After a decade-long career in professional softball, Victoria Hayward will retire after the 2025 season.
She is the first athlete to ever sign with Athletes Unlimited and was a founding athlete for the league’s launch in 2020. Hayward was the third-place medalist of the inaugural season.
Her propensity to be at the forefront of leagues continued this summer when she was drafted to play in the first season of the AUSL. She won the 2025 Championship with Talons.
She became the youngest person ever named to the Canadian Senior National Team when she joined the team at 16 in 2009. She helped lead Canada to its first-ever Olympic medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Hayward hit .300 in Tokyo with a team-high seven runs scored.
Her pro career began with the Pennsylvania Rebellion when she was selected with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2014 National Pro Fastpitch Draft. She was a four-year letter winner at the University of Washington and played in 223 games from 2011 to 2014. She ranks 10th in program history with 176 career runs and stands eighth on the Huskies’ career list with 73 stolen bases in 78 attempts.
Hayward is currently the head coach at the University of Nevada.
Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter for the AUSL. You can follow her on X @savannaecollins.
