Liberty's all-star pitcher wrapping up athletics career

BEDFORD — Like everyone else playing today in the Virginia High School Coaches Association all-star softball game, Cassidy Hensley had a stellar prep career.

But unlike some of today’s participants, Hensley will not be moving on to a varsity softball career in college.

Hensley, who was the Timesland pitcher of the year as senior at Liberty High School, will be a nonplaying student at James Madison University. She wants to become a nurse and decided that a college athletic career would hinder her academically.

“I realized I need to focus on my schooling,” she said. “Softball takes up a lot of your time and I felt like I couldn’t do both and be successful at both.”

Hensley will have to succeed in the classroom to be accepted into JMU’s nursing program. She can’t apply for the program until midway through her sophomore year at the university, and she must have at least a 3.0 grade point average at JMU to even be considered.

She became interested in nursing after she tore the ACL in her left knee while playing for the volleyball team as a Liberty sophomore. The medical care she received piqued her interest.

Her interest in nursing deepened when she began to help take care of her mother’s boyfriend’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and lives in Hensley’s home. Hensley takes her to the bathroom, helps feed her and sits with her.

“She has the patience of Job ,” said Hensley’s mother, Leigh Hensley.

“I like helping people,” Cassidy Hensley said.

Hensley’s parents divorced during the summer before her freshman year of high school.

“It was tough, but I think it fueled a lot of things — helping me focus on softball,” Hensley said. “I was kind of emotional, and I needed to channel my energy into something. So I focused on that.”

The 5-foot-9 right-hander made a big impact as a Liberty freshman, going 16-3 with a 0.88 ERA and 220 strikeouts in 119 innings.

“It was kind of a shock when they brought me up [to the varsity] in ninth grade,” she said. “I was pitching over some older girls and I felt like everybody was looking at me to do something.”

After her freshman year, the pitching distance in high school softball was moved back from 40 feet to the college distance of 43 feet. That made it more of a hitter’s game, but Hensley remained dominant in the circle.

She went 55-19 with 757 strikeouts and 0.76 ERA in her Liberty career. She made the All-Timesland first or second team all four years.

“I felt like I needed to pitch my best every game,” she said. “I guess the strikeouts came with that.”

She helped Liberty win the Seminole District tournament as both a freshman and sophomore.

This year, Hensley was 16-5 with a 0.75 ERA, 187 strikeouts and 22 walks in 129 1⁄3 innings. Pitching for a team that started six freshmen, she had 13 shutouts, two no-hitters and a perfect game. For the third time, she was named the Seminole District pitcher of the year and an All-Region III first-team pick.

“Every game, we knew going in we had a chance with her on the mound,” Liberty coach Jeff Monroe said.

“If she just had a little more fire … if she just got to the point where ‘softball is all I want,’ there’s no telling how good she really could be.”

Many Timesland teams divided the workload among two pitchers this year, but Hensley remained the Lady Minutemen’s workhorse.

“I like to know that I get to pitch every game,” said Hensley, who threw 20 complete games this year.

She used to take pitching lessons from Charlie Daniels, who helped her develop her repertoire. Hensley’s best pitches are her riseball and screwball, but she also throws a fastball, changeup, dropball and curve.

“Her screwball moves a lot and she can place it [to] whatever side she needs to place it,” Monroe said.

Hensley played travel ball, but she stopped last year. She figured if she wasn’t going to pitch in college, she did not need to showcase herself in front of college colleges. She said she got “burned out” by the year-round demands of travel ball.

She has loved pitching for Liberty, though.

“I felt like I could control the pace of the game and what happened around me,” she said.

She might pitch for JMU’s club softball squad because that would be “for fun” and would not involve the time demands of the varsity team.

But if she opts against club softball as well, today’s all-star game will be her final time in the circle.

“It’s going to be exciting and sad at the same time,” she said.

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