‘Girl in the cowboy hat’: The inspirational story behind Shocker softball hype woman

The girl in the cowboy hat.

It’s a moniker often heard the past four years during Wichita State softball games, as Madyson Espinosa has captured the hearts of Shocker fans with her one-of-a-kind showmanship.

Universally considered the “hype woman” of the team, Espinosa has entertained the masses with her spontaneous dance moves, her rally ukulele and her endless energy in the dugout — all while wearing a signature cowboy hat customized with a Flying W logo.

“People come to the game just to watch Mady’s energy,” Shocker softball legend Sydney McKinney said. “Little girls in the stands look up to her. Some people will wear cowboy hats just because of her. Mady’s impact goes beyond just the team.”

Players like McKinney, Addison Barnard, Cacy Williams, Mackenzie Wright, Madison Perrigan and Neleigh Herring headline a golden generation of Shocker softball ushered in by head coach Kristi Bredbenner.

But the coach insists Espinosa, who registered exactly one career hit in the 240 games she suited up for WSU, be included when discussing the all-time greats in program history.

“I’ve been coaching for 21 years and I’ve never had a kid who shows up every day with the energy and the desire and the selfless attitude of Mady,” Bredbenner said. “That’s why her contributions rank up there with the Syd’s and the Addie’s and all of the best players we’ve had in this program because she took the part that nobody wanted to do and figured out how to make a difference in this program.”

Espinosa made her brand of relentless positivity seem so effortless, but her time in college presented the hardest adversity of her life.

To become the girl in the cowboy hat beloved by so many, Espinosa had to endure pain, suffer heartbreak, persevere against the odds and mold a mindset powerful enough to conquer doubt.

“Every day I say, ‘If I can make one person smile, that’s a win,’” Espinosa said. “You take a step back and realize it’s not all about you. It’s about being a difference in other people’s lives and being a part of something that’s bigger than you. That’s why I wouldn’t trade being part of Shocker nation for anything in the world.”

‘I was stronger than the doubt and I made it.’

Madyson Espinosa was not supposed to survive birth.

She was born four months premature, weighing two pounds. Doctors told her parents she might never develop, physically or mentally, the same as her peers, which could lead to health problems the rest of her life.

For as long as she can remember, Espinosa has been told what she can’t do. It’s why she has “Be stronger than the doubt” tattooed on her leg, a constant reminder of overcoming odds.

“Every day I wake up, whether it’s going to be a good or bad day, I always have gratitude for what I have in life,” Espinosa said. “Everyone is going to go through struggles, people are going to doubt you, but you can rise above. Your journey is your journey and nobody can tell you what my life is going to be like.”

Growing up in a family of six in St. Louis, Espinosa described her upbringing as turbulent at times. As a way to mentally escape adversity, she and her brother, Justin, enjoyed listening to inspirational videos on loop on YouTube.

Their favorite quote originated from a scene in Rocky: “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

“I’ve always tried to live by that because there’s going to be times where you’re tested and you think, ‘Oh my God, this is overwhelming,’” Espinosa said. “But you have to remember that the good is always going to outweigh the bad. You can always rise above. Even when you’re having a terrible day and maybe your home life has brought you down, it’s about finding that one positive in your day, one thing to keep you going. I’ve always tried to focus on that.”

She felt surrounded by negativity at times in an environment where Espinosa saw the effects of pessimism.

“I didn’t want to be like that,” Espinosa said. “I wanted to be different.”

At a young age, Espinosa opted down her own path.

Despite her outward persona during softball games, Espinosa admits her positivity can falter at times when adversity strikes and the struggles in life knock her down. But she works hard to ensure those moments are just blips and don’t turn into days and weeks.

She’s used to being told she can’t do something. And she savors the satisfaction of doing that very thing each and every time.

“You will face hardships and they will bring you down, but it’s only going to make you better by coming out the other side,” Espinosa said. “Despite all of the adversity, you can say, ‘I was stronger than the doubt and I made it.’

“I have been through many, many tough times, but you can always find a positive. It’s not always going to want you to find it, but if you find it and embrace it, then nothing can stop you. You’re always going to find a way.”

‘Then I’m going to be the best hype woman there ever was’

It would be a mistake to assume Espinosa never had aspirations of contributing on the field for the Shockers.

She was an accomplished high school player, an all-region catcher, but her size at 5-foot-1 made her Division I dream an unlikely one.

A fortuitous meeting at a 2017 showcase event in St. Louis with WSU head coach Kristi Bredbenner forever changed her life. Espinosa was diminutive but spunky, a combination that attracted Bredbenner, who has never been afraid to embrace flamboyant personalities and their value to team culture. The two hit it off on the official visit in Wichita and Espinosa committed to WSU on the spot.

Espinosa didn’t come to Wichita with the role of “hype woman” in mind, rather the role found her. The past four seasons have arguably been the best four-year stretch in program history with all-conference players all over the diamond since Espinosa’s arrival in 2020.

She had no problem sacrificing personal ambition for a way to help the team.

“Whatever I can do to help my team, I’m going to do it. If that means be a hype woman, then I’m going to be the best hype woman there ever was,” Espinosa said. “My coaches and teammates always tell me how significant my role is and how important it is, but I’ve never really seen it that way. I’m just doing what I know my teammates would do for me if I was the one out there playing.”

It’s hard to overstate the impact Espinosa has had on her teammates.

