Bigger Than The Game; Westside’s Ayla Highfill Cherishes Friendships Forged Through Sports
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by Janice Penix
Sports were a part of Ayla Highfill’s life for as far back as she can remember.
A talented athlete for the Westside Lady Rebels, Highfill excelled in both softball and basketball, earning all-conference honors four years in a row, and was all-district in golf twice, qualifying for the state golf tournament in consecutive seasons.
But the accolades aren’t what she considers the most important accomplishment of her athletic career. It is the relationships she built over the years that are the true prize.
“What I liked the most was that I gained such an awesome group of friends that lasted my entire school career,” she said. “My best friend now, we met in kindergarten because of sports. I made such an amazing group of friends, even outside of my school, such an amazing community of people and families that I’m so grateful to this day, to still be involved with. I have such a wide friend group, and I’m so thankful for that.”
Starting Out With Softball
Participating in sports also strengthened the bonds she has with her family, including her dad, Cory, who coached her through her youth league era.
Highfill started playing softball before she started school.
“I was four or five when I started with Johnson County Girls Club, before I was even in kindergarten,” she said. “I liked it right away. My dad coached me, so outside of our practices, we would be doing stuff on our own, and I just gained the love for the sport just because of how much I did it.”
In addition to playing area little league, Highfill joined a travel softball team, which brought her new friendships outside of her school companions. She also quickly found her home at the shortstop position.
“I think I did travel ball about as long as I did school ball or anything,” she said. “We were just filling out spots one day, and I was a little more situationally aware I think. I could always make the throws, and I just fit the spot really good and stuck with it my whole life.”
Highfill said she took to the sport with ease, even at an early age.
“In softball, it really all just came naturally to me,” she said. “I guess because of how much I practiced with my dad. We’d go out and throw in the yard just any time, or we’d go hit off of a tee. It was just stuff I did in my spare time, and I think I built so much hand-eye coordination, and those developmental skills so much, so early, that along the road, it just came easily.”
Her dad and her mom, Tina, made the sacrifices necessary to allow her to participate in sports, including travel ball, and although having her dad as her coach came with some conflicts typical of a parent-child relationship, Highfill said she is grateful for the closeness that grew between them as a result of the process.
“He helped me so much because, like I said, outside of practices, he would see things that I would be doing and he’d help me in my personal time,” she said. “It really helped us grow that inseparable bond because we were together every day of the week, and every weekend at tournaments. And we just got such a close relationship because of that.
“Now don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t close all the time,” she continued, laughing. “I’d be doing something and he’d argue with me, and then I’d get all mad. But for the most part, that’s probably the foundation that our relationship is built upon: sports, and softball especially.”
As an only child, Highfill’s athletic development was the sole focus of her father’s attention, she said.
“It’s just me, so I guess that’s why we had so much time together,” she said. “He wasn’t really an athlete, except when he was young, and that’s usually what we were getting into our arguments about. I’d be arguing about something, and he’d try to dispute it. I would be like, ‘You didn’t even play sports in high school.’ Coach YouTube is what I’d tease him and call him. He would watch something on YouTube, and then he’s an expert on it.”
Playing For Her School
Playing softball in high school was an especially memorable experience, Highfill said, largely due to a coach that inspired the Lady Rebels.
“We started out my ninth grade year with Nick Bartmier as the coach, and he was an absolutely nice guy,” Highfill said. “But he was also the boys basketball coach, and the boys went deep into state. So I feel like his heart wasn’t all the way there for softball. He loved us, don’t get me wrong. But that dedication didn’t go as deep as basketball.
“But my 11th and 12th grade year, I had Justin Goff as a softball coach, and he is a devout softball guy. He loves softball. He has all of his kids in softball, and he’s a travel coach. He poured his heart into us and loved us like we were his own.”
Goff led the Lady Rebels to the regional tournament this year after a three-win season in 2025.
“These past two years of softball have truly meant so much to me, and they made my final years of high school outstanding because Coach Goff loved us,” Highfill said. “It wasn’t just like a coach-player relationship, it was like a true friendship connection. He would always put in extra time. It would be a Sunday, and he’d ask if anyone would want to come hit. He truly cared so much about wanting us to get better and feel good about ourselves in the sport. I cannot say enough good things about him.”
With her background in softball, Highfill, along with fellow senior Mackenzie Cato, were leaders for the WHS team, according to Goff.
