Mc CLENEY Haylie

General
WEDDING PLANS ON HOLD
She had to delay her wedding to partner Kylee Hanson as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She met Hanson when both were age 17 and playing softball. She said that coming out while hailing from a small town in Alabama was not easy. "I feel very, very lucky to have had a conservative upbringing and still be fully loved and accepted. To be a leader and an advocate you have to push people's buttons on certain things and certain issues. You have to be vocal about what you believe because you won't help anyone being on the fence or hiding. It was a process for me, but I'm at the point now where my life is my life, I'm with the love of my life, I'm living my best life every day with her by my side and love it or hate it, I don't care because I'm over-the-moon happy." (msn.com, 07 Jul 2020)

FAMILY, UNIVERSITY INFLUENCE
She credits the family environment she grew up in and her time at University of Alabama for making her an Olympian. "Everything is a competition at our house. The way we grew up gave me a step up toward reaching the level I have in my sport. My brothers and father pushed me to get better every day. Growing up this way I was truly blessed, I would not be an Olympian or had the career I've had without it. The competition has made me who I am, both as a person and an athlete. I got better at softball at [University of] Alabama, but I became a better human being. My character developed at Alabama and that was a key to me making the Olympic team. I don't think I'd be on the Olympic roster if not for the University of Alabama and what it did for my maturing process. Every single year I played at Alabama, I improved physically and mentally, but the biggest thing that stood out to me about my collegiate experience was learning how to be a better human being, how to be a better teammate, and that's one of the key leadership factors that ended up getting me on this [Olympic] roster." (si.com, 17 Mar 2021; wbrc.com, 08 Apr 2021; rollbamaroll.com, 15 Mar 2021)

THIS IS US
In June 2020 she was among the full squad of 18 Houston Scrap Yard Dawgs players who quit the team following its first National Pro Fastpitch [NPF] match after the league's comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire squad quit the team after a tweet on the Dawgs' official Twitter account was sent by their general manager to US President Donald Trump about players standing for the national anthem. The players formed a new NPF team, called 'This Is Us', with the goal of raising awareness about racial injustice. "[I am] taking the time to ask and listen and try to truly understand, trying to really get a sense of what the history of systemic oppression is in this country and how maybe I can change that one conversation at a time. I think more at that time than any other time in my life I realised that doing the right thing is not easy. It was not easy for everyone to come together and play softball again. It was not easy for all of us to get on the same page with what we want to do. It was not easy for all of us to walk out on our professional organisation. It wasn't easy to give up really secure money. There were just so many different things that were hard, but looking back on it, so incredibly worth it." (thisisussoftball.com, 01 Oct 2020; yahoo.com, 14 Jun 2020; nytimes.com, 24 Jun 2020; espn.com, 23 Jun 2020; apnews.com, 23 Jun 2020; espn.co.uk, 28 Aug 2020)

ATHLETES UNLIMITED
She was part of the first Athletes Unlimited league season, which presented an alternative softball format. "It's not like every man for themselves, like how I initially thought about it at first. It's 56 women getting together to push the sport forward. And we're all on the same team. You just happen to compete against each other each week." (espn.co.uk, 28 Aug 2020)

OCCUPATION
She has worked as a strength and conditioning intern at the University of Alabama and in 2019 was working as a graduate teaching as