Twin Peaks: Stewart simultaneously reaching pinnacle as athlete and student
April 29, 2016 | Softball, Andy Baggot
Wisconsin's senior pitcher has embraced new role in circle, is preparing for med school
Embracing a new role on the diamond — she now carries the titles of starter and closer — and closing in on some impressive postgraduate goals, Wisconsin senior Taylor-Paige Stewart is simultaneously reaching the pinnacle of what it means to be an athlete and a student. | From Varsity Magazine
 |
||
|
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
T here's a good reason for why Taylor-Paige Stewart's first name is punctuated with a hyphen.
"My dad wanted Taylor and my mom wanted Paige and they wanted both names," she said of the uncommon presentation. "They put them together and Paige-Taylor didn't sound good, so they went with Taylor-Paige."
There's also a good reason for why Stewart's position description with the Wisconsin softball team is hyphenated.
The senior pitcher from Calabasas, California, is listed as a starter-closer because she's been tabbed by UW coach Yvette Healy to handle those diverse roles this season.
"She thrives in that environment," Healy said of Stewart. "You have to have a kid who's OK with not having to start and throwing complete games and is willing to be a little more humble."
There's also a good reason for why Stewart's title of student-athlete is so distinguished.
She's a three-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I All-American scholar-athlete who currently leads the Badgers in appearances, innings pitched, wins, complete games, saves and strikeouts.
She's been a member of New Zealand national teams since high school — her mother, Rosemary, is from there — and is she's in line to play for that prestigious squad in the World Championships in Surrey, British Columbia, in July.
Stewart is majoring in neurobiology and has her eyes set on medical school and a career as a surgeon.
"We've had some really brilliant kids," said Healy, who's been in charge since 2010, "but she's up there."
Stewart said she's gotten straight A's at UW with the exception of one class. That was Chemistry 109 during the fall semester of her sophomore year.
"That still haunts me," she said with a wry grin of the class that "kicked my butt."
Stewart said she'll take the Medical College Admission Test next year and that her "doors are wide open" when it comes to a specialty. She mentioned oncology and women's health as points of current interest, but also gastroenterology.
So what came first for Stewart, the student or the athlete?
"When I was younger it was probably an athlete," she said, noting she started playing softball, soccer and basketball when she was 6 and was a two-sport athlete — softball and soccer — until junior year of high school.
Stewart's focus shifted in middle school. She remembers crying because she lost out on an award for good grades.
"Since then I haven't dropped the ball," she said.
Stewart thought about an Ivy League education — Harvard and Penn were her other options — "because I wasn't sure how much athletics that I wanted," she said.
That changed when she visited Madison, fell in love with the campus and discovered that she could play a Division I sport and get an elite education at the same time.
"Athletics took a higher priority once I saw I could do both," Stewart said.
"There's definitely days where you doubt it. You get a bad grade on a test and you're like, 'Can I make it to med school?'
"It's the same as sports. You trust the process that you're going in the right direction and making the right steps."
Why did Healy recruit Stewart in the first place?
"She wasn't that big — she was a skinny kid — but had like a little edge to her," Healy said. "When I saw her grades — that she was brilliantly smart and had a little feistiness and could hit and could pitch — I just really liked her whole persona."
Stewart made 12 starts as a freshman in 2013 and helped the Badgers to their first Big Ten Conference tournament title.
Stewart was 15-7 with a team-best 3.21 earned run average the following season, but was 10-18 with a 4.94 ERA as a junior in 2015.
After the Badgers finished 21-31 overall, 5-17 in the Big Ten — the worst showing in the otherwise stellar Healy Era — Healy recalled a telling sit-down with Stewart.
"She said, 'My priority is just for the team to be good,'" Healy recounted. "She said, 'Tell me what it's going to take to have a better program. I don't care what my stats are. I just want to win some games.'"
"She said, 'Tell me what it's going to take to have a better program. I don't care what my stats are. I just want to win some games.'"
That opened the door to Healy outlining how she planned to use Stewart this season. The dual role could entail a start, coming in as a reliever with runners on base or closing out a game. Healy said it's a move tied to trying to find the most efficient ways to use pitchers like Stewart and Kirsten Stevens, a junior transfer from Mercer.
"I kind of think it's the wave of the future," Healy said. "You don't see it a ton yet, but it's something we've wanted to do the last couple years."
Healy said Kentucky and South Florida are programs that use pitchers in a similar fashion.
"It's not just a philosophy," she said. "It takes the right temperament of a player."
In this case, Stewart.
She started and won both games of a non-conference doubleheader sweep of Green Bay on Tuesday, but there was a stretch of five Big Ten games with Minnesota and Iowa earlier this month where she started once and inherited runners as a reliever in the other four.
"I have to get myself mentally prepared differently for both roles," she said.
"She's really embraced it," Healy said.
Stewart doesn't have overpowering stuff, but she's smart, deceptive and mentally tough.
"I can spin the ball," she said. "I won't blow it past anybody. There's other kids in our conference throwing in the high 60s; I'm probably the low 60s.
"I have the experience. I like to think I have composure."
Stewart lives with the three other seniors on the team — infielder Katie Christner, utility player Macy Oswald and infielder Ashley Van Zeeland — and a temporary house guest.
Her mother, Rosemary, has come to Madison to watch her only daughter pitch in her final season with the Badgers.
"Like anything, it has its struggles, but it's been really nice," Taylor-Paige said of the arrangement. "I'm really spoiled."
One of the topics of discussion between Stewart and her roommates is how to get their young team — featuring seven freshmen and four sophomores — to maximize the rest of the season.
Stewart lauded the rookies, a class led by slugging catcher Melanie Cross, for their attitudes and efforts.
"Our atmosphere's really good," Stewart said. "We're all bought in to the plans."
The Badgers close out a 10-game home-stand Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a Big Ten series with Northwestern at Goodman Diamond.
That will give way to a regular-season-ending league series at Nebraska on May 6-8 before the playoffs begin.
What's attainable?
"It's definitely up in the air right now," Stewart said.
She noted that UW has some "massive" victories, referring to a 5-3-1 record against ranked opponents that includes non-conference decisions over California and Fresno State.
But there have been some stumbles as well.
"It puts you at this status of 'We could be really good,' or we can reach the end of the season thinking, 'We could still be good, but we never got there,'" Stewart said.
There's still time to figure out which path to take.
