Softball
Favorite athlete: Amanda Lorenz
Favorite team: Florida Gators
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Pennsbury to make it to states. They were also the number one team in ranking, and the energy was something indescribable. You had to be there to understand it.
Most embarrassing moment: Recently, I swung at a riseball that was about 2 feet over my head and just laughed at myself. I wasn’t even close to touching it but for some reason I thought i could hit it.
Music on playlist: A little bit of everything, I listen to all kinds of music.
Future plans: Continue my academic and athletic career at Gwynedd Mercy University and hopefully get a job with a sports team in the future.
Words to live by: “In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity.”
One goal before turning 30: I really want to go to Italy.
One thing people don’t know about me: I can say all 50 states in under 30 seconds.
By Mary Jane Souder
Maya Hellyer is an advertisement for the value of perseverance and determination.
The Quakertown senior, a three-year varsity player, anchors the Panthers’ successful softball team behind the plate and will be taking her talents to Gwynedd Mercy University this fall. It’s an outcome some doubted but never her most loyal fan.
“I always would talk to my grandfather about going there and playing softball,” Hellyer said of the late James Santi, who passed away suddenly last July. “My grandfather always said, ‘You’re going to get them, girl, you got it.’
“I was finally able to say that I did it a couple days after he passed away sadly. I feel like just hearing that – I knew that was where I belonged.”
Hellyer, by her own admission, didn’t have an especially good track record when it came to finding her niche in the sports world.
“I actually was a dancer for a really long time – I was a ballet dancer,” she admits with a laugh.
A “really long time” as a youngster constituted what was a two-year stint in ballet.
“I slowly got bored with that and then I went to soccer,” Hellyer said. “That lasted – I want to say – two months. I was a goalie, and I got hit in the face – it did not go well, and then I switched to gymnastics, which lasted about a month.”
It would have been understandable if Hellyer had thrown in the towel and given up on her pursuit of finding a sport she enjoyed, but that was never a consideration.
“I was always determined to find something that I loved,” she said. “My family was very sports oriented growing up. It was always on the TV, and I wanted to find something cool to do just like everyone else.”
Hellyer had gone through the t-ball ranks in softball, and after gymnastics, she began playing travel ball. According to her high school softball coach, who informally helped with her travel team when she was 10 years old, Hellyer wasn’t a can’t-miss prospect back then.
“She has gone from a kid I wasn’t even sure would play high school softball to being a kid who made varsity as a 10th grader and is now going to be playing at Gwynedd Mercy University,” Quakertown coach Dave Scott said. “She’s made a remarkable progression.
“If you would have asked me when she was 10 or 11, I didn’t think there was any way, and here we are. It’s been pretty amazing to watch.”
There were, however, naysayers who to this day have not acknowledged Hellyer’s remarkable journey, including a close family member.
“Believe it not, I was actually told I couldn’t do it,” Hellyer said. “My grandfather played a very important part of my life with softball. It was always my grandfather who was there to pick me back up.”
Instead of allowing the negative comments to pull her down, Hellyer used them to light a fire.
“One hundred percent,” she said, acknowledging she turned the corner when she made the varsity team as a sophomore. “I finally started realizing I could do it, and I did have it in me to do it, and I had to almost tune out everyone around me and focus on who was supporting me versus who wasn’t supporting me.”
Committing to play collegiate softball confirmed just how wrong the doubters were.
“It felt really good,” Hellyer said. “I feel like it just showed me I could do anything, and I just have to focus on the people that are there for me – my mom, my stepdad and my sister have always been there for me, and I need to focus more on them versus the negatives because in the end, the people that are always there for you will help you achieve what you want.”
A passion for softball
Once Hellyer discovered her love for softball, she never lost it, and the Quakertown senior has been a catcher since her earliest recollection.
“When you’re little, everyone absolutely hated (that position), but I was always the kid who wanted to do it,” she said. “I actually quit catching for a year to learn how to play third base, but I found my way back into it. It was something I could never give up again.
“I just love it. I don’t know what it is about it, but I love being in control out there, helping my team make any plays they have to, telling people where to go on a play or anything like that.”
