Hailey Arteaga was not always destined to be a softball player, at least not according to her mom, Rebeca Cook. A gymnast, Cook never envisioned her daughter playing softball. She thought she would be a ballerina.
“‘There’s no way [she will play softball],” Cook often remarked. “She’s going to be a ballet dancer.’”
But it was Arteaga’s father, Michael, a former baseball player, who nudged his daughter toward a career in cleats and not slippers.
“My dad just kept telling me, ‘You’re playing softball, you’re playing softball,’” Arteaga said.