Softball
Favorite athlete: Serena Williams
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing against CR South and hitting a double. Then stealing third when the pitcher was out of the circle
Most embarrassing moment: I slipped on a random mud spot in the outfield while trying to catch a pop fly. The ball landed right next to me while I was on the ground
Music on playlist: Taylor Swift, Wallows, and Role Model
Future plans: Go to Montclair State to play softball and major in film and minor in sociology
Words to live by: “Don’t settle for average”
One goal before turning 30: Travel out of the country
One thing people don’t know about me: I like playing soccer
By Mary Jane Souder
Noelle Wood – playing with a new-found confidence – was poised to have a strong senior year. At least that was the plan.
In her first at-bat of the team’s season-opening scrimmage, the Council Rock North senior drew a walk to lead off the second inning. Coach Susan Yee gave the speedy outfielder the steal sign.
It was a no-brainer. After all, running the bases had been Wood’s specialty since she was a swing player on the varsity as a freshman, and two of her teammates had already successfully stolen second.
“They made it easily, so I stole,” Wood said. “I was running, and I remember seeing the shortstop at the last second appear right in front of me.
“I wasn’t close enough to the bag, but my plan in the beginning was to dive headfirst because to get to second it’s easier. I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ so I dove headfirst early and right into her leg. My arm bent backwards.
“I had to wait for my dad to pick me up, and I was just freaking – I can’t believe this is happening. Most of the time when I’m hurt, I’m like – all right, give it a few days and I’ll get back out there. This time I was just so scared, and I was like – please don’t let it be broken. I want to play.”
Rock North coach Susan Yee remembers the sequence all too well.
“The throw was slightly towards first base and took the shortstop into her,” the Indians’ coach said. “The two of them collided like a brick wall.”
Wood’s wrist was broken, and the most optimistic prognosis for her return is six weeks.
“It’s like this kid – each time she takes that step forward, she has another hurdle she has to get over,” Yee said.
Wood’s latest hurdle robs the senior of not only her final high school season but the opportunity to step on the diamond with a confidence that had been lacking in her previous three years.
Confidence that came through the most unexpected circumstances for an athlete who never believed in herself but became a player that is committed to continue her softball career at Montclair State University.
The journey
To understand the transformation, it’s important to understand where Wood came from. This is her story.
Wood came from a family that was very involved in sports. She has two older brothers and says she was always competitive…but never a tomboy.
“I like everything,” she said. “I like hair and make-up, but I also love playing sports.”
At the age of five, Wood began playing soccer and softball. She also played basketball and ran track in middle school.
“Once I got to high school, I ended up focusing more on softball,” she said. “I get injured pretty often, and that’s one downfall.
“I ran track in middle school, and I pulled my hamstring, so I think softball was the best option.”
Wood was happy competing at the community intramural level.
“I played on three softball teams, but they were never highly competitive,” she said. “The reason why is I always felt I wasn’t good enough.
“I knew there were a lot of other girls that were better than me, and I just felt that making my parents pay for lessons and all that – my parents were very supportive, and my dad would always say, ‘If you want, we can get you hitting lessons, but I was always so scared to, so I never agreed to that.”
Wood briefly played travel soccer and did a one-year stint with a travel softball team, the Langhorne Lightening.
“I could only play for one year because I aged out of it,” she said. “I tried out for two or three other travel teams, but I never made it.
“At that moment when I was 12 or so, I thought, ‘I’m just not good enough and I should stop trying.’ That’s why I think I never really tried again. I tried out for one other travel team, but I was just too scared of failure, so I stopped doing that.”
Then came the summer of 2021.
Wood, who still had her share of self-doubt, was attending voluntary practices for her high school team over the summer.
“I didn’t know if I should go or not,” she said. “I remember there was this one practice that none of my friends that I’m close with on the team were going, but I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go anyway.’
“Coach Yee pulled me aside and said, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. She was like, ‘Okay, we need another player for my travel team, and if you want, we’re practicing after this and you can practice with us.’”
Yee’s travel team Vypers 18U was minus several players who were still playing for North Penn in the PIAA 6A state tournament with the Pennsbury Invitational on the schedule for that same weekend.
“She was very hesitant because she was afraid she would let the team down, but I assured her that no matter what she did, it was better than a hole in the field with nobody there, and nobody would judge her, they would just be happy to have her,” Yee said.
Wood – with some reservations – agreed to go to the Vypers practice.
“I told the girls – ‘Listen, I’m bringing one of my high school kids to practice today. She’s really nervous, so just do what you guys always do. Make her feel welcome,’” Yee said.
An unexpected opportunity
Wood admits she was very nervous but attended without the pressure that goes hand in hand with trying out.
“I’m scared when I don’t know girls and what they’ll think of me, but it actually ended up being fun” Wood said. “I remember that practice – I played pretty well in the outfield, and I was kind shocked in my abilities at the time.
“I wasn’t caring as much as I would be because it wasn’t a tryout. I knew the coach, it wasn’t anything crazy, and I was like, ‘This is kind of fun.’ All the girls were so nice, and I felt really comfortable.”
