they’d played) in college, they were 30, 32, 33, they were Olympians – and I was gonna be a junior in high school,” she said. “I think those years were really defining to my career in a lot of ways.”
After making the national team, she continued playing softball at Mountain View High, serving as team captain for three years while also playing four years of soccer (three years on varsity) and graduating with a 4.4 GPA.
“(There was) lots of travel, workouts after games at the YMCA and just constant pursuit of trying to get better,” she said. “I definitely missed a lot of events…but made sure to make it to the meaningful ones.”
Hayward then attended the University of Washington, earning recognition as an NCAA All-American athlete in 2014. After graduation, she moved all around the country – to Louisiana, Massachusetts, Indiana and Maryland – serving in various coaching or administrative roles and drawing on her first ever coaching experience with her middle school team as an MVHS student.
“It was kind of a hodgepodge of doing whatever it took to continue playing and continue supporting myself financially,” she said.
In 2019, she was training hard for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – despite the postponement of the games, she won a bronze medal with Team Canada when the Olympics were held in 2021 – when she got a call about what would become Athletes Unlimited, she said.
‘We’re setting precedent right now’
The founders of Athletes Unlimited – friends Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros – wanted to “innovate” when it came to sports leagues, according to the AU website.
“They were…wanting to create something less reliant on geography and more empowering to female athletes and fans, who they felt had been underserved in the market,” an excerpt from the website reads.
Hayward became the first athlete to sign with the organization back in 2020 and now wears jersey No. 1 to represent her key role in the beginnings of the organization. Patricof and Soros pitched her the idea in New York, and she was convinced.
“We sat in an office that overlooked Central Park,” she said. “They talked about their vision for new professional leagues, not just softball, but starting with softball. I was like, ‘I am all in with it.’ It was just awesome.”
Lisa Fernandez, who is a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Famer, three-time Olympic gold medalist and head coach of UCLA’s softball program, serves as general manager of the Talons, the team that Hayward plays for. She sees AUSL as a chance to grow awareness of the sport of softball.
“We’re all looking for it to become mainstream,” she said. “These athletes that are competing right now are role models for the future. We’re setting precedent right now, and it’s so exciting to be a part of. You’re inspiring young girls to be physical, to be active, to be proud of who they are and how they move and how they accept challenges and overcome them.”
The league’s first season – and Hayward’s last
When drafting her team, Fernandez felt Hayward was an obvious choice.
“I had the opportunity to draft her, and I was like, ‘Heck yeah!’” she said. “To have her experience, her vast knowledge, she truly is a role model…(She has) tenaciousness.”
Hayward attributes her success in the sport to expertise built not only from years of play, but also from years of coaching. Her teammates jokingly call her “Coach Vic” and ask for advice.
“She’s been a great resource, not only competing on the field but (also providing) leadership in the dugout and in the locker room,” Fernandez said.
Hayward’s play – which she characterized as scrappy and Fernandez described as tenacious – was influenced by her childhood in Mountain View. She said that her high school experience taught her that “being competitive was a good thing.”
“(It taught me) just to use my voice,” she said. “The community around sports was a really healthy, great environment to just be yourself and be able to achieve whatever you wanted to.”
Hayward now is head coach of the University of Nevada’s softball program, leading her team to win the Mountain West conference and earning Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2025. While this is the first season for AUSL, it’s also Hayward’s last pro season before she commits herself to coaching full-time. As a coach and player, she recognizes that she serves as a role model for younger athletes.
“Telling young girls that you can be a professional, you can play this game and make a living, and play for as long as you want to (is important),” she said. “I hope that at least one person wants to be a pro softball player when they grow up because they saw me do it.”
The Talons close out the regular season July 22-23 against the Volts. Both games are at 4 p.m. on ESPN2. The first two games of the AUSL Championship against the Bandits will air live on ESPN. Game 1 is scheduled for noon on July 26, and the second game will be played at 11 a.m. July 27. If necessary, the third game will be at 4 p.m. July 28 and will air on ESPN2.
