Softball
Favorite athlete: Alex Morgan
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: My home run right before junior prom
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: First game last year during warmups, my finger completely dislocated while throwing the ball in the outfield
Music on playlist: Tate McRae, Addison Rae, Zach Bryan, Travis Scott, etc
Future plans: Attend University of Delaware, majoring in Psychology. Travel, work in Psychology/Forensics fields, own two kittens and a pit bull, and much later in life, become a mom.
Words to live by: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
or
YOLO✌️🤗🌟
One goal before turning 30: Zip line in Costa Rica and see sloths
One thing people don’t know about me: My dream is to be in the FBI
By Craig Ostroff
In less than one month, Ava Frederick will officially be a Wissahickon High School graduate. In barely one week, she will pack up her glove and cleats for the last time.
It’s a bit overwhelming for Frederick to realize that soon, her time playing the sport that has been such a massive part of her life for as long as she can remember, will be over.
But if you’re expecting any tears, look elsewhere. Frederick is having way too much fun to feel bad about hanging up the Trojans’ uniform.
“I’ve been playing since T-ball, since I was 4 or 5 years old,” Frederick said. “It’s a little tough to process, for sure. I’ve been coached by my parents, played on a travel team, high school team, it’s hard to accept that it’s all coming to an end.
“But coming into the final week of the season, I’ve realized that I’ve played softball so long, I’m just trying to have fun. For me, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about making these last memories before softball comes to an actual end. We just played Plymouth Whitemarsh (on April 30, a 6-1 PW victory), and I think that game was the most fun I’ve had playing softball. I realized that it’s almost done, but it’s nothing to cry over. It’s the time to really enjoy the time I have left.”
Her final games will cap off a remarkable high school career for the four-year starter who has played eight positions in her time as a Trojan.
“Ava really is a special kid,” said Wissahickon softball coach Mike Borkowski. “She knows how to not fail, and she’s really good at getting better when things don’t go right. She likes to have fun out there, but at the same time, she has a lot of pride. She does not like to lose. She wants to do her best and she wants the team to do its best, and she’s very motivated by not looking bad on the field and doing what’s best for the team.”
Frederick’s journey around the diamond began on the mound.
“Ava came in as a freshman, said she could pitch, and at the time, we were stuck for pitching,” Borkowski said. “We don’t get a lot of pitching prospects, so she jumped in to pitch. She got hit around a little as a freshman – which isn’t uncommon when you’re always facing older, more experienced batters – but she got a couple wins for us.
“Then at one point she said to me, ‘We’re short at outfield, I play the outfield, you know.’ She played right field freshman year and has also played center field and left field.”
During Frederick’s sophomore year, there were holes around the infield throughout the season. And Borkowski knew just who he could use to plug those holes.
“Ava is always willing to help the team any way she can, and anywhere she can,” he said. “Her sophomore year, we had injuries in the infield. Ava played third base a couple games, first base a couple games, and I knew I could play her wherever. I can say, ‘Can you play there?’ and the answer is always yes. She filled at shortstop one game as well.”
In fact, there’s only one spot on the diamond that Frederick – who earned Honorable Mention All-League honors at second base as a junior – hasn’t played.
But if she were to be asked to get behind the plate …
“You best bet I would put those pads and gear on,” Frederick said. “If coach needs me to play anywhere, I will play anywhere. I will get behind the plate and rule the diamond.
“I’ve honestly kind of been thinking about this lately. It would feel good if I fully completed every position through my career. I would love to get at least in an inning of catching so I could say I did it all.”
Wherever on the field she finds herself, Frederick will finish out her senior campaign the way she has approached the entirety of the season, having fun while preparing the underclass Trojans for the future.
The only senior on this year’s squad as well as a two-year captain, Frederick has relied on her experience to lift the rest of the team, which features seven juniors who will step into her position as leaders next year.
“As a captain and the only senior, that can be a tough position to be in,” Borkowski said. “But Ava is so good working with the younger players. She’s very encouraging to the younger kids, and it’s because she’s been in their shoes. She’s been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.”
“That’s been my main thing for a while now,” Frederick said. “Softball is a very big mental game, and as someone who can get discouraged easily, I really try to give everyone a boost if they need one, a shoulder to lean on if they’re feeling down. I’ve coached the younger girls before in pitching lessons, I try to help them to feel confident, try to encourage them, put a smile on their face.”
