Phoenyx rises: RI's best high school softball player learned a new skill this year — having fun

Phoeynx Silva could hit better than anyone. Her power was unrivaled. She had no issues with her glovework at third base and every ball she threw across the softball diamond looked like it was shot out of a gun.

When she arrived at La Salle, it was clear she could do just about everything on the softball field. But there was one thing she didn’t quite know how to do — have fun.

Things have changed since her freshman season. Now a junior who’s verbally committed to play at the University of Iowa, she leads the Rams by example. The team is off to a terrific start in its attempt to defend its state title and Silva is having the best year of her career — and doing it with a smile on her face.

“When I started, I had no idea we would succeed this much and I’d be where I’m at today,” she said. “It’s really fun having this team have my back and have us supporting each other.

“It’s really just driving us to our success.”

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So why wasn’t Silva having fun when she started at La Salle?

It wasn’t that she wasn’t having fun. She wasn’t a kid burned out on softball after being pushed too hard by her parents. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Silva started playing softball when she was 4 years old, and by the time she was 8, it was clear she was playing beyond her years. Her father, Dave, then a detective in the Pawtucket Police Department and a former college football player, wanted to make sure Phoenyx had every chance to be the best player she could be. Whatever Phoenyx needed, Dave and his wife, Sue-Ann, provided.

They didn’t limit her to softball. Phoenyx played basketball and even tried field hockey one fall, but softball became the one thing she wanted to do all the time — almost to her own detriment.

“She loves the grind,” Dave Silva said. “That’s why she’s had success. She likes working out and doing the extra work, but you have to remind her to take days off.”

When you talk to Phoenyx about softball, she speaks with excitement in her voice. She brings up the respect she has for the game, for the players who played before her and the players who are starting to play now. She wants to give softball everything it's given her, which is why everything she does is with 100% effort and with the type of intensity that would make a football coach’s heart flutter.

She started playing on a national travel team when she was 13 and, while some in the travel softball world look down on high school ball, Phoenyx's father didn't want her to miss out on the high school experience. Playing for your travel team is one thing, but Dave Silva said “playing for your colors” is something that cannot be matched.

Playing wasn’t the problem for Phoenyx. Figuring out how to enjoy it was.

It didn’t take long for Phoenyx to make a name for herself at La Salle. She went into it wanting to prove herself and wanting to win every game. What she didn’t understand was why her teammates were smiling and laughing in the dugout while she steamed on the bench in the middle of games when things weren’t going right.

As the season went on, Phoenyx received guidance from her captains and found a mentor in senior catcher Arianna Rodi, who was headed to play at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Rodi could talk softball, but made sure Silva knew it was OK to make mistakes or crack a joke during a tense time. They were all fighting for the same thing, but it was OK to have fun while they were doing it.

“I was so serious and focused determined to reach a goal I wanted to attain,” Phoenyx said. “But I didn’t realize it could come off as harsh and bitter and uncomfortable to some.”

Phoenyx slowly learned softball can be serious and fun. She was the best player La Salle had that year, maybe the best in the state, but reveled in being a part of something special. The upperclassmen on that team taught Phoenyx how to be a leader but, most of all, they taught her how to enjoy herself while doing it.

“As I started having success at the beginning and attaining some of my goals, it started to come along a little more naturally,” Phoenyx said. “The more I got into it, the more I realized I didn’t need to press and I could be comfortable in my own skin.

“I was working toward a goal and sometimes forced things, but by sophomore year, I just felt so much more natural and comfortable on the field.”

This is the part where you’re thinking Dave Silva must be a lunatic, screaming at his daughter during games and doing everything a stereotypical sports parent does. The truth of the matter is, Phoenyx Silva probably has more RBI than the words her father has said from behind the backstop — and now in the dugout — during her high school career.

Dave Silva was a fixture at all of his daughter’s games and it wasn’t hard to find him — he’d stand behind the fence at home plate, ready for his duties as the GameChanger (the app used to track game results) dad. When Phoenyx did something well, he would applaud. When she did something badly, he wouldn’t react. There was no need to — he knew Phoenyx would be willing to discuss whatever the problem was and they would discuss how it could have been different.

“I don’t believe in negativity and my wife is the same,” Dave Silva said. “Negativity is not a way to cultivate greatness. You have to feed it like a flower and let it grow.

