This story isn’t going to be about lorded Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. You know. The NBA shooter that doesn’t really miss.
We also won’t be talking about former Team USA blazing Olympic softball pitcher Jennie Finch, or 13-time Gold Glove Award Winning Major League Baseball catcher Ivan Rodriguez. Though all three were probably the best in the business at their position. Well, that’s kind of a given.
There is a student-athlete at the University of Memphis who does not take the heat from anybody. Not in the classroom. Not on the diamond. But she is most certainly in the business of dishing it out when the opportunity presents itself. And usually, she’s right on point.
Meet junior catcher Brittany Seale.
She commands respect from opposing players, her teammates and her coaches by the way she carries herself off the field, and the means by which she handles business at the plate from behind her mask.
At Jones Junior College, Seale played catcher and helped at third base during his freshman season. As a sophomore, she batted .422 with a team-leading .549 on-base percentage.
She added six doubles, 10 home runs and 39 RBI’s. Seale drew 34 walks and allowed only six stolen bases while helping her Bobcats to a 41-6 record and the South Division Championship of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges last year.
Seale has also earned her stripes playing at the D-1 softball level.
She has yet to send one out of the park this season, but she holds a .363 batting average with a .424 on-base percentage, 12 runs off 29 hits, four doubles and 22 RBI’s. She knows how to use a Louisville Slugger.
She is also a decided presence behind the plate with a .937 fielding percentage this year. Base-runners are advised to check themselves before they try to test her arm.
Brittany Seale with her third throw out at second base in the last two games!! pic.twitter.com/jxrgkmUIOC
— Memphis Softball (@MemphisSoftball) April 17, 2016
Or, they’ll wish they had. That happens a lot.
But it isn’t just her softball scouting report that consecrates her from her teammates. Not when you take into account that Seale is hearing impaired.
Seale was three before her parents even noticed something different about her. She started turning up the TV and the radio real loud.
“We took her in to a specialist and got the diagnosis,” said her mother, Jennifer Seale, The Commercial Appeal. “It was progressive nerve damage resulting in profound hearing loss.”
So, did the hearing defect stop her from playing her game?
You’re kidding, right? When she was five, her parents signed her up to play tee-ball.
“They wouldn’t let her play,” said Jennifer. “She was too good. They were afraid she’d hurt the other children. So she went straight to the pitching coach. She made a name for herself. It’s part of her identity. She was on the high school team by the seventh grade.”
You have to like an athlete with a cool, commanding approach to the game and an attitude. This girl has both. Moving forward, sports became a source of confidence, community and friends for Seale.
“She always got the ear molds that were the brightest and prettiest colors,” said Jennifer.
“As a child she was never afraid to wear her hair back. She’s always been like that. She upfront. When she wants something, she’s pretty much unstoppable.”
Some would think that a deaf person would make it more difficult to communicate. Not so much with Seale. She is so upfront, the communication actually comes easier. And on the field, she is more attuned to her teammates and coaches than anyone else.
Seale laughs when she tells her story. Actually, she laughs a lot.
Sources say she is planning to have an operation this summer that will plant hearing devices deep inside her ears.
Seale was named to the American Athletic Conference’s softball weekly honor roll after hitting .545 while helping Memphis to a 3-1 weekend at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic last weekend.
This is the first career honor for Seale from The American and she is the second Tiger in three weeks to earn the honor after Lindsey Stickrod was named to the honor roll in the first week of the season.
Seale had four RBI, a walk, was hit by a pitch and had one sacrifice hit with 11 at-bats, leading the Tigers with six hits and tying for the team lead with four runs scored.
The girl just brings it because she can.
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