Carolina Day School's Lily Everette wins fight for girls to play high school baseball

During infield warmups before each Carolina Day School baseball game this season, the best first baseman on the Wildcats' roster takes grounders and receives throws from the rest of the defense.

"She's a very, very good defensive first baseman," CDS coach Ryan Smith said. "She would help us tremendously."

Yet Lily Everette's name has never appeared on the lineup card, and once the umpires say, "Play ball," she is outside the lines, doing what she can to help from the dugout or the coaches' box.

Keeping her off the field is rule 3.8 of the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, which prevents girls from playing on a boys team, regardless of whether the school offers the sport for girls.

Everette has spent her sophomore year in an eligibility purgatory, hoping every day that a ruling from the NCISAA would allow her to play. That decision didn't come, but late last month, the NCISAA approved a two-year pilot program allowing girls to play baseball beginning next season.

"I was obviously really hoping [to play] this year. But sitting out for the three weeks from when I found out to the end of the season is better than for the rest of high school," Everette said. "So I really am grateful that I can play my junior and senior years, even though I lost my sophomore year."

Baseball's my sport

Everette has been playing baseball at CDS since she was in middle school, pursuing the sport she picked up when she was barely a year old, throwing and hitting with her dad in their backyard.

Soon, the questions about Everette switching to softball began, as did her categorical dismissals.

"It never really crossed my mind," Everette said. "I've always just said, baseball's my sport."

She accepted the challenges that came with being the lone girl on many of her teams, adopting attitudes familiar to trailblazers in any area of society: outworking the boys in order to prove herself, worrying she'd be excluded regardless, hoping to eventually have her abilities be the talking point, rather than her gender.

"I knew going into every season, no matter what team it was ... that my spot wasn't going to be handed to me," Everette said. "I really needed to prove myself and give 120% every single practice, every single game. Because for me, the opportunity could get taken away. And thankfully, it never was. All of my coaches have been great and nothing but supportive."

By ninth grade, Everette figured to contribute on varsity immediately as a pitcher and first baseman.

But the baseball program was still recovering from the pandemic, lacking the numbers to field a team in 2021. Instead, CDS operated as a club team and included players as young as 5th grade, facing many varsity opponents but ineligible for conference play or the postseason.

The club classification sidestepped NCISAA jurisdiction and meant Everette could play without issue. Entering this year, though, the Wildcats would be returning to varsity play, and they realized that would likely mean trouble.

Stalemate

In December, CDS athletic director Tauni Butterfield received confirmation from the NCISAA that Everette was not allowed to play varsity baseball. Rule 3.8.1.1 is clear: "Student-athletes are only allowed to participate on teams that coincide with the gender indicated on their official birth certificate."

A January petition from the school and Everette's family was denied in February.

"The main thing was, we wanted to take our cues from Lily. To make sure that she was on-board with any kind of fight or bringing to light the situation," Smith said. "We wanted to make sure we were doing right by her."

As the season began, Everette found new roles on the team. The Wildcats' new starting first baseman was a first-year player, so Everette spent practices working with him on the mechanics of the position. If an assistant coach isn't available to coach first base, she throws on a helmet and takes over. Rather than having Smith throw batting practice every day, she offers game-like pitches for the team to face.

"Pretty much anywhere I see that I can jump in and help I just kind of take the opportunity," Everette said. "If I cannot play, I still want to be there and I still just want to find every way that I can to be part of the team."

But she hoped to get the chance to actually play.

Given her longtime ties to CDS, transferring was never seriously considered. Some opposing coaches told Smith if he played Everette, they wouldn't tell anybody, but she didn't want to risk her teammates being punished.

The only hope was for a reversal from the NCISAA.

"It's been really tough, mentally, on her," Smith said. "I'm very impressed with her mental strength to be able to get through this and have patience and just battle through the adversity of ... watching the game that you love and not being able to play it."

While the school continued to explore its options and Everette's schoolmates signed posters expressing support for her eligibility, her plight gained more attention on social media.

A member of the Boston Slammers, an all-girls travel team, Everette is connected to the community of women who participate in baseball at all levels. Feeling their support, in addition to that of her teammates, helped her continue to bide her time.

"Throughout this whole process, it's just been a reminder for me [to] keep fighting, so the next little girl, and the next girl, and the next girl will be able to play," Everette said. "It's not just for [me]."

Mixed result, mixed emotions

On April 13, a week after another appeal from CDS to the NCISAA, the news came. She will remain ineligible for 2022 but can play with the team over the next two years, as part of a two-year pilot program similar to one the association implemented for football in 2020.

"We had to separate the two situations," Smith said. "I was disappointed that Lily lost this year ... but you take a step back and see that, 'OK, they just said yes to changing their bylaws,' and we just changed, basically the future for women in baseball in our organization."

She won't be allowed to help her team's playoff push in one of its most successful seasons in recent memory, but Everette knows her fight could help ensure no other girl at an NCISAA school endures the same lockout.

"We are ... very proud of Lily for her perseverance and bravery," CDS head of school Stephanie Whitney said in a statement. "She not only pursued the opportunity for herself, but she also strove for other girls in NCISAA schools to be given the chance to play."

Everette is already aware of at least one other girl who will be in position to take advantage of the pilot program, an eighth-grader in the Charlotte area.

"I just try to do everything I can to do be a good role model for [other] girls," Everette said. "Hopefully, they will stick with baseball and be able to play just as long as I have, or longer."

Over the summer, Everette plans to rejoin the Slammers and wants to be in position to join the youth national team program as she becomes age-eligible.

By this time next year, she'll be concluding her first season as a varsity baseball player, with no rulebook to keep her away from the lineup spots that her level of play has always deserved.

"I'm really just looking forward to just being back on the field," Everette said. "What I've always had to prove is that, yes I am a girl, but yes I am a baseball player. I just want to be looked at as a baseball player."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Lily Everette eligible to play 2023 baseball for Carolina Day School