Meet Eleanor Worley, Baseball Player

If Eleanor Worley's life was made into a screenplay, it might read like a family-friendly story of overcoming obstacles in the face of constant pressure.

The screenplay would go something like this: Girl plays baseball with the boys long after most people expected her to switch to softball. She eventually gets selected to represent the U.S. Women's Baseball team. She overcomes long-held stereotypes to play the game she loves. There would be scenes of her overcoming doubts, heckling and biases to continue on her path of self-growth. The final scene would end with her pitching in her first varsity game and her teammates engaging in a long, slow clap as she looked triumphantly to the skies.

Seems like a movie Disney would love to produce, right?

There's just one problem. The story's subject would hate that representation. To some, Worley's desire to continue playing baseball into her senior year of high school is a great story of overcoming odds. To Worley, it's really no big deal. She's just playing the game she loves.

Starting Young

Worley does not remember what made her want to start playing baseball. She tried it in second grade, and she liked it.

“I don’t know," Worley said. "I just started playing it and have been playing it ever since.”

Worley found her favorite position during her second season, when she began pitching. At an age where being able to throw the ball in the general vicinity of the plate qualifies as expertise, Worley discovered her comfort zone on the hill.

“I just love feeling like you’re in control of the game and being a part of it every single pitch," Worley said. "As a pitcher, you can’t win the game for your team, but you can give them the opportunity to win. I love that about it."

As Worley continued to play, her fondness for the game continued to grow. It is not that rare for a girl to play baseball at that age, but as Worley grew older, people started to ask her when she was going to switch to softball. She gave only one answer: Never.

“All as I was growing up, people always asked me when I was going to switch, didn’t I have to switch here or there," Worley said. "There were so many people who were supportive of me, but thought there was some age I had to switch, I was like ‘No, I’m going to keep playing.’”

The questions and her answer remained the same as she continued to middle school. When she was prepared to enter high school, most people assumed she would switch once ninth grade began. She had no plans to.

High School Ball

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is very clear about softball and baseball: they are different sports.This makes a big difference in what teams young men and women are allowed to join. For instance, if a school has a women's basketball team, that means the men's team does not have to accept a female player.

But the presence of softball does not limit a female's ability to try out for baseball in accordance with Title IX. Softball and baseball are considered completely different sports, which means that a girl is free to play with the boys.

High school is where the Disney-version of Worley's story would begin to run into problems. That movie would have Worley facing initial tension with the teammates she would eventually win over with her perseverance. The truth had much less drama. Instead, Worley was just doing what generations of baseball players have done and entering high school with many of her old teammates.

“It really wasn’t that weird because a lot of the guys I play with on the high school team are guys I played with growing up, so they’re used to playing with me,” Worley said with a shrug.

Worley also made an early impression on her coaches with her work ethic. Interlake High School head coach Marc Linn, who coached Worley last year on the Bellevue Legion 17U team, said her dedication to the game stands out.

"She works hard, she has an incredible work ethic," Linn said. "She's a student of the game."

There have been moments where people, unintentionally, have made Worley feel out of place. When Worley took the mound at a tournament last year in Ephrata, an announcement was made that Worley was the first female to ever play on the field. The announcement irritated Worley, but not for the reasons you might think.

"When I came out to pitch in relief they announced that it was the first time a girl had played on the field which made me a bit angry because it ended up being a bigger deal than our starting pitcher's good outing," Worley said.

Worley has played on the junior varsity for three years, earning captain status as a sophomore and "Coaches Choice Player of the Year."

Next year, she hopes to make the varsity. Worley throws three pitches (fastball, curve, slider) and considers herself a "finesse" pitcher, changing speeds and using off-speed pitches to keep hitters off-balance. One aspect Linn said she needs to work on is a problem some pitchers would kill to have: throwing too many strikes.

"This year she threw...about seventy-nine to eighty-two percent of her pitches were strikes," Linn said. "She almost throws too many strikes."

Playing for the Red, White and Blue

The national Women's Baseball Program is not well-known to the general public. The team competes in the women's baseball World Cup every two years and fields two teams to play in the Women's Friendship series in alternating years. Worley tried out for the World Cup team last year (players must be at least 16 to try out), but did not make the cut. She made the Friendship series roster this year; she was her team's youngest player.

“Having the opportunity to play with all those people, I feel like I really learned a lot as a player," Worley said of her time in the Friendship Series. "Not necessarily in terms of mechanics, but learning what it means to play for your country instead of just playing for any old team.”

Worley does not tend to apply great importance to most things. But when she first stepped out on the field to represent the U.S. against Canada, the gravity of the moment hit her.

"It was really cool,” Worley said. “When we played against Canada, it was when I really realized how awesome it was to have that opportunity.”

Worley performed well in the Friendship series, pitching in two games and allowing just one run in five innings. She plans on trying out for the World Cup roster again next year and hopes to be a member of the roster for many years to come, getting a chance to represent the U.S. on the international level.

“I’ve played in games that mean a lot, but they didn’t mean as much as those games,” Worley said of playing for her country.

Moving Forward

Baseball is not the only thing Worley does well. In addition to her success on the mound, Worley is also a drum major for the Interlake marching band and carries a weighted 4.6 GPA. She has not decided on a college, but knows what her motivation will be when she does choose one.

“I don’t know if I’m going to play baseball in college, because, for me, the first thing is going to a good school. If I have an opportunity to play there, then I want to, but I’m not going to go to a school that’s not the right fit for me just to play baseball.”

Before she heads off to college, though, Worley still has some unfinished business to take care of in high school. After three years on the junior varsity level, she's ready to make the jump to the varsity roster.

In the movie, this would be the final scene: Worley taking the mound for the varsity team, rattling off a perfect 1-2-3 inning and the slow clap coming from teammates, opponents and fans, as she looks on in amazement. In reality, that scene could not be further from what Worley envisions. The elements may all be there, the varsity roster spot, the 1-2-3 inning, maybe even a slow cap.

But don't look for Worley to put too much emphasis on the moment. After all, for her, it'll be just another day of playing the game she loves.