Maya Brady is good. Really good.
Tom Brady dubbed her the most athletic member of the family. She is the No. 2 softball recruit in the nation. For this UCLA-bound stud, “the best is yet to come.’’
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Give the kid credit; she has a flair for the dramatic.
A go-ahead home run in the top of the eighth, the neon yellow ball clearing the distant center-field fence with ease. An unassisted double play in the bottom of the inning, a clean scoop of a humpback liner and a swift step on second base thwarting a home team comeback. It’s a combination that brings this Southern California high school softball game to a close, visiting Oaks Christian of Westlake Village heading happily home with an extra-inning win, and leaves this observer with one undeniable conclusion.
The stud at shortstop has the clutch gene.
And then you think, “Oh, she must get it from her Uncle Tommy, only the greatest game-winning quarterback of our time.’’
Or on second thought, “She must get it from her mother, Maureen, the one-time All-America college softball player and all-time dominant California prep pitcher.’’
But soon you understand the truth. These are the Bradys, which means she gets it from herself.
“I think Maya is already the most athletic person of the family,’’ the aforementioned Uncle Tommy concedes in comments to the Globe. “She’s just a great athlete, so competitive. And she’s been on such winning teams and she’s such a great teammate. It’s so impressive.’’
In this family, you don’t often admit to athletic inferiority. You are not cocky and you do not brag, at least to outsiders. But within the Brady walls? If you’re good, you own it. And Maya Brady is good. Really good. Good enough to be the next great athlete in the Brady bunch, where the headliner might be the quarterback New Englanders know better as Tom, but whose early sports prowess was always trumped by the women in his house.
Maya, 17, the oldest daughter of Tom’s oldest sister, Maureen, and the No. 2 recruit in the nation, is setting the bar for the next generation, heading to 12-time national champion UCLA in the fall, a coup for one of the top college programs in the country.
