Player Spotlight: The Amazing Journey of Jayden Heavener to the Top of the 2024 Extra Elite 100 Rankings

Jayden Heavener, the top-ranked player in the 2024 Extra Elite 100, started playing softball when she was 4-years-old, but wasn’t then the elite pitcher she is today… she actually started as a catcher.

Born in Nashville, the young athlete started playing travel ball at 8U with Mojo although she didn’t see a lot of playing time.

“Jayden was still coming into her own,” remembers her mother, Denise, “and trying to find her best fit on the field. She decided she wanted to try pitching.”

She hit the circle at 10 years old and that was it: she knew that’s where she wanted to be.

“We were living in South Florida by that time,” Denise explains, “when she was recruited by the Birmingham Bolts. We were 10-plus hours away from their facility when she started with them. We made the decision as a family to move to Pensacola/Pace area so that she could be closer and could benefit more from the practices. We knew she had talent and wanted to give her every opportunity for growth.”

Pitching came naturally to the athlete, but it wasn’t always easy.

During the PGF Nationals with the Bolts, Jayden struggled on the mound. She only pitched about five innings all week because things weren’t clicking.

“Halfway through the day of semifinals,” the athlete’s mother recalls, “Jayden just broke down in tears.  I hugged her and told her that God had a plan and she needed to trust it.”

The team had to work out of the loser’s bracket and beat a strong Impact Gold team twice to get to the finals and that goal flipped the switch in Jayden:  she took the mound laser-focused knowing what she had to do.

Jayden pitched back-to-back complete games to beat Impact Gold and send her Birmingham Bolts team to the championship.

“She pitched two of the best games that we had ever seen her pitch,” Denise says. “That was the defining moment for her. She knew that she could overcome anything.”

Recalls Jayden:

“Before we played Impact Gold, I remember that my team had fought all week long to get to the semi-final games out of the loser’s bracket,” the athlete remembers. “It was time to dig deep and do what I knew I could do. I remember my Mom and Dad hugging me and saying, ‘You got this.” I knew the coaches believed in me and I couldn’t let them or my teammates down.”

That Bolts team, led by Coach Rocky Thompson, went on to win the PGF 2019 Nationals and the pitcher’s mother feels it was a key moment in Jayden’s development as “the team practices with Coach Rocky allowed her the chance to improve all of her skills.”

The next Spring (2020), however, Jayden faced another obstacle—this one being physical.

Lingering pain revealed that she had a L4 stress fracture in her back and Jayden was forced to sit on the sidelines for three months. Still, she was determined to push herself to come back stronger than ever.

“I was so upset when I hurt my back,” she says of that time she was forced to watch from the sidelines.  “My doctor said I just needed the muscles to get stronger, so I worked with physical therapy every day to get even better than I was. I am stronger now and I work with CrossFit to maintain that strength.”

The 2020 Bolts team started the Summer strong winning a couple of tournaments with prize money that brought over $12,000 to the team and Jayden continued her develop up into this Spring (2021) when every came together for the athlete at Pace (Florida) High.

Her amazing freshman season for her school wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did, as she was thrust into more action than any anticipated.

“I loved pitching for my high school, but when our Junior pitcher, Lexi Shelby, got hurt, I had to pitch a lot more until she was able to come back. Some of my biggest memories were being able to pitch a shutout against our rival teams and it was also exciting to win Districts and Regionals for the first time in a long time.”

In 14 games, Jayden went 11-3 with a 1.57 ERA and in 114 innings pitched struck out 252 opposing hitters. She also batted .303 with 24 RBIs and led Pace to the State Final 4. For her accomplishments, the then-freshman was named Florida State 5A Pitcher of the Year and 1^st Team All-State.

Transitioning into the Summer, she didn’t miss a beat as she continued to dominate in the circle with her great velocity, spin and movement. Jayden pitched in 19 games with a record of 16-3, a 0.81 ERA and 216 K’s in 103 innings—an average of 2.1 per inning!

And she also hit .347 with a .425 on-base percentage and had eight home runs with 25 RBIs.

Combine the Spring and Summer seasons and in 2021 Jayden has logged 33 games with a 27-6 record with a jaw-dropping 488 K’s in 207 innings (2.26 K’s per inning) and hit .329 with a .430 on-base percentage with 12 home runs and 49 RBIs.

Jayden was with the Bolts for three years and this Fall has moved to the Virginia Unity – Johnson/Ross team as she and her family felt a change would be beneficial.

“I am going to miss the Bolts,” Jayden explains, “but my family and I felt like it was time for a new challenge. I knew Coach Jay (Ross) and Josh (Johnson of Unity) because our teams played each other a lot. They have always been supportive. I’ve known the girls from playing them over the years. We just felt like that team would offer me the biggest challenge to improve my skills before recruiting.”

Looking back on those developmental three years, Jayden says she’ll always treasure those times with her peers, on and off the fields.

“My favorite memories with the Bolts were the team bonding. I loved my teammates, and they are the ones I miss the most.”
The Florida sophomore has a lot of support on the home front as well.

The youngest of three, Jayden has an older sister, Lauren Well, who also played softball in high school and a year at and Austin Peay and, according to Mom, “is her biggest fan.”  She also has an older brother, Jacob Lieberstein, who I 25 and played lacrosse at Tennessee Wesleyan.

Both have influenced Jayden in another, more obvious way: both older siblings wore #00 so she’s carried on the family tradition.

And major credit has to go to Dad, Shane Heavener, himself a track athlete in college, who has been her “Bucket Man” since Day 1.

“He has worked with her and has so many bruises from her trying to perfect her pitches. But it was worth every bruise to get her to this point.”

As dedicated to her craft as she is, Jayden also finds time to be a normal teenager. She loves scary movies—“The Conjuring” is her favorite—and loves CrossFit.

“I feel like I am always playing softball or at least practicing but I love CrossFit,” she admits. “I look forward to going every morning at least five days a week. I also love going to the beach with my friends.”

Last week she was at school when she got a call that she says “shocked and excited me at the same time.” It was the phone call from Extra Inning Softball’s Brentt Eads telling her she would be #1 in the 2024 rankings.

“It was a goal of mine to be in that No. 1 spot, but I just knew there was so much great competition in the 2024 class.”

And what does it mean now, having time to reflect on the honor but also knowing that she will be in the spotlight wherever she goes?

“I am so humbled. I still can’t believe it, but I am ready to keep working,” Jayden concludes. “I knew it would be hard to actually become No. 1, but I know it will be harder to keep it. I know the target will be on me and I think that will only make me push to get better.”v

Here is a video clip when Jayden, surrounded by her Pace High teammates, learned in a phone call last week from Extra Inning Softball’s Brentt Eads that she would atop the rankings (start at the :25 second mark!)…