“The girls in practice fell in love with her,” Yee said. “They ended up asking me if they could ask her to join the team. They convinced her she was good enough to play travel and they would help her learn and grow.”
Wood was stunned by the invitation but needed to think about the implications of joining.
“It was a big thing to me,” she said. “I ended up saying ‘yes,’ and I played two months with them in the summer. I traveled to New England’s Finest and played in these college showcase games. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ I learned a lot from being on a travel team because I could never improve when I was in intramural. People had told me I had potential, but I was too scared.”
Yee – for health and personal reasons – stepped down last summer, and Wood thought that was the end of her travel softball days.
“I cried a lot because I had this opportunity and everything was looking up,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I might be able to play in college now.’ I did not think I could do that. I would never even tell anyone that I wanted to do that because I didn’t want to sound silly or people would laugh at me and say, ‘You could never play in college.’
“I saw that chance when I was on coach Yee’s travel team, but when she stepped down, I was like ‘What does that mean for me? I don’t think I could make another travel team.’ We only had a few weeks to find another travel team, and travel had already started at that time. I ended up going on an Arizona trip, and at that time, I was missing so many tryouts, so it wasn’t looking good for me. I was really stressed out and felt defeated.”
Wood ended up trying for Rock travel with several other girls from her Vypers squad and earned a spot on Rock 18U Hutchins.
“I didn’t think I could make it, but I ended up making that team with another girl from the Vypers,” she said. “I also emailed a few colleges at that time, and I had a highlight reel and videos and all that stuff.
“In the beginning of September, I emailed Montclair State University, and they got back to me and they were interested. That was actually the first college that was interested in me and wanted to give me a tour. By October, I ended up committing. It was just a lot because I went from July to being ‘I can’t play in college,’ and then I was committed.”
A happy ending
Wood has become the softball player she never thought she would be. There were early signs that she had the potential some had told her she had.
“Ironically, I think it was at the Pennsbury Invitational,” Yee said. “We were playing a game, and she did not know where the out-of-play line was on the field we were on.
“She was playing left field, and this ball got fouled deep and had to have been at least 30 feet beyond the out-of-play line, and she was chasing down the ball the entire time, ran through the crowd of parents that were sitting there to catch the ball, and she did catch it. We were like – ‘That was a great catch, but it doesn’t count for anything. Way to go Noelle.’”
It was the belief of Yee and her Vypers teammates that turned things around for Wood.
“The players were nothing but nice to me,” Wood said. “If I didn’t play well, they always were like, ‘You’re good enough.’
“A lot of girls would ask me – ‘What colleges are you looking at to play?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to play,’ and they were like, ‘What do you mean you’re not going to play in college. You can.’ Every time I would pinch run, and every time they would cheer me on and say,’ She’s so fast.’ It definitely gave me confidence. I always felt that being confident was taken as cocky, but now I’m learning you can be confident while not being cocky. That’s something I wrote my college essay about because that’s definitely something big I’m trying to work on.”
As for Yee, she couldn’t be happier.
“I’ve said for years – I’m lucky,” she said. “Every kid I’ve had with the Vypers was just a great kid, so they were very open in wanting to communicate with her from the time they got there. They were like, ‘Look how much ground she’s covering in the outfield – you can’t teach that.’
“I said, ‘I’ve been trying to explain that to her for years. Granted COVID took one of those years away from me. I said, ‘I can’t teach you to be fast. I can teach you all the other stuff.’ I said, ‘Maybe if she hears it from you guys she’ll finally believe it.”
Wood was Yee’s starting center fielder, and although she cannot patrol the outfield, Wood is still contributing.
“She is at every practice without fail and helping however she can,” Yee said. “She sets up equipment for girls, mentors them, tosses balls, coaches bases to keep her instincts sharp, and one day when we were doing pushups, she even tried to do it with them with one arm. She completed 1.5 push-ups with the single arm before she collapsed, but boy, did she give it her all.”
Recently, Wood had a second opinion and was told 4-6 weeks and then a month of rehab.
“I think hopefully I will be able to make my Senior Night and just play the outfield, which is my hope right now,” she said. “It’s kind of a guessing game to see how strong my hand feels after I get my cast off. It’s definitely hard, but it is what it is at this point.
Off the diamond, Wood has a passion for art and is a member of the National Art Honor Society. She plans to major in film making with a minor in sociology, admitting her aspirations have changed.
“I’ve been very into sociology recently,” she said. “I want to bring awareness to certain social issues through films, and I just want to bring light to certain issues – help people that aren’t seen. “
“She is a genuinely good person,” Yee said. “The kids like her, she’s the kind of kid that you love to coach, especially now that she’s figured out she is capable. As a coach, one of the biggest hurdles I had to get past with her was to get her to believe that she could do what she could do.
“This kid has battled adversity and flourished. She’s just a phenomenal young lady, positive influence, leader, mentor, and did it all through struggles and hard work but always wearing a smile.”
