Meet Makayla Benz — the Simcoe pitcher chasing one more title with her sister

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Meet Makayla Benz. She is 24, from Simcoe, and she pitches for the Humber Hawks softball team. Makayla has been playing for nineteen years, ever since her dad, a former softball player himself, signed her up alongside her younger sister. Nineteen years later, that sister, Jessica, is still right there with her. Makayla is heading into her final year of college eligibility, and she is chasing one more championship with the people who have been beside her the whole way.

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Her Story

Makayla's softball story starts the way a lot of hometown stories do: with her parents. Her dad played softball growing up, and when it came time to get his daughters into sports, the choice was easy. Makayla started out in a co-ed league in Vittoria with her younger sister Jessica, and that is where the love for the game took hold.

That partnership with Jessica has carried all the way through. Makayla's proudest moment came at Durham College, where the sisters played together and put together a perfect season, capped by a national championship and a provincial championship in the same year. Stepping onto the field with her sister standing behind her is a feeling, Makayla says, that she has never topped.

Across nineteen years of practices, games, and tournaments, one coach stands above the rest. Pitching coach Shaun Winship, Makayla says, is "the mastermind behind my successes," the person who taught her and shaped her into the athlete she is today. Add in a family that never stopped driving her to the diamond and believing in her, and it is easy to see why Makayla plays the way she does: with people she trusts standing right behind her.

What's Next

Makayla is heading into her final season of college eligibility, and she wants to make it count. This year, her goal is simple: chase one more national and provincial championship, this time alongside her sister Jessica and her best friend, Rilee Rothwell. She is not looking past a single game. She wants to soak up every moment of the season she has left.

After softball, Makayla is thinking about a career in marketing, though she has not closed the door on the diamond. She would love to teach pitching one day, passing on what Shaun Winship taught her to the next generation of young pitchers.

Who She's Thanking

Makayla's list starts at home. She is thanking her parents, John and Melanie, her biggest supporters since day one, and her sister Jessica, the one she says she would rather have standing behind her than anyone else. She is also thanking her grandparents, Janis, Larry, and Connie, for making the trip to every game, her pitching coach Shaun Winship for everything he has taught her, and her current coach, Duaine Bowles, for welcoming her onto the team like she had been there her whole career.

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