Making A Positive Impact

Courtney Wyche has been through a unique path during her softball career. She has been through three coaching staffs and seven pitching coaches as she enters her fifth season as an ace pitcher for the Terps.

Wyche has developed into one of the best pitchers in the Big Ten as she was named to the All-Big Ten second team last season despite her tumultuous journey. But even before college, her story wasn’t riddled with immediate success.

The graduate student from Silver Spring, MD, started playing recreational softball at a young age but struggled to adapt to the new sport after giving up basketball. Coaches moved her around the diamond, yet she never found a position that stuck. It wasn’t until one day she decided to teach herself how to pitch.

Wyche began watching YouTube videos and other pitchers during games to study their craft. The learning curve was permeated with many challenges, but she quickly developed into one of the top softball recruits in Maryland.

“She started with recreational softball,” Wyche’s father, Kenneth Prather, said. “So being the kid in the outfield who was scared to catch a ball, to moving all the way up to where myself and her mom had to travel all across the country where she was on one of the top travel teams and has been a top player being recruited by major division one colleges and being a top 100 recruit.”

Wyche’s journey allows her to offer pitching lessons to young girls and help them navigate the challenges that come with being a high-level athlete with her business Spin, Speed, & Snap Pitching. The name details the three most important steps when throwing a softball pitch. Wyche offers various clinics and one-on-one lessons to girls of all ages.

Wyche is currently pursuing her master’s degree in management studies. However, her experience as an entrepreneur was first explored during the COVID-19 pandemic when a young girl asked her to teach her how to pitch. Wyche wasn’t on campus at the time and was reluctant to help.

The star pitcher’s mother is a teacher, and her father is a basketball coach. Prather says he has always noticed that Wyche carried on a natural gift of teaching and organizing. Her abilities have built her business into one where girls are traveling from different states to join her camps often comprised of over 60 students.

“It's just an opportunity for me to teach young girls how to pitch the fundamentals, the mechanics and all that, but also to instill confidence in them knowing that they can achieve their dreams no matter what they want to do,” Wyche said. “Pitching is an art, it takes skill, it takes time obviously. But that in itself teaches you how to then overcome other obstacles.”

Wyche is also a head coach, and Prather is a strength and agility coach for the MRHA Lions, a softball team based in her hometown that their family organizes. They provide travel teams for 12-, 14- and 16-year-old girls.

Many of Wyche’s teammates and coaches have supported her coaching endeavors. Her former teammate, Kiley Goff, was a catcher for the Terps for two seasons and helped her expand her business to teach catching skills as well.

Jaeda McFarland, an outfielder for the Terps, was one of Wyche’s first teammates to help coach and share her experiences with the girls who play for the Lions.

“I will just say as an outsider watching her, that is I would say her number one passion,” McFarland said. “She loves it, just being able to coach younger girls and what she's been through to bestow what she knows onto them and help them grow not only as a pitcher or a position player but as a person too.”

Wyche balances a business, school, and being a Division I softball player simultaneously, showing her passion for impacting the next generation of softball players. A mother of one of the girls that went through her camp texted Wyche about her daughter, viewing her as a hero. Wyche says she started crying when she received the news.

Many of the girls Wyche teaches have also supported her from the stands of her games at Maryland.

“It brings joy to my heart when I see the girls come to games and stuff,” Wyche said. “It just warms my entire being to know that I'm helping somebody else out there, like knowing that they can do this one day.”

Wyche aspires to play professional softball after she graduates from Maryland. She hopes to use that platform as a professional softball player to grow her business and love for coaching on a national stage.

Wyche holds many titles. She’s simultaneously a student, athlete, coach, and business owner. But above all else, she’s someone with a passion for making a positive impact on the next generation of softball athletes. 

“It's a blessing as her parents, it's a blessing to watch her grow,” Prather said. “And we had tough times where we had to let her take some bumps in the road and learn herself on this journey. But we couldn't be more proud of her journey.”