Brotherly shove: Growing up with 4 brothers pushed U of A softball’s Regan Shockey to excel

Regan is the fifth of Tim and Veronica Shockey’s five children. The first four were boys. The Shockey siblings also had four similar-aged cousins who were boys.

“On any given weekend, there would be eight boys in the backyard or front yard — and Regan, mixing it up,” Tim Shockey said. “I could see very early on that she just wanted to compete and be part of what they were doing.

“She’d come in the house crying. ‘They're not letting me (do) this or that.’ My wife would drop the hammer and say, ‘No. You want to be out there? Then don't come in here crying. Just get out there and go for it.’”

Regan Shockey has been going for it ever since. An ultra-aggressive, supremely skilled slap hitter, Shockey batted .410 over her first two seasons as the Wildcats’ starting center fielder and top-of-the-order sparkplug. She scored 101 runs while stealing 28 bases in 31 attempts.

Shockey is batting .412 with seven runs scored heading into this week’s Bear Down Fiesta at Hillenbrand Stadium. Her mental and physical fortitude were forged in Chino Hills, California, where she strived to keep up with older brothers Austin, Cameron, Logan and Collin. All were athletes, playing soccer, baseball and football.

“In a good way ... tough,” Shockey said of growing up in a household full of boys. “I would say that I am very strong because of how they were with me. Obviously, they always protected me. I was their little sister and the little girl in the house.

“They're the ones that showed me the ropes. I was 3 years old, in diapers, wanting to play Wiffle Ball with them, always outside doing things that we probably shouldn't be doing. I had both the good and bad influences. But I thank God every day for it, because I feel like having brothers prepared me for sports and for life.

“They could be tough on you. They're not gonna let you win, that's for sure. This is how it is in softball. And it's how it is in the real world.”

Shockey plays with controlled abandon. Adrenaline trumps pain, in her view. If something hurts later, so be it. She refuses to acknowledge it in the moment — just like she refused to back down from her brothers.

Regan the speedster

If you want to know why Regan Shockey is so explosive — bursting out of the batter’s box, sailing around the bases, getting elite jumps on gappers — just look at her workouts.

“We live in Chino Hills, right? It's not hard to find good hill training,” Tim Shockey said.

Regan has been running hills since she was a youth. “Walter Payton-style,” said her father, alluding to the late Chicago Bears Hall of Famer whose hill workouts helped him become one of the strongest players, pound for pound, in the NFL.

Sometimes Regan would run hills with her brothers. Sometimes she’d do it under the supervision of her parents, who were both athletes. Tim played soccer, baseball and football growing up and played baseball briefly in junior college. Veronica was a club soccer standout.

(Regan also excelled at soccer as a youth and probably could have been a Division I soccer player had she chosen that path.)

Veterans Park in Chino Hills often was the venue of choice. They would measure an uphill route of about 90 feet.

“She would rep it out and just dig in — dig, dig, dig,” Tim Shockey said.

Regan still runs hills when she goes home, whether at the park or in the neighborhood.

“Our neighbors probably think she's crazy,” her dad said. “But she's out there getting it.”

The Shockeys have a gym setup in their garage. Tim recently had to accept that his daughter’s legs are stronger than his. She can squat more weight and do more reps.

Regan says she still can’t beat her brothers in races up those hills, but it’s not for lack of trying. Her competitive fire has been evident since she was a child taking hacks in the backyard.

Starting at 6½ years old, Regan spent countless evenings working out with Mike Stith, a renowned club coach who’s part of the Orange County Batbusters. Her parents would ferry her about 20 miles from Chino Hills to Anaheim as many as four nights a week.

“That quickly became our home away from home,” Tim Shockey said.

Tim became a coach for the Batbusters and still coaches for the organization. His players, of course, want to know how they can become the next Regan Shockey.

“None of this happened by accident,” he said. “Yeah, the athleticism was there; she had a great foundation for it. But the work has been put in, believe me.

