Woodland's Olivia Grey, the all-region softball player of the year, is pictured at The Columbian in Vancouver on Wednesday, June 6, 2018.
(Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian)
The sun beamed brightly over the Class 2A state softball tournament, where nobody shined brighter than Olivia Grey.
The silver glove atop the state championship trophy gleamed like a beacon. Just as bright were the smiles of the Woodland softball players, who had just won the program’s second state title.
Nobody was more consequential in winning that title than Grey. The junior pitcher struck out 69 batters over four games. She struck out the side in 14 of 28 tournament innings and allowed just five earned runs.
That capped a season that saw Grey rack up 380 strikeouts and post an earned-run average of 0.80. For her accomplishments, Grey is The Columbian’s All-Region softball player of the year.
But one year ago, softball wasn’t looking so bright for Grey. Coaches at a university in the Midwest who had been recruiting her were losing interest.
“They said that if I didn’t get my act together in two months, they were going to cut me off,” she said.
Grey still remembers that exact date. Not just because the criticism stung, but because it sparked a rapid transformation.
She doubled down on her training and changed her diet — Grey says she has lost 50 pounds in the past 10 months.
“I told myself this is the path I want to go down,” she said. “I want to play college softball. I want to become a better player and a better person because of it.”
The new Olivia Grey had what she calls her “big reveal” at a showcase tournament in California last October.
After just two innings, she had been so dominant that Portland State coach Meadow McWhorter sent a text that changed Grey’s life. She wanted Grey to become a Viking.
The message popped up on Grey’s smartwatch, which she had with her in the dugout.
“I was like ‘guys, I just got a scholly,'” she said. That’s short for “scholarship.”
Still, Grey wasn’t sure. It wasn’t until an on-campus meeting that she was sold on Portland State.
Though the Vikings had already assembled most of their 2019 recruiting class, they made Grey feel special.
“She said ‘we don’t have room for another 2019, but we have room for Olivia Grey,” she recalled. “We were walking out of the athletic building. I said ‘Mom, we should get a jacket or something. I think this is where I’m going to school.”
Since giving her verbal commitment to Portland State in December, Grey has kept the positive momentum going. Her fastball has gotten faster. Her offspeed pitches have more movement.
“She’s a true pro,” Woodland coach Tom Christensen said. “She takes care of her body, never complained once about being tired. She gets the rest, the nutrition and the ice.”
Grey said the biggest improvement came in her mental game, for which she thanked the trainers at New Athlete in Vancouver.
“I’ve discovered so many things in my pitching that I had no idea I needed to work on,” she said. “I had such a bad mentality. But going through training, it really does improve your mentality.”
By rule, Grey had to play junior varsity as a sophomore after transferring from Kalama. Now, in just one varsity season, she has already built a legacy at Woodland.
It’s a legacy that includes a state championship trophy just one year after her softball future was in doubt.
“If I told myself then that this is where I would be now, I wouldn’t have believed myself,” she said. “I wouldn’t have believed I would be a state champion and that I’d be going to Portland State.”
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