“When I came to Westside, early in softball workouts, I knew I had to get Ayla and Mackenzie on board with what we were trying to accomplish to be able to get the program moving the right direction,” Goff said. “They needed to learn some about being leaders, but immediately set the tone when it came to work ethic. By the end of the season both had grown into the type of leaders necessary to set culture.”
While Cato was the more vocal leader, Goff said Highfill led by example.
“She set the bar for work ethic in our team,” he said. “After our first season, Ayla and Mackenzie were always the leaders during summer workouts, completing their workouts, and making sure others were finishing theirs. As we progressed through our second season together, they had both grown into leaders on and off the field. Many times, after a tough loss, they were the ones that had the right words to say when I was finding the right ones. They consistently improved our team, and kept us moving the right direction.”
Highfill said she enjoyed mentoring the younger players.
“Mackenzie and I have been captains since our ninth grade year,” Highfill said. “The entire rest of the team looked to us, and I think it’s because we were in positions of authority on the field. I was shortstop, which kind of runs the infield, and she was catcher. So we worked hand in hand, and we were always right up there with the coach. If he needed something to be discussed among the players, he’d always come to us.
“And I loved that, because it gave me the ability to mentor my teammates and, if they needed anything, they would always come and ask me. It made me feel really good to know that people trusted me and knew they could ask me about things or come to me for help when needed.”
Highfill said her background with travel ball gave her the experience to succeed and lead her teammates.
“You can definitely see the kids that played travel while growing up,” she said. “It’s so distinctive, like the mannerisms, the way they talk on the field. And I feel like I have that, and I feel like that gives such a leverage, especially starting at a young age like I did.”
Goff also saw a difference in Highfill.
“Ayla played a vital role in improving the culture around our softball program,” he said. “Our program grew from 10 kids to 18 kids between our first and second season. We also grew in belief in what we could accomplish. The first year we set our goal at making regionals. The second year we set it at making state. None of that happens without Ayla helping lead those girls.”
Although Westside fell in the first round of regionals, Highfill said her final season was still unforgettable.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” she said. “We did go one round into regionals, and we played the team we played last year in regionals. They’re an amazing team and, so, I hate to sound negative, but I knew we probably weren’t going to come out of that game winning.
“But this whole season, and last season, I just kind of kept circling back to the friendship aspect. I made such an amazing group of friends, and I love hanging out with my team. I loved practicing, because we had fun, and I love my coach because he cares about us so much. It was just a welcoming and exciting environment.
“You know, some people don’t look forward to practice. They would said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to run,’ or, ‘We’ve got to do all this working out.’ But every practice and every game, I truly looked forward to, because it was just such an enjoyment being around the people, and knowing that our coach truly wanted us to get better with every practice and every game that we had.”
Taking Up Basketball
Highfill also played basketball starting at a young age, with her dad as her coach. But her grandfather, Don Highfill, a retired high school teacher and coach, was perhaps an even stronger influence than her dad.
“He was not coach in my lifetime, but he was there for every single game,” she said. “He’s only missed two games in my entire life. He was always there. My dad was my coach, but he was there more than my dad. He was so involved, it’s crazy. I’m 18 years old, about to turn 19, and he has only missed two sports games my entire life. It’s insane. I don’t know how he does it. So he’s always been a big figure in my life.”
Many of her basketball teammates were the same faces from softball.
“It was kind of the same with softball because everyone in my softball group transferred over to basketball,” Highfill said. “Just different sport, different scenery. Westside is small, so it’s not like you have a million kids to do a million different sports. You have a select group of kids, and basically two main sports. So it was all my same friends.”
Highfill played point guard or shooting guard on the court.
“Even when I was little, I always had the higher shooting percentage on any of my teams, and I’m not big by any means,” she said. “So I’d always just hang out around the perimeter, and I was a pretty good perimeter shooter. That was just all I did, really.”
Being involved in basketball during the softball off-season also helped Highfill stay fit, she said.
“It kept me in shape,” she said. “I like the psychological challenge part of basketball. Softball is kind of mundane. You just kind of sit there and wait for something to happen. But basketball is physically challenging, and there’s so much going on at such a quick rate. I like that psychological challenge. It’s so fast, and you’ve got to keep up with so many things at once.”
With Westside often competing in a challenging basketball conference, Highfill said some of her teammates over the years dropped the sport. Out of the eight girls who started Lady Rebel basketball her seventh grade year, only three remained on the roster for their senior season: Highfilll, Cato and Averi Jackson.
