« Softball 2016

Heather Stearns

School
Baylor University
Position
Pitcher
Major
Business-Marketing

Classroom

Heather Stearns currently has a 3.43 GPA and has been a scholar-athlete all four years at Baylor, which requires above a 3.0 GPA every semester. Her freshman year she made the dean’s list with a 3.8 GPA. She has also received Academic All-Big 12 recognition for the three seasons in which she has competed. She received the Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in the 2015 season. The Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award is given to one softball player in the Big 12 and is a symbol of excellence on the field and in the classroom. After her graduation, Stearns plans to find a job in sales or marketing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

Character

Stearns has been involved in the Emerging Leadership Program for all four years. The program hand-picks student-athletes to attend meetings all four years to better develop their leadership skills. This has helped her better her leadership role on the team as a captain and a pitcher in the starting role. She has shown her work ethic through maintaining good grades and academic excellence, but also by gaining work experience. Last summer (2015), Stearns moved to St. Louis and was an intern for Rawlings Sporting Goods. She was the marketing intern, but also was involved with grassroots events and product development projects.

The last example of character is her teamwork. Her freshman season she broke her pitching hand three days before the team’s first regional game on the road. Stearns was in immense pain but she fought through it to allow her team to have a better chance at winning. She helped lead the team to three wins in that regional tournament.

Community

Community is very important to both Stearns and the Baylor softball team. Stearns has participated in Feed My Starving Children for three years through which she and the entire athletic department packed bags of food to hungry people around the world. She also helped with the Harvest Hoedown each Halloween. This is held at a church in Waco where she worked booths, gave out candy and played with the local kids. Heather also has participated in the Challenger League, which helps kids with disabilities play baseball. Sharing her own talents and abilities, she was able to spread love by helping the kids play baseball. This past Christmas Stearns went on a mission trip to Ghana, Africa, with the Baylor softball team. They taught the local kids the game of softball for the first time and also spread the Word of God.

Competition

Stearns has been completely dominant in her career at Baylor, following one of the greatest pitchers in softball history, Whitney Canion, to forge her own spot in Baylor’s record books. Of the 19 career statistic records that Baylor tracks, Stearns will leave Baylor in the top 10 of all 19. Stearns has set her self apart as one of the best strikeout pitchers in the nation, leading the Big 12 Conference in the category last season. Pitching alongside Canion for two seasons, Stearns made a name for herself in her sophomore year at the Women’s College World Series. When the team got in a bind and needed to stay alive to advance, it was Stearns who came in clutch, picking up two WCWS wins to lift the Bears on the sport’s biggest national stage. No matter her role, from the number-two option to the unquestionable ace, Stearns has earned her spot as one of the most prolific and dominant pitchers in Baylor history.