Listening to her coach tell it, Hellyer is the prototypical catcher.
“She’ll take a ball off her arm, and you’re running out there to make sure she’s fine, and she’s saying, ‘I’m good, I’m good,’” Scott said. “She’s always getting dinged up during games. She always brushes it off and bounces right back and is right back in the game.”
Hellyer shared a special bond with Sydney Andrews, the Panthers’ first team All-SOL Liberty pitcher who is now playing at Cabrini University.
“I’ve known Syd since I was four years old, so we go way back, but we always had that pitcher/catcher bond, so just catching for her senior year and being able to be her catcher was honestly a highlight for me,” Hellyer said.
The senior catcher has effortlessly made the switch to her new batterymate Abbey Wagner.
“During winter workouts, we worked together,” Hellyer said. “We worked hard during bullpens, and I think that’s what made us so successful in games to the point where we could both trust one another.”
The Panthers are off to an impressive start, and Hellyer is a key part of it, but her success in softball didn’t just happen.
“During quarantine, I was running with Syd during the week, and we were doing body weight stuff that we could do at home because everything was shut down,” Hellyer said. “Once things started opening up, I started putting the work outside of practice and just committed myself to getting better not only for myself but for my team in general.”
That work away from the diamond has paid dividends for Hellyer.
“Honestly, she just has a real commitment to being better,” Scott said. “It’s that simple. She’s committed to being a better softball player, she’s committed to working very hard in the gym. She comes to all of our winter weightlifting sessions and has gotten herself very physically fit and strong, and that’s really, really helped her on-the-field performance.”
Hellyer has also worked hard to improve her defensive skills behind the plate.
“She’s gotten very good at blocking pitches in the dirt, and probably her biggest area of improvement has been in her throws,” Scott said. “She’s really improved her mechanics, and because of the work she’s done in the weight room, her throws down to second have just been great, so that’s a real solid part of her game.
“And hitting – she takes a great right field approach and just makes really solid contact and drives the ball back the middle. She’s just a good contact hitter.”
Hellyer, according to Scott, leads by example.
“She’s a quiet leader,” he said. “She’s improved a lot in the verbal parts of the game, but she’s not a super loud rah, rah. She’s more of – ‘Hey, I’m going to be lifting today’ or ‘I’m going to be staying after practice and work on throws.’ She definitely leads more by example.”
Hellyer points to the chemistry the Panthers share as another component in their success.
“We all have been playing with each other since we were young,” she said. “We played Sunday Select together way back when, and I feel we all have such a special bond that when we’re on the field we’re all there for one another, and we’re there to pick each other up, so if one person is having a bad game, someone always has their back, and I feel that’s been such a key role in why we’ve been successful.”
If Quakertown was a perfect fit for Hellyer, she believes Gwynedd Mercy University will be the same for the next four years.
“I chose Gwynedd Mercy because they were offering everything I was looking for,” she said. “I felt like it was almost a sign that – not that I had to go there necessarily, but I really wanted to go there.”
Hellyer, an excellent student, places a high value on academics.
“I take my schoolwork very seriously, and Dave has always told me – the first number people look at is your GPA, they don’t care how many home runs you hit,” she said. “I really took pride in my schoolwork, and I just worked hard to earn good grades all throughout high school, and that helped me when I started applying to colleges and getting scholarship money.”
Hellyer is planning to major in sports management with her sights set on one day working with a sports team.
“Gwynedd Mercy has so much to offer with the sports management major and so many intern opportunities that can get me out into the real world,” she said. “I loved the way that their softball team was. I loved how all the girls interacted with one another and the coach, and I feel like that’s so important, so just seeing it – I felt like I was at home.”
Home – the way Quakertown has felt for the past four years, so when asked what she will remember most about her playing days with the Panthers, she makes no mention of big wins or personal achievements.
“Honestly, just the practices and bus rides with my team,” she said. “I love making memories with them.
“It’s something I’ll always remember, and I’m so sad it’s coming to an end this year. But I’m thankful I have the next four years to make even more memories with more people, but for sure, this team will always hold a special part in my heart.”
