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UXBRIDGE — Bailey Dzivasen has excelled in three sports for five years at Uxbridge High, but she has a clear-cut No. 1 athletic endeavor.
With all apologies to field hockey and basketball, that would be softball.
“It’s a family sport and softball has been my love my whole life,” the 18-year-old senior recently said outside the Whitin Intermediate School, where the Spartans practice and play their home games.
Dzivasen’s mom, Bethany, is an assistant to second-year coach Meghan Creighton, who is Dzivasen’s aunt. The Gaskell sisters both starred on the diamond for the Spartans in the early 2000s and were T&G Super Team selections before going on to play in college.
Their dad, Donald “Jaju” Gaskell, has been known to drop by practice from time to time. He’s been a huge influence on his oldest granddaughter’s development as a player dating to her earliest days.
“He’s made me who I am as an athlete today,” said Dzivasen, whose last name is pronounced Div-a-sen. “Everything that I accomplish, I give to him because he’s my biggest role model and the biggest influence on who I am as an athlete.”
That would be a talented player, fierce competitor and respected leader who has helped the Spartans achieve a three-season string of sustained success since she made the varsity field hockey, basketball and softball teams as an eighth grader.
The field hockey team has won four consecutive Division 4 state championships and is 87-3-2 during that remarkable run.
The basketball team captured the Clark Tournament Small Schools championship in February before advancing to the second round of the D4 state tournament, where it lost to eventual champion Cathedral to finish 18-6.
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“It never gets old,” Dzivasen said of winning. “Especially with softball this year. We haven’t really won anything. ... So this season really means a lot to me to be able to try to get that banner and celebrate with my girls in a third sport.”
So far, so good as the Spartans, who advanced to the D4 state quarterfinals each of the past two seasons, are off to an 8-0 start.
The 5-foot-4 Dzivasen, a former pitcher and third baseman, starts at second base and bats leadoff. She’s a surehanded fielder with terrific range and hits for contact and power.
Dzivasen is batting .577 with 11 of her 15 hits going for extra bases (9 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer). She’s driven in eight runs, crossed the plate 15 times and struck out twice in 28 plate appearances.
On April 18, Dzivasen went 3 for 3 in a 6-4 win over Advanced Math & Science Academy. That gave her 135 career hits to break a tie with Carol Albin for the school record that had stood since 1989.
“She is just such an important and key aspect of our team,” Creighton said. “And not just as a player, but as a person, as a role model. I think of Bailey, and ‒ aside from the fact she’s my niece ‒ she just exemplifies what it means to be a true student-athlete.
“She represents her team well. She represents her community and her school well. She’s involved in everything.”
Dzivasen is a National Honor Society inductee with a 4.3 weighted grade point average who is ranked, she believes, ninth in a class of 110 students.
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She was an MIAA student ambassador as a junior and is doing an internship at the Taft Early Learning Center with nurse Kelly Carvalho this year, along with taking statistics and a dual-enrollment class in English through Quinsigamond Community College.
Dzivasen captained the field hockey and basketball teams this year and, for the third straight season, is serving in that capacity for the softball team. She was voted into those leadership roles by her teammates, which was especially meaningful to her.
“It’s an honor to be looked at as a leader and a mentor,” Dzivasen said. “I love helping out the girls as much as I can, and I love being the person that they come to if they need advice or anything.”
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Dzivasen, a T&G Division 4 all-star in softball as a junior and in basketball as a senior, committed to attend Franklin Pierce University in September of 2023.
She had the opportunity to play field hockey and softball for the Ravens, but elected to solely focus on the latter sport at the Division 2 collegiate level.
“I’m going into health sciences and want to become a physician’s assistant,” said Dzivasen, who has been accepted into that six-year program, “so I think my major is really heavy and two sports would be a lot.”
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Getting to know Bailey
Here are a few lighthearted and insightful thoughts from Bailey Dzivasen as she waits to step into the batter’s box:
Favorite food: Chipotle burrito bowl
Favorite ice cream: Chocolate chip cookie dough
Favorite restaurant: Chipotle
Favorite musicians: Megan Moroney and Morgan Wallen
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite sports team: “Boston Celtics. I love watching the Celtics.”
Favorite subject: Science
Favorite TV show: “I just watched the Red Sox documentary (on Netflix). I really liked that.”
Sports superstition: “I like to drink a strawberry Red Bull from the local coffee shop (Jumbo Donuts) before every game. It helps me play well.”
Most memorable moment: “Honestly, just celebrating the finals in field hockey (state) and basketball (Clark), that last game. Celebrating with my girls for all the hard work we put in throughout the season. That’s definitely memorable.”
Invite any three people to dinner: “I’d invite Jarren Duran because I just watched the Red Sox documentary and he seems like he could give me good advice for when I’m down on myself in softball. I would invite Megan Moroney because she’s my biggest idol and I look up to her and I love her music. And I would invite my grandfather (Donald Gaskell) because he made me who I am as an athlete today and I’m very thankful for him.”
—If you know a student-athlete who should be considered for a Scholastic Spotlight profile, contact Rich Garven at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: No matter the sport, Uxbridge's Dzivasen has Spartans on winning track
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