“The name of this game is failure. If you bat .300, that means seven times out of 10 you’re getting out and that still makes you a great player. I just wanted her to understand that.”

Last spring, Dave Silva became an assistant coach at La Salle. His interactions with his daughter were minimal during the Rams’ state championship run, leaving those up to head coach Maurice Jackson and assistant Joe Roumelis.

In a 7-0 victory over East Greenwich on Monday, Phoenyx hit a ball to left-center for a single — until she noticed the left-fielder wasn’t going hard to chase it down. She never slowed down and turned it into a double.

“Good hustle, Phee,” Dave Silva shouted as he clapped his hands in the third-base coach’s box. “Good job.”

That’s as vocal as he gets.

Last season and this year, Phoenyx has become more vocal. On every pitch, whether she’s in the field, in the dugout, or at the plate, she’s focused with a type of intensity that’s not difficult to perceive.

But it’s easier to see what kind of teammate she is. When someone makes a play, Silva is fired up for them. When pitcher Hailey Vigneau comes up with a big strikeout, Phoenyx is yelling the loudest. Everyone gets a high-five when they score, and when Phoenyx scores, her teammates are there to celebrate and enjoy the moment together.

“It’s all fun now,” said Phoenyx, who last year celebrated most of her home runs by doing the "Griddy" dance as she trotted down the third-base line. “I’m completely focused, but I try to keep my team going at all times. The game, it’s not just about me — my teammates keep me accountable and we do the same for each other.”

Now her biggest challenge is dealing with teams that avoid pitching to her at all costs. Phoenyx is hitting .500, has three home runs, carries a .632 on-base percentage and has an OPS of 1.863. She’s also been walked 10 times.

East Greenwich unintentionally walked Silva twice in their game on Monday and the third time she came to the plate, a pitch got a little too close to the right side of the plate. Last year, with pitchers working her outside, Phoenyx started working on going the other way so she could make pitchers pay for throwing a strike regardless of where it was in the zone.

The work has paid off. Phoenyx hammered the ball to right center, over the fence by 30 feet, and made her way around the bases as her teammates waited at home plate.

“It was definitely harder dealing with it at first,” she said of being pitched around. “I put so much pressure on myself and the more it happened, I’d get frustrated. But I remember that in the end, it helps, and in the end, this is fun.

“I’m going to hold myself to the highest standard no matter what, but sometimes I get too serious and my teammates are there to dial me back a little bit.”

“The big struggle for her was dialing it back because sometimes she was just too intense,” Dave Silva said. “But now it’s, ‘Let’s have fun.’ There’s no million-dollar prize at the end of the season, so it’s going out and enjoying yourself here with your teammates for four years because college is going to be different.”

The recruiting process wasn’t easy but, much like her softball career, Dave and Sue-Ann let Phoenyx create her own path.

She drew interest from many of the country’s top softball programs. Phoenyx was excited to meet the coaches, players and think about where she’d play softball next. Dave was excited about the potential of recruiting visits happening at the same time as college football games.

Her final four schools were Iowa, University of Virginia, Pittsburgh and Penn State, but before the Silvas could even get to Happy Valley, Phoenyx had made up her mind. She liked everything Iowa had to offer. She liked the coaching staff, the players, the recruiting class that was coming in. On Oct. 3, she posted to social media that she was going to be a Hawkeye.

“The passion they have for not only sports there but also academics is terrific,” said Phoenyx, who plans to study kinesiology. “I thought it was a really cool and inspiring, just a great place and I wanted to be there.

“I want to go and make the program as good as possible and everything there fit my personality.”

Which means having fun — something Phoenyx Silva can handle now.

Phoenyx Silva was the best player at La Salle as a freshman, but didn’t need to be. She absorbed what she learned from players like Arianna Rodi in a way similar to how she would absorb lessons from a hitting instructor.

Now she’s giving it back. As a freshman, she might have been the best player, but La Salle wasn’t her team. It is now, and Phoenyx Silva is loving every minute of it.

“It’s really just from knowing you’re playing for the game,” she said. “The game has been such an honor for me and will be for generations to come.

“This is more than just softball and this is everything to me. If I didn’t have it, I don’t know what I’d do and that’s why I’m so passionate and focused for this game.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Phoenyx rises: RI's best high school softball player learned a new skill this year — having fun