Eastern Mennonite University administrators, coaches and players were joined by the Aylor family to plant a memorial tree near the softball field earlier this year. (Photo by Rachel Springer)

Golf tournament helps raise funds to memorialize EMU teammate through softball stadium improvements

Suddenly, it was no longer about softball, recruiting or winning games.

It was about her. The softball player who was always smiling, always outgoing and always giving the coach recruiting her a hug when he managed to drive over the Blue Ridge to see Kaitlin Aylor play for Madison County High School.

It was a rough drive back for Eastern Mennonite University softball coach J.D. McCurdy after he got a phone call on the only strip of land atop some mountain in West Virginia that offered him a cell signal. His hunting trip cut short.

Aylor’s life was taken away too soon.

“It was a tough week for all of us,” McCurdy says, “our coaches and our kids.”

softball tree
Kent Aylor helps plant a tree in honor of his daughter, Kaitlin, a softball player who planned to attend Eastern Mennonite University with EMU President Loren Swartzendruber (left), head coach J.D. McCurdy, and athletic director Dave King.

On the morning of Aug. 16, 2014, Aylor died after getting thrown from an ATV in a single-vehicle accident in Fluvanna County the night before, according to reports. McCurdy got the call and drove back to Harrisonburg.

The EMU coaches who turned a recruitment into a relationship — common, McCurdy says, with his program — and the players ready to welcome Aylor, “just a solid softball player,” into the arms of the team were all crushed. She hadn’t played a game in an EMU uniform yet, but it didn’t matter.

She was one of them, and she was gone. The relationship between recruiter, coaches and players had already been built.

Again, it wasn’t about softball anymore. It was about Aylor and her family.

Two years later, it’s still about Aylor at EMU. What would have been her “00” jersey hangs in the dugout during games. It was her number in high school, and McCurdy had one made up for her — the first of many dedications to Aylor’s life that would soon come at the small Division III college nestled in Harrisonburg.

The latest, McCurdy hopes, comes in October when the school plans on finishing the inground bleachers behind home plate at Gehman Field, naming a portion of them in Aylor’s honor. A bit short on funds, McCurdy and assistant coach Danny Conley are hosting a miniature golf tournament on Saturday at Mulligan’s Golf Center.

“We’re hoping for a great turnout,” McCurdy says.

It should come as no surprise that McCurdy and his program would take these kinds of steps to honor someone who never played an inning of softball for the Royals. Small colleges are small colleges, and without massive recruiting budgets, head coaches and the few assistants they have take the personable approach. Some of the girls are shy, but not Aylor, McCurdy says. And it was that vivacious personality, along with her skills as an infielder, that caught the veteran coach’s eye.

“We spend hours recruiting, and you build a relationship with the family, with the kids you’re recruiting,” McCurdy says.

 Then he pauses.

“That was a tragic thing that happened.”

His voice trails off, until he starts talking about the hugs, the personality and the rapport he and his staff built with Aylor and her family.

It’s still not about softball; it never will be when anybody at EMU talks about Aylor. It will be about her, the jersey, the banner with her name on it that reads “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” It will be about the inground bleachers bearing her name and that one redbud tree just behind the team’s dugout that was planted in her memory.

“A line of trees,” McCurdy says, “and it’s right there.”

Sticking out amid the rest of the trees, always seen and never forgotten on the EMU campus.

Much like Kaitlin Aylor.

This editorial by Daily News-Record sports editor Jim Sacco was published 8/25/2016.

Mini-golf tournament Saturday

The EMU softball program hosts the Kaitlin Aylor Memorial Miniature Golf Tournament Saturday, Aug. 27. The tournament is a miniature golf fundraiser at Mulligan’s Golf Center’s recently renovated course in Harrisonburg.

Proceeds will go to the Kaitlin Aylor Memorial Fund to fund seating improvements at EMU’s Gehman Field. The project will also name a portion of the stands in Aylor’s honor.

Activities start at 8:30am, with flights of miniature golf set to start at 9:00am and 10:00am. Flighted prizes will be awarded, along with free drink and food, including turkey and ham sandwiches. Cost is $20 for adults and $10 for ages 12 and under. Participants can take part in a 50/50 raffle. Hole sponsorships are also available.

To register or for more information, call head coach J.D. McCurdy at 540-246-2035 or assistant coach Danny Conley at 540-271-8519.

Aylor was a Madison County High School softball player who died in an ATV accident in August of 2014, shortly before she was to begin her college career at Eastern Mennonite University. Construction on the project at Gehman Field will begin next fall. EMU also planted a tree in Aylor’s honor before a game this past season.