Nevada softball coach Victoria Hayward is retiring.
Not as a coach. But as a player.
Hayward, who this month took the first at-bat in the history of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, announced this season will be her last as an active player, as first reported by DISoftball.
Hayward was the first player signed by Athletes Unlimited in 2020 and has been part of the league's new era, which kicked off this month with the support of Major League Baseball. Hayward is playing for the Bandits, one of four teams in the league that will tour 10 cities. Next year, there is expected to be additional teams located in host cities.
The 33-year-old Hayward will cap her decorated career this summer. The Canadian-born, Bay Area-raised outfielder dreamed of playing for Stanford before enrolling at Washington where she earned All-Pac-12 distinction four times, including first-team honors as a junior and senior when she was a first-team All-American.
Hayward became the youngest player named to the Canadian Senior National Team after joining the team at 16 in 2009. She was captain of Canada's 2020 Tokyo Olympics team that won a bronze medal and has competed in the Pan American Games and WBSC World Championships. She's been one of the world's top pros in recent seasons.
Hayward is not expected to compete for Canada in the 2028 Olympics, although she did not completely rule out that possibility.
"I'll never say never," Hayward said, per Yahoo! Sports. "A lot can change. As of right now, I do not plan on being part of the national team at that time, but stranger things have happened than for somebody to come out of retirement to compete at the Olympic games. I would love to be involved in some capacity."
Softball will return to the Olympics in the 2028 Los Angeles Games after not being a part of the 2024 Paris Games. Hayward was part of the AU board from 2020-22 and is proud of the growth in interest she's seen in the game, something she hopes is boosted with AUSL's debut this spring.
"Our goal is to have women be professional softball players and that requires more games, that requires that traditional model and so we're creeping closer and closer toward that and that's something we're definitely really proud of as a league," Hayward said, per Yahoo! Sports. "The athletes within this league are the absolute best of the best and now with a model that we're going to play a lot more games and we're going to be exposed to that high-level competition day in and day out and just be around the best softball players in the world, as a competitor training to be in that world stage at the Olympics, that's all you can ask for."
Hayward recently completed her first season at Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack to a 41-14 record and its first conference championship since 2009 as Nevada won the Mountain West with an 18-4 record. Those 41 wins are the second most in program history with Hayward winning conference coach of the year honors. The Wolf Pack was among the "First Four Out" of the NCAA Tournament after falling in the semifinals of the MW Tournament.
Her retirement as a player will allow Hayward more time to focus on building the Wolf Pack program, which includes assistant coach Delanie Wisz, who also is playing in the AUSL. Wisz had a homer, scored the game-winning run and had the walk-off hit in the Bandits' win Thursday night. She's hitting .417 with an 1.379 OPS and three extra-base hits in four games this season.