The group had a coaching change before their senior year, gaining a first-year coach after five years with a more seasoned person in the position. Highfill said the leadership brought challenges that she and her teammates had to navigate.
“Did we come through a lot of adversities this year? Yes,” she said. “I think it’s a testament that we didn’t quit. We didn’t have the ideal outcome, from start to finish. But, I think we showed perseverance. We stuck it out, because I don’t believe in quitting. It was a relief to have softball after basketball. I have never been more excited to start a softball season in my life.”
Adding New Sports
In addition to softball and basketball, Highfill played golf and cheered for Westside.
She hadn’t played golf before her 10th grade year, when she was recruited by the WHS coach.
“The golf coach at the time needed one more person to go to district,” she said. “There were not enough people on the golf team to make a full team. He came up to me one day and said, ‘You look like you’d be good at golf. You’re coming.’ I had never touched a club in my life. I didn’t have clubs, I’d never played golf before and, surprisingly, I did really good and we made it to state. So state was the second golf match I ever played.”
Highfill enjoyed golfing and decided to continue to play.
“Starting there, I was like, ‘This is kind of fun. I’m kind of good at this,’” she said. “I don’t know if it was the skills relaying over from softball, the hand-eye coordination or what. But I did the same thing in 11th grade. I played in district and made it to state. This year, it was the same thing: district and state.
“I honestly don’t know why I took such a liking to it. I guess because it came so easy, and I didn’t have to put in years of effort like with softball and basketball.”
She also said it was rewarding to succeed at a sport that was truly her own, not one that her parents led her to join.
“It was the first sport that I picked up individually,” Highfill said. “My dad didn’t encourage me to do it or sign me up. I don’t want to say I wouldn’t have played, but the main reason I was in softball and basketball is because my dad put me in it and I stuck with it. Golf was my own thing.”
Her dad also was reluctant for Highfill to join the cheerleading squad, due to the amount of time it involved, she said.
“Dad didn’t really want me to do it, because I might not have time for the other sports,” she said. “But I did it anyway, and I had a great experience.”
Highfill cheered in ninth grade but left the squad until her senior year.
“It was my last shot at it, so why not,” she said. “Some of my friends were in it, and they were really encouraging me to join back. I had this one friend that I would always do stunts with in ninth grade, and they couldn’t do any without me being there because she didn’t feel comfortable to do it with anybody else. So she asked me to come back, so we could do our cool stunts and look like a real cheer team. I was very easily persuaded. I figured I had enjoyed it in ninth grade, so why not enjoy it one last year while I had the chance.”
Highfill credited the Westside cheer coach, Taylor English, with making the experience rewarding.
“My cheer coach was also kind of like Coach Goff,” Highfill said. “She loved us. Every time we’d go somewhere, the whole cheer team, she was just like one of our friends. She is very sweet and caring, and you can talk to her without it becoming all drama.”
Planning Her Future
Highfill graduated as the valedictorian of the Westside class of 2026, an accomplishment she worked hard to achieve.
“I took some summer college classes just so I could get that,” she said. “That was my biggest goal throughout high school was to get valedictorian. It was a lot of work and a lot of effort outside of sports that I poured into it. I started taking them in 10th grade, and I just took as many as I could. So anytime I didn’t have practice, I was usually studying.”
Her work is paying off as she looks to begin college this fall. Highfill will begin her first year at the University of the Ozarks as a sophomore.
She plans to major in education, with the goal of being an English teacher, first in Arkansas and then internationally.
“With the scholarship I have, they will waive my tuition if I teach in Arkansas for four years,” Highfill said. “So I will do that, and then I want to go abroad and teach. I’ve always wanted to do that, and I’ve always loved English. I think why not do something I enjoy, and take my career and do something else I’ve always wanted to do.”
But no matter where she travels, Highfill said her foundation at Westside – with the family that molded her and the friends who supported her over the years – has given her the ability to succeed.
“Outside of the game itself, the traveling, and getting to go to camps, and spending time with friends within the sport has brought me so close to so many people,” she said. “The team bonding and chemistry connects you on a different level, and that’s something that I will always take with me.”
Read this story and others in the June 17 issue of The Graphic, available online and at businesses throughout Franklin and Johnson counties. Subscribe or donate here to support more hometown journalism.
Ayla Highfill (photo courtesy Ravensong Photography)
Ayla Highfill looks to make a throw during a Lady Rebel softball game. (Photo courtesy Taylor English)
