Toronto Lady Mets part of growing softball community in Ontario

Avery McBride is wearing a white headband to keep her hair out of her eyes, fielding routine ground balls at practice on a Saturday morning in March inside a North York training facility.

Avery is one of 23 young women in the Toronto Lady Mets program, which started in 2016, as the softball arm of the successful Toronto Mets organization. Some players travelling from as far as Kingston to take part.

Her dad, Ryan McBride, the president of the club, saw a void in the softball market for Avery and a group of her friends in the sport who were playing with the Whitby Eagles at the time.

“They wanted to take softball seriously and to the next level and try to reach some of their goals. There was a real need for it, to be honest with you, and we’re happy to be able to provide that opportunity for them,” Ryan said.

The players are divided by age group to make up two teams: Under-14 (U14) and Under-16 (U16). Avery is among the group of veterans with the Lady Mets, born in 2003 and turning 16 years old in 2019. The Mets have plans to create a U19 team next season.

Most of the players on the U16 team have been together since the start of the program, travelling to play games against other elite softball clubs.  

Tom Dryburgh is a parent-turned-head coach for the U16 team this season. For Dryburgh, putting the players in a fun situation to succeed and build confidence is just as important as winning.

“We played a lot in the U.S. last year and we’ll play a lot in Ontario this year. Many of them have had a chance to play in a national championship and they did very well,” he said. “So, they’ve had that elite level of competition, they’ve had the ability to go out and do something and do it well and that can only build confidence.”

And it’s not just the players who know about competition. A stacked roster of coaches with provincial, national, NCAA or even professional experience are giving the Lady Mets a chance to take their game to the next level and figure out – in realistic terms – what they need to do to get there.

“The coaching is incredible,” said Sarah Kennedy, who’s aiming to play softball in university and one day, for Team Canada.

“They’re always helping with even little minor things and those little things are making a huge improvement in my swing, for example. I’m making better contact and I’m driving the ball further.”

For the first time in 12 years, the Olympics will include softball in the 2020 Tokyo Games which presents a chance at reviving growth in the sport with an international audience.

“One begets the other, right. Having it in the Olympics generates interest, it gives players someone to look up to, people that they can model themselves after or watch and reference. Certainly, having softball in the games will no doubt help in growing the sport,” Dryburgh said.

“You have to be an athlete to play this, it’s not something you just kind of fall out of bed and can play at an elite level. Watching the ladies play this is phenomenal to watch, it’s very fast paced, very high-skilled.”

Despite the upswing in interest, Avery said softball doesn’t always get the credit it deserves.

“I’ve been told that softball’s a girl’s sport, so it’s softer and that’s why they called it softball,” she said.

Avery shook her head.

“It makes me really angry. It doesn’t make us softer, it makes us stronger, we’re playing a hard sport.”

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While softball shares most fundamentals with baseball, the comparison isn’t always accurate.

“It’s hard. It’s a very difficult sport. It’s different than baseball in a sense that everything is much closer. You’ve got shorter base distances, the pitchers are closer to home plate, everything happens just that much faster,” said Dryburgh while snapping his fingers.

“The elite pitchers, you know when they’re throwing, these are the equivalent or exceed the equivalent of the hardest throwing players in Major League Baseball. The reaction times, everything, is just so quick, so fast.”

The Lady Mets train three days a week ahead of the highly anticipated season which begins in May.

“I want our team to go far this year. I would love to go to Nationals with this team. I know that’s kind of been our team goal this season, to go to Nationals, said Kaylee Dunn, a member of the U16 team.

“I just want us to have that warrior mentality throughout the season, just play to win, always.”