Bailey Wigness

Classroom

Wigness is among the elite student-athletes in the nation, literally. She was awarded the NCAA Elite 89 Award in 2013 for softball, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 89 championships. Wigness maintains a 4.00 GPA while pursuing working towards a bachelor’s degree in both Political Science and Communications and has been a member of the Dean’s Honor Roll in all seven semesters of school to date. She has been awarded the New American University Presidential Scholarship from 2010-2014 and was a CoSIDA Academic All-American and All-District selection in 2012 and 2013 as well as a Pac-12 All-Academic First Team selection in both those season as well.

Character

Wigness serves as a committee member on ASU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Board from 2011 to the present, serving as liaison between student-athlete administration, other student-athletes, and the ASU student body, by promoting University athletic programs across campus. She has also been a member of the Fellowship of Christian athletes from 2010 to the present. She is a member of the softball’s senior leadership committee. A generally humble person, Wigness is as selfless as they come and cares more about the team and winning than individual recognition. One of ASU’s most important contributors as a junior in 2013, Wigness arrived at that point having to overcome very little playing time in 2011 as a freshman and then missing the 2012 postseason after starting nearly every game as a sophomore.

Community

Wigness is among ASU’s most active members of the community as far as student-athletes are concerned. She has volunteered at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure every year since her arrival in 2010, now having volunteered at four races. She has twice been selected as a speaker at for the Celebrating Women of Today and Tomorrow Conference to promote building stronger relationships between young girls and their mothers and the importance of choices for achieving a dream. In 2010 and 2011, Wigness was selected as ASU’s athletic department representative to speak at local elementary schools as part of Sparky’s Tours, promoting a college education and keys to success. She volunteered at ASU’s annual “Fantasy Flight” from 2010-12, leading a group of underprivileged children through a field trip which provided most of these students their only Christmas of the year. She dedicated time in 2010 and 2011 to the Special Olympics and and has also served as a skills coach at the ASU Softball Camps from 2010 to the present.

Competition

Wigness provides a unique skill set and ability to get on base despite batting later in the lineup for the Sun Devils.  In 2013, Wigness posted a .440 on-base percentage that was third among Sun Devil starters. She saw time at leadoff during the absence of Alix Johnson in the middle of the season but did most of her damage at the bottom of the lineup and put an emphasis on the “no-easy outs” facet of the Sun Devil season. She led the team’s starters in batting average at .376 with 53 hits on the season. She had just one error in the outfield on the season with a .980 fielding percentage. Wigness had 14 stolen bases on the season. As a sophomore, Wigness batted an impressive .396 that was third on the team, while posting 38 hits, 41 runs scored, 14 RBI and 11 stolen bases. As a freshman, Wigness appeared in 37 games in relief to hit a .462 batting average with 17 runs for the Devils.