Former UCLA star Maya Brady was selected at No. 1 overall by the Oklahoma City Spark in this week’s Athletes Unlimited Softball League expansion draft.
That’s 18 spots higher than she was selected by the Talons in the second-year league’s inaugural draft in January — and 198 spots higher than her uncle was famously selected by the New England Patriots in the 2000 NFL draft.
Tom Brady went on to win seven Super Bowls (six with the Patriots, one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and three league MVP awards, holds several major NFL passing records and is considered by many as one of the greatest football players of all time.
Maya Brady has a long way to go before reaching the same status in softball, but she has steadily been making a name for herself for a long time. Her mother, Maureen Brady (Tom’s oldest sister), was 111-10 as a pitcher at San Mateo Hillsdale High from 1988-91 and went on to become an All-American at Fresno State.
Having played softball since age 4, Maya Brady joined the prestigious Orange County Batbusters club program when she was 10. She became a star shortstop at Oaks Christian High, where she was a two-time Marmonte League MVP and helped the Lions win three league titles.
Brady, who had committed to UCLA as a high school freshman, started her Bruins career in 2020 and led the defending national champions with seven home runs that spring before the remainder of the season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Brady hit her first home run of the following season, her NFL legend uncle declared on social media that his softball star niece is “the most dominant athlete in the Brady family…by far!”
Brady led the Pac-12 with a .456 batting average in 2023 and was named the conference’s player of the year that season and in 2024. After four-plus seasons with the Bruins, the shortstop/outfielder ranks second in team history in home runs (71), RBIs (246), total bases (550) and slugging percentage (.757). She’s also fourth all-time in runs scored (229) and 10th in batting average (.384).
In January, Brady was a fifth-round pick (19th overall) for the Talons, one of four teams in the AUSL’s inaugural season. The Talons’ general manager is Olympic medalist Lisa Fernandez, who has been a member of the UCLA coaching staff since 2017.
Hampered by a hamstring injury for much of the season, Brady made the most of her 22 at-bats with the Talons, hitting .500 and reaching base in her first 10 plate appearances (seven hits, three walks). She also plays for the Toyota Red Terriers of the Japan Diamond Softball League.
The Oklahoma City Spark started in 2023 as part of the Women’s Professional Fastpitch league and will join the AUSL as one of two expansion teams in 2026. While the team’s front office and staff remain in place, its roster is starts from scratch beginning with Monday’s expansion draft.
The four original AUSL teams were able to protect five players from their roster at the start of the draft. Brady will reunite with general manager Kirk Walker, who was also a member of the Bruins coaching staff during Brady’s college days.
In May, Major League Baseball announced “a strategic investment” in the AUSL. Kim Ng, the softball league’s commissioner, was previously senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB and the first female general manager of a major American men’s professional sports team (Miami Marlins). She was assistant GM for the Dodgers from 2002-11.
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