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Kaylie Avvisato remembers her first practice home run falling out of the sky on a softball field when she was 10 years old. Her father, Frank, had thrown her onto the field, and Frank turned to watch as the ball was carried over the back fence.
“We both started screaming,” Avvisato recalled. “It was so funny.”
It was a milestone to remember. Frank had begun taking Kaylie on daily trips to the softball fields throughout Loudoun County and watched his daughter’s affinity for the sport grow. Frank, a former baseball pitcher for George Washington, would spend hours in the dirt pitching Kaylie’s pitches, throwing balls over the plate so she hurled toward the fence and now over him.
A few years later, Avvisato emerged as one of the area’s top softball talents as a sophomore at Riverside High. After being named the top recruit in the country last preseason, she is tied for the team lead with six home runs this season as the Rams (12-4) near the playoffs and eventually hopes for a Class 5 state title in Virginia battle.
But while Avvisato sees the benefits of her daily training sessions with her father on the field, she has had to play the game without her mentor by her side for the past five months. After being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019, Frank Avvisato died in November 2021 — and barely had a chance to see his protégé shine at the high school level.
In what Avvisato says was one of the most challenging periods of her life, she grieved because she played the sport she learned from her late father.
“She pulls that uniform on with a little bit of a heavy heart every time because she had a very special bond with her father,” said Riverside coach Kevin Bednoski.
A thumbs up. A hug. A laugh. Those shared moments with her dad are what Avvisato remembers most growing up in the travel softball scene, watching her dad watch her play. Always parked on the sidelines, her father rarely missed a game.
“He had an incredible impact on my sporting career; he was always there for me and always [was] so positive and encouraging,” said Avvisato. “He’s been my number one cheerleader at all my games.”
Now Kaylie’s mom, Karen, is forced to take on that role on her own. As an assistant coach on Bednoski’s staff, she has grieved alongside her daughter on the softball field – making Kaylie and her son Anthony feel supported as they process their loss.
Karen Avvisato, a former softball player from Miami, Ohio, understands the pressure parents often put on young athletes. That’s why the Avvisatos always tried to be encouraging rather than challenging at Kaylie’s softball, basketball, and soccer games.
“I’m a coach so I know you don’t screw up those trips home after a game [on] Your children, we don’t do that,” said Karen Avvisato. “She never really had any pressure to grow up, at least from us because we just supported her.”
It was that encouragement that Kaylie Avvisato appreciated most in her father — something she carries with her as she steps on the plate with every hit.
When Frank’s health began to deteriorate in early July, the family took a trip to Colorado for a travel softball tournament. Frank and Karen cheered as their daughter emerged as the top player, hitting .609 for the week while hitting four home runs en route to a Tournament All-Star Game.
It was also the last time Frank watched his daughter play.
Kaylie recalls looking out into the crowd in Colorado and seeing her father sitting in his usual place behind the backstop. His vocal tract had been removed due to the spread of cancer in his body and he had lost more than 100 pounds. But his smile stayed.
He threw his thumbs up in Kaylie’s direction. That memory — sharing a moment on the softball field with her dad nearby — has helped her be even more successful this season.
“He’s been teaching me since I was a baby, so just being able to play for him and knowing he’s just watching over me feels really good,” Avvisato said.
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