The Queen City’s Softball Star: Meet Charlotte’s Bailey Vannoy

She’s the reigning Conference USA Player of the Year, but you wouldn’t know it from just casually talking to Charlotte star Bailey Vannoy. You’ll hear about her team, about her teammates, and certainly about her faith in Jesus Christ, but her personal accolades aren’t at the top of her list of conversation topics.

December 7, 2000 was the 59th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, but for the Vannoy family in Leander, Texas, that day holds a much greater – and far happier – significance: Bailey, the second child in the family, was born.

Bailey, now known better by her nickname Boo, has become a bonafide star in college softball, which makes her career’s humble beginnings an even-better first chapter.

At age four, Vannoy picked up a bat and ball for the first time. She began playing both t-ball and soccer at the local YMCA, alongside her brother Cody, who is fourteen months older. As a youngster, her initial thoughts on the game were… less than positive.

“I remember when I played, I thought ‘No way, this is not for me…” Vannoy recounted with a laugh in a recent interview. “My parents will tell me ‘You would be standing there, chasing butterflies and kicking up the dirt and the ball would roll right past you. Your brother would chase after it and yell at you to get the ball.”

While the diamond didn’t inspire a lot of effort on the part of young Bailey, the soccer pitch was another story. “My parents thought soccer was the one for me,” Vannoy said. “I ran back and forth, up and down the field like you’re supposed to, but then when I came off the field, I thought ‘That’s kinda boring.'”

A brief foray with gymnastics was also thrown in there, but ultimately, Vannoy returned to the softball diamond. As she phrases it now,

“Flipping was fun, but I like to swing a bat and throw a ball really hard!”

Part of an athletic family – all four Vannoy kids are athletes – Bailey played throughout her school year, but it wasn’t until junior high that she realized how much she truly loved the game.

Sidelined by a wrist injury in her 7th grade year, Vannoy was out for seven months to allow her injury to heal. While she was rehabilitating to full playing strength, a realization dawned on the still-young player. “I realized how much I missed softball,” Vannoy says now, “even the long practices, the competition and competitiveness, and the team bonding.”

Upon returning for her 8th grade softball season, her mind was made up: “This is what I want[ed] to do, and it took getting injured to appreciate what I missed about it,” Vannoy notes now.

Excellent perspective is a trait that Vannoy possesses, and it’s a trait that came in handy as she was involved in the college recruiting process. Standing at 5’4″ in height, she got used to hearing that she was ‘too small to be a Division 1 catcher’. Instead of taking the critique to heart, she instead used it to fuel herself to keep pushing along.

“My dad always said that ‘people put work where their money is’,” Vannoy recalled. As she continued pursuing her dream of playing college softball, she prioritized and pursued a situation that would leave her in the best possible position once she had her degree in hand.

Former Charlotte assistant coach – and current UConn head coach – Laura Valentino was Vannoy’s first contact with the Niners’ program. Looking back on being recruited to Charlotte, Vannoy had a confession to make. Sporting her trademark wide grin, she noted, “I didn’t even know what or where Charlotte, North Carolina was. No idea.”

She learned about the Queen City quickly, though, as the Niners pursued her to join their program. “It had a family-oriented, small-town feel, just in a big city,” Vannoy said. She committed to the Niners and even arrived on campus a year early after graduating from high school in the fall of 2018.

Immediately thrust into the starting lineup upon arriving in Charlotte, Vannoy finished second on the team with a .331 batting average as a true freshman. She earned All-CUSA First-Team honors and conference All-Freshman honors after her rookie year.

One of three remaining players who was on the roster when the program underwent a coaching change between the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Vannoy’s gift of perspective was renewed with an emphasis on team culture that the new staff brought in with them.

“I was not huge on team culture when I got to Charlotte,” Vannoy said. “I had not always been on a team that had the greatest culture, so it really made me appreciate coach [Ashley] Chastain and the culture that she instilled when she got [to Charlotte].”

While talking about her time at Charlotte – she’s been in the Queen City for three years now, going into her fourth – Vannoy said,

“It’s like living in a video game, because I GET to do this and play softball,
I don’t HAVE to do it.”

As her career has taken off and the awards have poured in, Vannoy has been careful to maintain two cornerstones of her life: A smile on her face and her Christian faith.

“I’m as goofy as it gets,” she said with a wide smile from ear to ear. “I never want to be the one that little girls can’t look up to. Some people see me as intimidating when we’re on the field, but my dad always has said ‘The more that you can smile, the more you’re going to enjoy it.'”

While faith has always been part of Vannoy’s life, she has really embraced her Christian faith within the last year. “I have to follow the Lord, because I’m not enough,” Vannoy said. “I made a conscious decision to do better and to be better, and if that meant giving up some things in my life or doing things differently, so be it.”

“Whenever you have a faith like that, it doesn’t end when you step on the softball field,” she said. “I know that the only reason that I’m able to play softball the way that I am is because the Lord put those talents in me, and He could easily take them away… this is a platform that I want to use to glorify Him.”

An offseason surgery left Vannoy on the sidelines this fall, unable to play fall ball with her team and in limited work during training. The time spent as a spectator, only able to cheer on her team, has again refined Vannoy’s perspective on what she does.

“I’ve really been grateful for this sport while I’m watching from the sideline,” she said. “Really grateful.”