Former CU Softball Star Shines for Israel

For Ivy League softball fans, the name Maiya Chard-Yaron is a familiar one. A graduate of Columbia College (’06), Chard-Yaron made her impression as a starting pitcher and center fielder for the Columbia Lions softball team as a four-year starter. During her time with the Lions, Chard-Yaron made a huge impact, ranking among the career leaders in runs scored, hits, total bases, triples, and innings pitched. With all of her accomplishments at Columbia, the one that will be most remembered came on April 2, 2006, when she tossed a no-hitter against Fairfield—the only one of its kind in the history of Columbia’s softball program and the second she threw that year (the first came with the Israeli national team).

Her reputation as a softball player extends past national boundaries as she has made her impression on the world softball scene, competing in the Maccabiah Games and European championships. The daughter of Israeli parents, Chard-Yaron was able to synthesize two of her greatest passions—softball and Israel (a country dominated by sports like soccer, basketball, and windsurfing)—as she joined the Israeli national softball team. Chard-Yaron recalls that when she was in high school she was contacted by Andy Baron, the director of the Israel Softball Association, who told her “that they were working toward starting a team that could play internationally,” and because of her dual citizenship, she was eligible to play on that team.

Over this past winter break, Chard-Yaron again joined the squad as they traveled to Argentina for the Pan American Maccabiah Games, which occur every four years, in preparation for the Maccabiah Games in Israel, where she made her first appearance on the world scene in the summer of 2005. “It was a new experience,” Chard-Yaron said about playing for Israel. “It was one of those things that you do once and feel that you cannot be without.”

But she points out an important difference between Columbia’s softball team and Israel’s. “The background of the women on the Columbia team was that they have been playing all their lives, and in Israel, although some of the women may have started playing baseball when they were younger, for the most part people started playing much later in life.”

Despite playing together as a team for the first time at the tournament, the Israeli softball team had an impressive turnout, taking home the bronze medal. The team’s tournament was highlighted by its round-robin defeat of the United States by a score of 6-1. This proved to be the only loss for the American team on its way to the gold medal. Israel was eliminated in a nail-biter against Argentina in the semifinals by a score of 2-1.

Chard-Yaron’s play on the Israeli team has really helped it to develop a national program that is just starting to catch on. The athletes’ success thus far in world play will hopefully propel them to greater heights in the future. Chard-Yaron says of the progress of this program that they are “going into schools and youth groups to build the sport at a younger age.”

Currently a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Maiya Chard-Yaron can still be found in Morningside Heights. During the spring, a softball fan can often find a game in Riverside Park on Saturday afternoons, and if you look into center field, you are bound to find her enjoying the game she loves most.