CHARLOTTESVILLE — Paige Wickard never envisioned she’d have the opportunity to play college softball.
Even at the age of 4, when she picked up her first softball, the thought didn’t exist, nor did the idea of showing cattle.
How times have changed for the Eastern Hancock senior.
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“I actually never wanted to show cattle in my entire life, but my mom and her brother showed cattle when they were younger, and after my grandfather started a short-horn business, I decided to try it,” Wickard said.
Softball unfolded in a similar way for Wickard, an Anderson University commit.
A tradition her paternal grandmother, Jeanette Wickard, embraced in her youth while growing up in Hancock County, the sport was introduced to Paige as something to try.
There was hesitation. There was some doubt, but Wickard has a way of conquering trepidation. Case in point, her present-day passion for showing cattle.
“At first, I was terrified to go out to the barn. I told my (mom and grandfather) I wasn’t going out there. I was screaming. I just thought cows were the scariest thing in the world until my third-grade year,” Wickard recalled.
“It was the start of 4-H, and I told my papaw (Rick Lawrence) I wanted to show a heifer. He bought me one, and I’ve been showing ever since. I love showing. I show cattle with my brothers.”
The hobby has led Wickard across the nation with stops and competitions in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nebraska and a recent win in Denver. Texas was a scheduled trip planned for this year, but the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic cancelled that trek, along with her final high school softball season.
But, in hindsight, her softball career actually hung in the balance four years ago.
A former pitcher during her travel softball days, Wickard joined the Royals varsity team as a freshman under Eastern Hancock head coach Pat Medler in 2017.
She clubbed her first home run on April 26 during a 15-4 rout of Wes-Del as Wickard finished 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and four runs scored.
Medler, who left for Monroe Central the next season, pulled Wickard aside after the game and laid out a path for the young up-and-coming standout.
“I didn’t think I was even going to be a good softball player freshman year, but then I hit my first home run with Pat as a coach. I was a pitcher back then, but he pretty much told me, ‘I want you to hit, but you’re never going to pitch on my team,’” Wickard reminisced. “He said you can either work on hitting with me or you can keep working on pitching. I thought, well, I’m going to work on hitting.”
The shift in focus paid dividends with a .349 batting average in her first season, a .444 clip as a sophomore and a .379 average as a junior.
In her first season with current Royals head coach Terry Stephens, Wickard drove in 32 runners compared to 21 as a freshman. Her runs scored jumped from 14 to 17 and her doubles increased from one to six.
“You could almost always depend on her to make contact,” Stephens said. “Being in that fourth spot, teams will pitch around you a little bit, so she kind of had to work sometimes to get the hits that she wanted, but when she came up to bat, I always felt confident that the ball was going to be put in play somewhere.”
Nothing came easy, though.
Wickard had to commit, and she did, honing her swing more after playing travel softball with HTR Softball Club in Greenfield until U16. Wickard continued to split time with 4-H, but when she wasn’t in-season with softball, she trained with Medler, who remains her hitting coach.
“He taught me how to hit, and honestly, he believes in me so much that I come back to my team and I help the other girls with hitting,” Wickard said. “Whenever I get up to the plate, I know I’m going to hit the ball because everybody tells me I can. I just have to get out of my mind and swing.”
Just like with her initial fear of cattle, it’s mind over matter, and for Wickard, goals are significant.
The oldest of three children, Paige, Leslie and David Wickard’s lone daughter, lives by example for her younger brothers Ryan, 15, and Carter, 13. It’s what guided her to Anderson University.
“Anderson has the best nursing program in Indiana, so that was the No. 1 reason, and then it’s a Christian college. The third reason was that I get to play softball and having my batting coach (Medler) and old coach being on the team that just made it where I wanted to be,” Wickard said.
With Medler serving as an assistant coach at AU, familiarity and comfort will be a luxury for the first baseman, who posted 24 RBI, 16 runs scored, three triples and only 15 strikeouts in 96 plate appearances last season.
Sometimes, things fall into place when you least expect it.
“My grandma played fastball in high school and on teams when she got older. She told me to start throwing, and I did. I started with T-ball and made my way up,” Wickard said. “My great-aunt on my mom’s side played softball, and she actually played against my grandma in some games.”
Paige picked up the family torch, and she hasn’t dropped it despite losing her senior season this spring. She trains daily. When the weather is nice, she goes outside to belt “dingers” and line drives. If it’s cold, she sets up her Bownet and a tee, swinging towards the future.
“It’s frustrating. I was definitely looking forward to a good season before I went off to college, but at the same time, I’m not as sad because I’m going to Anderson for softball. I’ll be able to have four more years,” Wickard said. “I’m taking videos (for Medler), so I can make sure I’m doing everything right.”
If not, she’s always ready to change her approach. She did this past winter with Medler and Stephens after she admittedly left too many runners stranded in 2019.
“To see her in preseason stuff, she was crushing the ball. I was so excited to see what she was going to be able to do for us (in 2020),” Stephens said. “You hate that we lost (the season), but hopefully, she’ll be able to take that onto Anderson and do some damage there.”
Wickard expects to accomplish both in the classroom and on the diamond.
“We only got a couple of days outside (before the season was cancelled), but whenever we did I worked really hard. I was ready to go into the season. During quarantine, I was running every day, working out because I thought we were going back, but we stopped,” Wickard said. “But, I haven’t stopped working out or hitting.”
She might get one more chance to swing for the fences before become a collegiate athlete during the 10th Annual Indiana Elite North vs. South Softball College Showcase at the Chuck Klein Sports Complex in Indianapolis.
“Coach Stephens elected me and four other girls to play on the Indiana Elite team in June, if it’s still going to happen, so I’m training for that right now,” Wickard said. “Hopefully, it happens.”
