Disability Non-Existent on Baseball Field as Girl, 14, Chooses to Play Baseball on Boys Team

Nadezhda Aries is a 14-year-old girl who attends seventh grade at Woodland Hills Academy. She loves playing sports such as volleyball, soccer, flag football, and basketball. While she has played softball with girls in the past, this season she wanted to do something different.

"I wanted drama and action. I wanted to play with the boys," Nadezhda says with a smile, "I wanted to try it out. This was my choice."

With her choice, she joins only a handful of girls who play in the Knapp Ranch Baseball League in West Hills on teams occupied primarily by boys.

Watching Nadezhda play baseball is a treat. In the game this day, she steps up to the plate holding the bat in a strong stance and glares at the pitcher. She hits the baseball hard making the players scramble for the ball. She runs firmly through first base, just missing a tag by the first baseman. To increase the drama, she steals second base with a slide and slides again into third base. And, she does it all with only one arm.

"I've played second base and outfield this season, but I want to play all positions at least once, that's my dream," Nadezhda explains, "Winning is the best, but playing sports is fun."

In the field, Nadezhda fights a tough game, stopping balls using her entire body, while dropping her glove from her hand, picking up the ball with the same hand and throwing it hard to get a player out. She executes this move so quickly, often faster than players with two hands, that you quickly forget she has a disability.

"I want to get a stopwatch and time how quickly she turns the ball around and throws it," her father, Robert Aries, notes, "because she's fast."

In fact, Nadezhda plays the game of baseball like everyone else her age, with some modifications that emphasize her strengths.

"She participates in everything the boys do, there's no special treatment. She bats, hits, fields and attends practice like anyone else," Rockies Coach David Senensieb explains, "She's been a terrific player to coach. We requested to have her on our team because we wanted to make sure she had a great experience."

Rockies Coach Mike Moody agrees wholeheartedly, "She's embraced the game and her dad is very supportive. He's at every practice and every game," Moody says, citing the importance of parental support, "and she made the commitment to play in a hardball league. She's not intimidated at all. She's had different positions and she makes the plays. Watching her removes excuses from any other players for not making an effort. She's a good example for the rest of the team."

Nadezhda's story is amazing and one her father understands on another level.

Robert Aries is a wheelchair user. Born in Holland during the war, he was diagnosed at the age of six with Bovine Tuberculosis, also known as Potts Disease, which may be caused by drinking unpasteurized milk. He and his family immigrated to California in 1957.

"It's important for society not to focus on the disability but on the ability," Robert says, "it's also very important for people with disabilities to have exposure so they're included. The more society sees handicapped people, the more acceptance."

Robert and his wife, Allison, have a biological son named Logan. But, they decided to adopt another child.

"As we quickly learned, because of my own handicap, we were limited to adopting a handicapped child in the state of California. We didn't want to go with a mental disability or drug problem, so that left a physically handicapped child. An adoption agency in Stockton published a picture of a little girl in Belarus who was about six months old and born without her right arm. We decided to pursue the adoption and traveled to Belarus," Robert remembers, "When we met her she was one year old and staying in an orphanage. She seemed a very serious child but when she smiled she lit up the place. It was love at first sight. We decided to adopt her and they told us it would be six months to complete the adoption. Instead, it took three and a half years."

The adoption process in Belarus had become unsettled due to a rumor that children were being adopted for an organ bank. The Aries family gained advocates along the way including a missionary, a Belarus law professor, and employees at the orphanage.

"At age three, instead of moving Nadezhda to another orphanage for older children, they kept her at the same orphanage and gave her responsibilities to help the younger children. They knew we wanted to adopt her and they didn't want to stall the system by moving her," Robert explains, "and they helped us. We had to re-file the paperwork every year and start the process over, but the adoption was at last finalized when she was four and a half years old."

Nadezhda adjusted quickly to the United States. She spoke Russian, but quickly learned English in preschool. She was always active, first playing AYSO soccer for three seasons, which grew into her love of other sports.

"She really likes to run and she participates in every challenge in Physical Education classes at school. She even does one-handed push-ups," Robert says with a smile, clearly proud of his daughter. "If you decide you can do it, you can do it. You may have to make adjustments, but keep it real."

Nadezhda has also taken an interest in performing on stage and screen. At the family's church, Woodland Hills United Church of Christ, she has performed in "The Music Man," "Seussical," "Oliver!" and "Carousel." Her upcoming performance will be in the show "Anything Goes."

"My favorite movie is 'Sweeney Todd,'" Nadezhda says with a huge grin on her face, "I love it because Johnny Depp can really sing! Also, I love Tim Burton's creative ideas. I like making little music videos on YouTube for my company, Iseeproductions."

Nadezhda's latest athletic adventure is table tennis.

"She's a quick study and has an excellent attack. She takes the time to practice. She has a gorgeous passing shot that goes right past me. And, yes, she can beat me at table tennis," Robert adds with a laugh.

"Whatever she wants to try is fine by us. The best lesson you can demonstrate is to live by example. This is not something you can do by words. I try to live life as fairly as I can. My focus is more on the social aspect of playing on a team. Sports are fine, but learning how to be more social is an important part of life. As parents, we're experimenters. She said she wanted to play and I think it's very gutsy to play on a boys team. She was a softball pitcher on her school team and received the Athlete of the Year Award," Robert says, "Interestingly, obstructions for kids with disabilities are often created by adults, not by kids. If it were up to the kids, everyone would play."

For more information on Knapp Ranch Baseball link to www.KnappRanchBaseball.com.

Pictured: Baseball player Nadezhda Aries.