The CT Softball Blog

WOLCOTT—Avery Malenfant is all about team, all about loyalty.

The left-handed pitcher might stand in the everybody-look-at-me spot in the middle of the circle, but Malenfant knows she is there for her team and her teammates.

“For me, when I’m in the circle, nothing else really matters around me,” Malenfant said. “And especially those days that I’m not throwing the best, I just got to remember that everyone else can feed off that and just try to be as mentally strong as I can. I feel like I’m one of the most mentally strong pitchers. A lot of people have told me that too—coaches, pitching coaches. If I’m off, you can’t tell and my teammates need to know I’m there for them.”

Loyalty also proved to be a key factor in her recruiting process, a journey which will land the senior from Wolcott High at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., after graduating from high school this spring.

It proved to be a process with a few twists and turns—quite like Malenfant’s nasty screwball and curve ball, in fact. In the end, it was one coach’s loyalty to the player that won her over.

After all, Mount Saint Mary was not Malenfant’s first choice, though she knows now in her heart it is the right choice.

“Before my first showcase, I was kind of nervous because having a lot of coaches behind the plate and watching you perform is so nerve-wracking,” Malenfant said of the day she met MSMC’s then-interim head coach Victor Reich. “Coach Vic gave me his business card that day and he was the first coach to recognize my movement. Not the speed; the movement, the break on the ball and the spin. He took notice and continued to have conversations with me. He always made the effort.”

As the recruiting process played out, though, Malenfant’s head sent her in another direction, and she wound up committing to play at the University of Maine-Farmington in her parent’s native home state.

One day, though, at another tournament, she looked up and saw Coach Reich in attendance.

“He was supposed to go to somebody else’s game, and even though I was committed, he decided to come to my game,” said Malenfant. “He didn’t want to give up on me. He even said, if something happens, it’s all going to play out and to keep him in the back of my mind.”

What did happen was UMF’s head coach left the school, taking over at St. Anselm College, a Division 2 program in New Hampshire.

Malenfant didn’t want to play at the Division-2 level, so she got out Reich’s card and gave him a call.

“Maybe it was kind of meant to be,” Malenfant said.

Reich, who was named the school’s permanent head coach last May, answered and just like that Malenfant’s future changed.

“Mount Saint Mary’s was always in her heart,” said Rhonda Malenfant, Avery’s mother. “She circled back around to Coach Vic, and he still had a place for her.”

Wolcott coach Chuck Cammarata knows MSMC is getting a top-notch, stand-up person in addition to a darn good and crafty pitcher.

“She is great. I’ve known her for a long time,” said Cammarata. “I think it all goes back to her personality. She’s very out-going, always has high energy, but as she’s gotten older, it’s so much more than that. She’s more of a natural leader. She has naturally refined all her talent and her leadership skills. People just go to her.”

Malenfant’s softball career started on the recreation fields of Wolcott.

Her team needed a pitcher, and she was convinced to give it a try by her coaching staff. They also happened to be her mom and dad.

“It’s kind of a funny story,” she said. “No one really wanted to step up and be a pitcher for rec, and my dad was the coach so both my parents were like, ‘Just try it,’ so I did. There were a lot of tears and fighting but we got there. I just started taking lessons and now about seven years later here I am Everything from that day to now has just made me want to continue.”

And now it’s taken her to college, as well.

But to consider the road Malenfant took to get to Mount Saint Mary will tell you a lot about her.

As her pitching improved, she made the jump from Wolcott Rec to the Wolcott Eagles travel program.

“The (travel) coaches were watching our championship rec game and they were like ‘Hey, you should come to travel,’” recalled Malenfant. “I knew I wanted to play at that level, but obviously I was scared of joining a new team with a lot of people that I didn’t know. So, it was a big step for me, but I knew I wanted to play softball, and I was going to get a better experience traveling around and not just playing the same four teams every week.”

Malenfant joined the CT Eagles and kept improving.

It wasn’t long before she realized she would have to make another change to reach her softball goals.

Shortly before high school, Malenfant made the decision to leave the hometown Eagles to join the CT Charge.

How she made the move, however, says everything about Malenfant, according to Cammarota.

In a world where travel players change teams as often as they change socks, Malenfant informed the Eagles coaches of her plans.

“She wanted to play in college, and she wanted to go to another team,” Cammarota said. “We were obviously a little upset because we’re losing a good player, but because of the kind of kid Avery is, because of the way she handled it, she was very forthright with what she wanted to do, and handled it in a way that a lot of kids would never do. A lot of adults don’t know how to handle that, but she was up front and honest and I get it. I know why she left.”

Once she reached high school, though, she was returning to the Wolcott family she left behind, rejoining coaches and players on the varsity squad while still playing for the Charge.

“Avery coming back to us, it’s just her personality,” Cammarota said. “From the minute I saw her at tryouts, I was keeping an eye on her, wondering if it would be awkward but it wasn’t at all. Avery and the coaches got back together like nothing had changed.”

During Malenfant’s freshman year, the Wolcott High team went to Florida over its spring break to get some games in.

The team had some veteran pitchers who were struggling a bit in the Sunshine State, so the coaches turned to the freshman lefty.

“We were getting walloped and we brought Avery in and she just shut the other team down,” recalled Cammarata. “That made her mark on the coaching staff. She goes into the circle and she just focuses.”

Focusing isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do for Malenfant, who has been diagnosed with A.D.D.

In the circle, however, the world is her oyster and it is there, just 43 feet from home plate, where she shines the brightest as a student-athlete.

“Being a pitcher on the mound, it’s not about you,” she said. “Your mental toughness determines the entire game for your whole team. You have to stay focused.”

Malenfant may not throw as hard as some pitchers who are taken their talents to the college level, but her spin rate and ability to hit spots has always set her apart.

“It’s like playing a video game,” said Cammarata. “You ask her to throw it up and in and it’s right there. Avery puts the ball exactly where she wants to and her pitches move so well, she’s able to trip batters up.”

Regardless of the team on her jersey, Malenfant is all in and wants to perform her best for her team.

“My thing is that I want to compete,” she said. “I want my team to be successful and just to stand out.”

After leading Wolcott High through one last season this spring, she will head to Mount Saint Mary to give them everything she can, as well, no matter her role.

“Freshman year, you’re probably not going to get a lot of playing time, but I want to work hard and earn playing time, but also be a good teammate,” said Malenfant. “Team camaraderie is so important to me. When you’re on a team will 11 happy people versus 12 unhappy people, that can be the difference between winning and losing and having fun and not having fun at all.”

On a team where loyalty means everything, having fun is nearly as important.

The sport of softball has given Avery Malenfant a whole lot of both over the years.

She’s hoping that continues at Mount Saint Mary where one coach’s loyalty to her made all the difference.

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