It’s also been important because the Trojans have tended to struggle in recent years in an unforgiving Liberty Division. In all four years Frederick has played on varsity, the Trojans have finished at the bottom of the division standings and have never won more than six games in a season.
But while the results don’t show in the standings, that doesn’t mean that lessons have not been learned and improvements have not been seen; nor does it mean that her tenure with Wissahickon softball hasn’t been fun or successful.
“I’m the kind of person who tends to get down on myself very easily,” Frederick said. “Softball is a hard, challenging game. But at the end of the day, my teammates and I have got such a great connection. They bring me up, and I try to do the same for them. I came to the realization at one point, people aren’t going to remember a mistake I made after the inning. But they’re going to remember the times you tried to lift them up and give them confidence. That’s a big part of what I try to show them.
“I try to be vocal in that way. I can be very loud sometimes, so I use that to cheer my teammates on. It’s very important to make everyone feel encouraged and confident.”
But sometimes even a captain can feel down. When results don’t always show in the scorebooks or the standings, even a veteran leader needs that extra boost.
Not surprisingly, Frederick gets hers from her family. Her parents Kara and Joe and two older half-siblings remain her biggest fans.
“Everyone gets those thoughts sometimes,” Frederick said. “The one thing that keeps me motivated is my mom. If I can’t do anything else, the one thing I know I can do to put a smile on her face is have her watch me play softball. That’s the one thing that always keeps me motivated.
“Both my parents have coached me, coached my softball teams in the past. They’re at every single game, they help plan things for my team. They’re my number one supporters for sure.”
In the classroom, Frederick admits she’s dealt with the standard bouts of Senioritis as the weather starts to warm up and graduation practice nears.
“I think it set in a while ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m not working just as hard on my academics,” she said. “I have a good amount of honors classes and I have AP Psychology, which is what I want to major in, so really focusing on that class is all I needed to keep me motivated.”
In addition to softball, Frederick is involved in WissLink, an organization that helps introduce freshmen to the school and help get them involved in the high school community.
She is also a member of WissPals, a club that sees students spend time with students with special needs.
“I love spending time with the kids with special needs,” Frederick said. “I love hanging out with them – they are nothing but happy people, they make me feel very happy. They always give me hugs, laugh when we’re coloring, eating cookies, it’s just the best thing. I feel great when hanging out with them. I know their lives can be very hard, so I try my best to make their days easier. It makes me feel good, and I hope it makes them feel great, it’s so much fun.”
In the fall, Frederick will head to University of Delaware, where she plans to major in psychology.
“I never really got excited about things like math or history, but once I tried Intro to Psychology, learning more and more about mental disorders, all the parts of the brain, how it works, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
“As for University of Delaware, I think I was talking about college with my mom and she said Delaware had a great psychology program. It was perfect for my interest, for my major, it’s a medium-sized school, and once I toured it, I fell in love with it.”
Whether she plays club or intramural softball at Delaware is something she’ll consider when the time is right. But now is not that time. Because there are still memories to be made in her final games with Wissahickon.
“Last year we also only had one senior in Gianna Trerotola,” Borkowski said. “This year with Senior Day, it’s now Ava Day. And she deserves it, she’s a total team player. All the girls look up to her. It shows in the way she carries herself on the field and in the dugout, and the girls follow her.
“I never like Senior Day because it’s saying goodbye to good people, but with Ava … it’s even more so. I sure as heck am going to miss her. She’s special. She’s great kid, and as a leader, she gives you the effort, the skill, and all the intangibles, working with the younger kids and showing them how to act. Ava set the standard and hopefully girls have been able to watch her and learn what a captain does and how she is supposed to act, not just on the field but in the way she carries herself off the field and the way she treats her teammates.”
And although Frederick didn’t get the chance to experience winning seasons or league titles, she’s undeniably helped lay the foundation of what could be a promising few years coming up at Wissahickon.
“If the girls coming back are able to have success and I was part of helping them get to where they needed to be, I definitely think it is enough for me,” she said. “I really love softball and I want people to enjoy it as much as me.
“But even more than helping on the field, I hope I was able to help them with how they approach the game. You can be focused and intense, and you can still have fun and laugh, be silly with the team. You don’t have to be someone who dwells on everything about softball, you can still be fun and just enjoy being part of the team.”
