UCLA softball slugger Maya Brady steps into leading role

For three years, Maya Brady sat back and relied on upperclassmen and national champions to lead the way. UCLA stars such as Briana Perez, Kinsley Washington and Delanie Wisz would speak up in any team meetings. Brady was content to follow.

Now a veteran on a team that welcomed seven freshmen while pushing for its eighth consecutive Women’s College World Series berth, Brady occasionally finds herself waiting for someone else’s calm voice to command the clubhouse. Then she realizes everyone is looking at her.

On the field and behind the scenes, it’s Brady’s time.

The redshirt junior is having her best season as a Bruin by delivering much-needed leadership at shortstop, light-hearted jokes in the dugout and steady hitting at the plate. With Brady leading the offense, No. 2-ranked UCLA (50-4) will take a 23-game winning streak into the inaugural Pac-12 Conference tournament. The No. 1-seeded Bruins will play in Thursday’s quarterfinal at Tucson against No. 8 seed Arizona or No. 9 seed Oregon State.

After hitting a disappointing .339 last year, Brady now leads the conference with a .453 batting average. With 57 RBIs and 16 home runs that rank second in the Pac-12, Brady was close to becoming just the fourth player in conference history to win the batting triple crown. Stacey Nuveman is the only UCLA player to earn the honor.

When talking about Brady’s growth this year, UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez referenced the legendary hitter whose .466 career batting average is still the best in Bruins history. It was Nuveman’s ability to turn bad pitches into hits that signaled her elite status. Brady had to prove she had the same quality.

Brady starred during her pandemic-shortened freshman season in 2020 and was named an NFCA first-team All-American in 2021 while playing alongside veterans Rachel Garcia and Bubba Nickles. Last year, with the departure of UCLA’s Olympians, opposing pitchers zeroed in on Brady. She wasn’t getting the same pitches. Even when she had a successful game, Brady, who hit .317 during the regular season, felt as if it were never enough. Expectations remained sky high for the niece of a seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback.

“I definitely got caught up in a lot of media and what people were saying about me,” Brady said. “At one point in the season, I was so over that, that it almost did allow me to break free from my own standards. If nobody else was going to believe in me, then I might as well believe in myself.”

Brady broke through her slump during the postseason by hitting .438 with 10 RBIs, seven coming during the Women’s College World Series. She gained more confidence with the U.S. national team, going four for eight at the Japan All-Star Series during the summer.

During the fall, she met with hitting consultants and coaches at UCLA to fine-tune her swing. For much of her career, natural athleticism was enough to get the results she needed.

“I was very outcome-based,” said Brady, whose mother Maureen was an All-American pitcher at Fresno State. “Because that was working for so long, I never really judged my swing based on the small mechanics and I think for the last couple of years, I’ve really lacked putting that work in.”

For the first time in her heralded career, it felt as if Brady, the former No. 2 overall recruit in her high school class and a star on her elite travel ball team, was uncovering new layers as an athlete, Inouye-Perez said. In previous years, the UCLA coach noticed Brady shying away from difficult drills, hoping to avoid the disappointment of possibly failing. This fall, Brady asked her coach to “make it as hard as you can.”

Maya Brady made the move from center field to shortstop this season, having to reacclimate herself to a position she played in high school.

(Johm McCoy / Associated Press)

“She still wants [the results],” Inouye-Perez said. “But she truly understands how to get after it now. That part makes me happy because that allows her talent to unleash instead of feeling pressure of what she’s ‘supposed’ to do.”

Expectations of what Brady would bring to UCLA were even larger than a typical highly touted prospect. Her last name casts a long shadow. Even after Brady went six for 12 with four RBIs in a three-game sweep of Arizona State that extended UCLA’s lead atop the Pac-12 standings, many on social media were focused on who was in the stands during one of the games.

“Tom Brady, niece trade messages after UCLA softball appearance,” a Sports Illustrated headline read after the former NFL star posted photos he took at Easton Stadium while watching Maya drive in a run against Arizona State.

While Maya is proud to uphold the family name, the constant connection to her uncle have grown tiring for even her teammates, who have watched Maya gracefully navigate her uncle’s shadow for years.

“She’s Maya Brady,” outfielder Aaliyah Jordan said defiantly. “She’s not just Tom Brady’s niece.”

A lifetime of following in her family’s footsteps has primed Brady for her latest position on the field, where she has to fill the shoes of Perez, a five-year starter at shortstop. The Pac-12 defensive player of the year is tied with Nuveman for the most games played in UCLA history at 264 and leads the program with 263 runs scored.

Returning to shortstop, where she played in high school, has challenged Brady in ways she hadn’t experienced in college, she said. Not only did the former center fielder have to relearn old defensive techniques, she had never seen the speed of the college game at shortstop.

At the beginning of the season, Brady was rotating with redshirt junior Seneca Curo at shortstop, but Curo suffered a shoulder injury. Inouye-Perez said she knew Brady could play shortstop since she saw her at a camp as an eighth-grader when Brady, who fell in love with UCLA as a preteen while watching the Bruins win the World Series in 2010, fielded a ball on a short hop on the move and threw a strike to first. Whether Brady could thrive at the critical position this year was never a question of her athleticism or dedication to the team, just her experience in college.

After Curo was injured, Inouye-Perez asked Brady to stay focused on the process of learning the position and not letting any missteps affect her hitting or, especially, her leadership.

That has been Brady’s biggest area of emphasis this season.

The 21-year-old was rarely the first person to raise her hand in team meetings. She never wanted to go first in drills. She didn’t want to be the first to mess up.

UCLA’s Maya Brady celebrates after hitting a home run against Oklahoma in the Women’s College World Series.

(Alonzo Adams / Associated Press)

“As women, you’re kind of taught to kind of tone yourself down a lot,” Brady said, “and I think being a part of this program where you have so many successful women role models … it’s really shown me, if you go first and you mess up, who cares. Just do it.”

Jordan, UCLA’s seventh-year power hitter, called Brady “literally the perfect leader” for the way she blends her vocal leadership with a hard-working example. She doesn’t hold teammates to a standard without first surpassing it.

Brady “rode the roller coaster” last year, Jordan said, allowing her mood to fluctuate with the long season’s ups and downs. This year, Brady’s temperament is more even, Jordan noted.

Brady knows her teammates are looking at her. When she might have been discouraged by a strikeout in previous seasons, she instead turns to her teammates to relay critical information that can help during the next at-bat. As she returns to the dugout, Brady often wears a smirk on her face thinking about her next opportunity.

“It’s a responsibility that she’s taken with pride instead of it being a burden,” Inouye-Perez said, “and I think that’s powerful.”