A Michiana Life in the Spotlight: Haley Masten

Elkhart High School’s Junior Varsity softball team just got a new head coach, and while Haley Masten might be new to the position, she’ll need no introduction to the team.  

Masten, who accepted the role as head coach this year, is bringing years of training, a personal connection to the sport, and the relationships and candor she has built with the girls during her time as an assistant coach. Masten is the friend we wish we had growing up, the sister young girls pray for, the steadfast coach cheering loudly from the sidelines, among much, much more.

Masten is a mentor and role model who strives to challenge your athlete’s thinking on and off the field. Masten leads by example and carves out space for mental health, and as an advocate for impressionable young girls at Elkhart High School, she is there to carry each player through the low moments life might render, the wins on the field, and whatever else life throws their way.  

Masten is a former tri-sport athlete herself and a graduate of Elkhart High School. She knows all too well the mental and physical pressure of showing up for yourself and your teammates, all while keeping your cool. Masten knows full well that it takes a village, a little understanding, and the right support.

Off the field or court, Master looks to the strong women in her family who carried her through her education and into adulthood, shaping her into the woman she is today.

“They taught me to be independent and a strong woman,” said Masten

Now, Masten can be that to other girls in life. She is showing up in a big way for her community and building the foundation for young women for years to come.

“I am trying to put that into the girls that I coach, and I’m trying to be the coach that I didn’t really have growing up,” said Masten. 

Her time spent in the classroom, court, or on the field reflects the values and morals she was raised with, and she hopes to now pass that wisdom on to the next generation.

“This softball program really is my life. Everything I do revolves around it. I think about the girls and how to make them better players and better people. I have made it my mission to help them get ready for the world outside of high school and softball on a daily basis,” said Masten

Masten set expectations for girls from the first day of practice. Like her, they are stepping into the new role too and are rising to the occasion.

“They are great. They come ready to work every day, and they understand that the head coach, Coach Matt Walker, and I are working very closely to get these girls ready for the next level of Varsity,” said Masten

Masten adheres to an academic-first policy and emphasizes that the girls’ education matters more than anything. Her experience helping the girls navigate life’s next steps and the pressures of being a student-athlete comes from an all too familiar feeling.

In the classroom, Masten recently earned her college degree in general education and is looking to expand her reach to a defined role in an educational setting. In addition to her position with the Elkhart Athletics Organization, she is a classroom support in the special education department at Monger Elementary School, serving grades Kindergarten through 3, where she hopes to secure a full-time position post graduation.  

“Those little kids are the light of my life,” said Masten. “They’re great.”

At Monger, she continues to demonstrate her dedication to youth sports through her coaching. There, she led not one but both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams to the Elk City Championship. The girls who won the school’s first-ever championship marked a historic moment for the elementary school and Matsen’s coaching career.

In her free time, she can be found doing what she loves, playing in local slow-pitch softball leagues, cheering on her younger sister, who plays softball for Penn High School, and publishing her creative work as a poet.

In her early years of higher education, she attended Colorado State University, where she developed an early interest in journalism and writing. She ended her higher education career at Western Governors University with self-published work available for purchase, a feat many authors and creatives struggled to reach.

Her work titled “The Moon, The Stars, and Everything in Between” is another exploration of her personal mission to support young girls through high school and college who are struggling with mental health.  

“For me, writing always helps me get my emotions out, so when I read, and I see something that I can relate to, it validates my feelings, and it makes me see that I’m not the only one who thinks that way,” said Matsen. “That’s really what I was trying to do with that book. I was trying to make an impact on young girls in my community so they could see that they aren’t the only ones who think this way. They’re not the only ones who feel this way.”

There is community building in the efforts Masten is putting into her surroundings. Whether through coaching, education, or creative work, Masten is a girl’s girl, helping build confidence one conversation, one pitch, and one poem at a time.