All-around star finds right balance
LeClair juggles 3 sports at Phoenix Country Day
Think your week ahead is jampacked? Try fitting Audrey LeClair’s senior spring into your schedule. A varsity athlete in softball as well as track and field, LeClair had to balance the demanding schedules of both sports while staying focused on schoolwork at Phoenix Country Day School.
She maintained a 3.5 GPA, while remaining one of the state’s best athletes in both sports.
“It was definitely difficult because I was trying to definitely be the best teammate I could for both teams, and it’s hard when you have to miss a few things for the other,” LeClair said. “But being able to succeed in both, and hearing that you’re missed by everyone when you have to leave, it’s a really good feeling.”
In softball, LeClair finished with a career batting average of .737, on base percentage of .796, 182 total hits, 151 RBIs and 26 home runs. Her senior year, LeClair put up 41 hits, 24 RBIs and 26 stolen bases; she led the state with a batting average of .804. She also topped all Arizona batters with a slugging percentage of 1.765 and on base percentage of .848.
LeClair was named the Offensive Player of the Year for the Metro Region and was selected to both the All-1st Team Metro Region and All-2A State First teams. During the summer she played with the club team So-Cal Athletics, helping it to a national championship in 2016.
“Audrey is the most goal-oriented, driven person I’ve ever gotten to work with,” Phoenix Country Day softball head coach Diane Rodman said. “In the six years I’ve had the pleasure of knowing her, she has never failed to reach a personal goal she set for herself no matter how difficult the path. Her passion for both the game and people is evident in any conversation you have with her.”
Meanwhile, in track her senior year, LeClair placed third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 00:13.26 and won Division IV state titles in the high jump and long jump.
“Audrey has the unique quality to process a coaching cue and implement it almost immediately,” track and field head coach Greg Hull said. “She also has an intrinsic desire to always improve that all of the elite athletes I’ve coached have exhibited.”
Help also came from LeClair’s father. “I grew up just with him for the first eight years of my life, and he really taught me that balance is key,” LeClair said. “I’ve always tried to live by that, and he’s my biggest role model. He works so hard at everything he does, and he sacrifices everything for the people he loves, and I just want to do the same.”
To top it all off, LeClair played basketball all four years of high school. She averaged 12 points per game both her junior and senior years, winning the region’s Defensive Player of the Year award and a bid to the All-1st Metro Region team her senior year. She finished with career averages of 8.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. In her final game with Phoenix Country Day School, LeClair put up 24 points against the future state champion, Alchesay High School.
Looking back on the season, basketball head coach Sean Newland remarked to Athletic Director Shane Lewis that he would miss coaching LeClair over the next year.
Lewis replied, “You’ll miss her for the next twenty years."
"I would go as far to say that Audrey is Michael Jordan-esque with her combination of talent and relentless work ethic,” Newland said. “She is a once in a generation athlete.”
Due to her athletic accomplishments, LeClair faced a choice few high school athletes get to make: which sport they want to pursue through college. Last fall, LeClair made her decision official when she signed a letter of intent to play softball at the University of Michigan.
“That’s the one I started with. … I enjoy all of them, and I think if I could choose to play all of them, I would,” LeClair said. “But you obviously can’t when you have to go to college for it. So I think softball’s a pretty good choice.”
When LeClair stepped up on stage to accept the azcentral Sports award for Girls Athlete of the Year that capped off her high school career, her whole body was trembling. Fearless at the plate or the starting line, speaking in front of a packed auditorium was enough to shake even LeClair until she found the comforting faces of her familiar supporters in the crowd. “I had a whole gang out there, and I couldn’t do it without them,” LeClair said.