Ace Bay Regula makes another comeback
Lefty pitcher back with Team Canada looking for gold at the Tokyo Summer Olympics
A huge part of me wanting to come back is unfinished business.”
Lauren Bay Regula
Lauren Bay Regula thought she was done with women's softball in 2008. Women's softball thought it was done with the Olympics that year, too.
The sport, which was voted out of the past two Summer Games, is back for the Tokyo Olympics, with organizing committees now permitted to add events popular in their particular region. Women's softball, though, isn't slated to be a part of any future Olympics beyond Tokyo.
Bay Regula, now a 39-yearold mother of three, is back with Team Canada, one of 18 players preparing for Tokyo in Fort Myers, Fla. Canada's first Olympic game is July 21, against Mexico.
Bay Regula, a left-hander originally from Trail, pitched for a Canadian side that was fifth at the 2004 Athens Games and the one that placed fourth at the Beijing Olympics four years later. She had put her glove and cleats away after that until 2016, when coach Mark Smith coaxed her back for the world championships at Softball City, feeling that his team was short of pitchers. She helped Canada to a thirdplace finish.
She called it quits again after that and was an analyst for CBC's broadcast of Canada clinching a spot in Tokyo at a Softball City qualifying tournament in September 2019, and then Smith came calling once more.
“A huge part of me wanting to come back is unfinished business,” said Bay Regula, who owns a gym in Akron, Ohio, with her husband, David Regula, a former kicker with the Dartmouth College football program. “These girls are a huge part of it, too. So many of them started with the team in 2009 and beyond, and I will be the first to say how amazingly impressive what coach Smith has been able to do with the program without having an Olympics to drive it.
“How strange has all this been? It's been strange with everything that's happening.
The resolve of this team, though, is second-to-none for me. They pushed the Olympics back a year to this summer because of COVID-19 and I think all it did is make our team even more driven.
We just looked at it as a chance to get better.
“We were already driven. We know that softball isn't automatically coming back (to another Olympics). We know that this is a time to leave our mark and inspire the next generation. We know that this is a time to make a case for why softball should be back (in the Olympics).”
In a text message Tuesday, Smith listed Bay Regula as “throwing well ... she's very fit and very strong.”
He has to get down to 15 players for his final roster.
Softball Canada has rented houses in Fort Myers for the players and Bay Regula said she feels safe with all the COVID-19 protocols in place. She corresponds regularly with her husband, daughter Grace, 11, and sons Jack, 10, and Will, 8.
“The boys will be like, `Hey mom,' and then they'll be off doing something,” Bay Regula said of the regular video chats with home. “But they're excited. Everyone's excited.”
That includes older brother Jason Bay, 42, the former major league outfielder. Last summer, when social gatherings were permitted, Jason's daughter Addison orchestrated a Bay Family Olympics in lieu of Tokyo being pushed back to this July.
“They made signs. They painted their faces. We had different events. It was all very sweet,” Bay Regula said.
Tokyo Olympic organizers announced last month there won't be fans permitted from abroad. Bay Regula is one of two moms with the Canadian squad. Langley pitcher Danielle Lawrie, who has two kids, is the other.
“I'm not doing this so my kids can see me play again. I'm not doing this so I can wave at my kids from the field,” Bay Regula said. “I'm doing this because I believe we can win. And I've heard Danielle say the same things.”
That hasn't always been a common refrain from those inside Canadian women's softball. It's something that's come with Smith, a former ace pitcher himself. He's brought that mindset. He's brought that self-belief.
“Nobody goes to the Olympics thinking they don't have a shot, but, for us, in 2004, it was more of a wish. In 2008, I think we believed that we could win. In 2020-21, we know we can,” Bay Regula said. “That's a special thing.”