“There are many younger Batbusters who I coach who have asked me what the recipe for success is with relation to Regan. And my answer is, ‘Do you really want to know? Cuz it wasn’t easy. It's a lot.’

“You can do the average stuff and be very average. Or you can really put the time in and get after it.”

Regan the slapper

If you want to know how Regan Shockey became such an adept slap hitter — chopping pitches into the dirt, making it impossible for even the strongest-armed infielders to throw her out — just look at her work ethic.

Shockey was a right-handed batter until she was about 12½ years old. She had dabbled as a left-handed hitter, and her favorite player growing up, Florida’s Amanda Lorenz, batted from the left side.

Shockey wasn’t the biggest player — she’s listed at 5-foot-7 — but she was always among the fastest. It made sense, on paper, for her to become a slapper.

But the transition would require time, patience and dedication. Tim Shockey recalled Stith’s message the first time Shockey did a hitting workout with him from the left side:

“If we're going to do this, Regan, you're all in. Period. You're all in, and there's no switching back.”

Shockey was all in. But she struggled at first. Her father said it took about eight months for her to figure out how to slap the ball effectively.

Tim joked that the switch nearly led his wife to divorce him. Regan went from thriving at the top of the lineup to batting at or near the bottom, if she played at all, while learning how to slap.

“Those were tough conversations with my wife,” Tim Shockey said. “Those were tough rides home when Regan didn't play or barely played or wasn't having success initially.”

Those eight months felt like forever.

“But she started touching the ball, putting the ball in play, bouncing the ball, applying pressure ... and off to the races from there,” Tim said.

“It was the best move we could have ever made for her — the best move she could have ever made.”

Regan deserves the most credit for successfully making the switch, her father emphasized. No one tried to talk her into it. She took lessons. She watched videos. She was determined to make it happen.

“It took hard work, and there were many failures,” Regan said. “But maybe I wanted to do it so bad that I made it work.”

Regan the leader

If you want to know how Regan Shockey has become a respected team leader — helping to guide a squad full of new and young players — just look at her head coach.

It’s natural to compare Shockey’s game to Caitlin Lowe’s. But it isn’t Lowe’s slapping ability, speed or defensive range that Shockey admires the most.

“Her mindset is what I'm trying to get to every day,” Shockey said. “Because it's tough as nails and it's gritty and it's serious and it's locked in — and that's more of what I would rather take from her versus anything else.”

Shockey said one of Lowe’s philosophies is that anyone — no matter how old they are or what year they’re in — has the opportunity to be a leader. Shockey believes the past two years “built me up” for the leadership role she has undertaken.

Fellow outfielders Dakota Kennedy and Kaiah Altmeyer transferred between their junior and senior seasons. Shockey is surrounded by newcomers in the outfield.

She described this past fall as the most fun yet also the most intense one she has experienced at Arizona. The newcomers had something to prove. In her mind, Shockey did, too.

“I have to teach, I have to represent and I also have to be on their level,” she said. “It's honestly so fun and a great experience to help teach. You always learn more when you teach.”

Shockey is majoring in communications with a minor in public relations. She’s thinking about pursuing a career in PR, media relations or athlete representation when her playing days are over.

But “everyone bets I'm going to be a coach,” Shockey said. “No matter what I say, they say coaching.”

Tim Shockey has watched his daughter coach young OC Batbusters and says she’s a natural. Lowe, who followed that path from playing to coaching, doesn’t need any convincing.

“She just has a competitive energy that’s unmatched,” Lowe said. “It makes you want to be better. When she steps onto the field, she is someone that earns everyone’s trust from the get-go. She can be stern, as well as a loving type of personality out there. She is someone that demands excellence from everyone every day. And everyone rises to meet that standard.

“I can’t say enough about her as a human being, as well as a softball player. She doesn’t give herself enough credit sometimes, but she will do anything to help the team win — as well as just being in your corner. She wants every single person to be great because she knows that will make us great as a team.”