While fans wonder how WSU will replace the 93 career home runs hit by Addison Barnard in the lineup, WSU coaches are just as concerned about how they will replace what Espinosa did for their team culture.

Former Shocker star Neleigh Herring, who became a pro softball player following her WSU career from 2018-22, still considers Espinosa her favorite softball teammate ever.

“I’ve never met a player as selfless as Mady,” Herring said. “Softball is a hard enough game when you’re in the starting lineup and getting all of these opportunities, but I think she has an even tougher job. She doesn’t get the reps, she doesn’t get to play much, but you can always count on her to bring the fire and get the crowd pumped up and crack a smile in the dugout. She’s always thinking how she can help someone.”

All of the best hitters to have come through WSU rave about Espinosa’s energy and how it has positively impacted their mental state throughout their career.

“Mady is definitely one of a kind in the best way and unlike any teammate I’ve ever had,” said C.C. Wong, a first-year transfer to WSU this season and AAC Player of the Year. “Whenever we’re stressing or not having a good game, Mady is always there as a constant with her positivity, light and energy. She’s just one of the best people you’ll ever meet in your life. Any team would be lucky to have her and we were the luckiest to have her on our team.”

Espinosa earned a voice on the team, not by being the rah-rah player everyone sees in the dugout, but by investing time into building relationships with almost every player on the team.

She poured herself into others, was always there to listen to a problem, give sound advice and encourage players when they were stuck in a rut. That’s why Espinosa’s over-the-top positivity during games never rang hollow: it was always her authentic self.

“I don’t think a lot of people realize that we wouldn’t be where we are today as a program without Mady,” said Addison Barnard, the program’s all-time leader in five career categories. “It’s so easy to get down on yourself when you’re not playing the way you want, but when you go in the dugout and see her, she just has a way of putting you in good spirits and lighten the mood. I wish everybody could have a teammate like Mady on their team.”

Espinosa’s unique role in the program made for an experience that no amount of hits or RBIs could replicate.

“I wouldn’t change my career for anything in the world,” Espinosa said. “Everybody wants to be on that field and playing, but you have to be real with yourself. You’ve got to think about how you can leave your mark. Stats are nice, but 10 years from now, that’s not going to matter as much as the character that you had. People are going to remember the person that you were.”

‘They give me love with no condition’

Like many young adults, Madyson Espinosa set off for college in search of finding herself.

In a monumental moment in her life, she came out as a lesbian last year, which she said caused friction within her family back home.

“My parents consider themselves religious and that’s OK, but they didn’t accept me when I came out,” Espinosa said. “Obviously I still love my parents very much, but it was a very difficult thing for me because I have always yearned for their love and I didn’t quite have it.”

For years, Espinosa had poured her soul into empowering others when they needed help. In her time of need, when she felt broken, her WSU teammates were there in droves to build her back up.

“Mady is never really down and during that time, she was pretty down,” said WSU catcher Lainee Brown, who along with Bailey Urban has been roommates with Espinosa all five years in Wichita. “We knew we had to help her because she had always been there for us. She’s always been that super-positive force and we had to get her back to feeling like herself.”

During her struggle, teammates and coaches showered Espinosa with supportive calls, texts, hugs and love.

On her worst days, Espinosa always could find the positive with the encouragement from her team.

“Going through that was hard, you feel unloved, you feel worthless at times,” Espinosa said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without Shocker softball. They have saved me in so many ways that they will never know. I try to express it to them, but I don’t think they’ll ever quite grasp how significant they have been in my journey. They never gave up on me during that process, they just gave me love and support. That’s something I had searched for my entire life. And they gave me that.”

In a retrospective moment, Espinosa added that’s probably why she gravitated towards the hype woman role on the team.

“I didn’t receive the love from my family that I maybe wanted, but with the fans and my team, they give me love with no condition and it’s one of the most amazing feelings,” Espinosa said. “That’s what I love about hyping people up is that the energy I’m giving, I’m getting it right back. I feel so loved by my teammates and by Shocker nation, I just want to give them all of the energy that I have because they have given me so much love and compassion. Everybody is saying, ‘Shocker nation won’t be the same without you,’ but I don’t think I’ll be the same without Shocker nation. What they’ve given me has been a magical and a once-in-a-lifetime experience and something I can never repay.”

During Espinosa’s time on the team, WSU head coach Kristi Bredbenner has guided the Shockers to unprecedented success: three straight NCAA bids, a pair of regular-season American Athletic Conference championships and a conference tournament title.

The trophies and records earn the program acclaim, but it’s journeys like the one of Espinosa that gives her the most fulfillment in coaching.

“The wins are awesome and a big reason why we get paid as well as we do, but this is what coaches live for,” Bredbenner said. “It’s about letting these kids figure out who they are and letting them be themselves, whoever that is. In my program, as long as you’re a good person and somebody our team can count on and you’re going to work hard in the classroom, you can be your own unique self and I think that’s been a big part of our success as a program.”

A common farewell from Bredbenner to the recent senior classes has been an ode to them leaving the program better than they found it.

The way Espinosa sees it, the opposite is also true: Shocker softball has made her a better person than when she first arrived.

And for that, the girl in the cowboy hat will be forever grateful for what has been a transformational journey.

“I don’t think anybody who leaves this program can look back on their journey and say they haven’t found themselves in some way, shape or form,” Espinosa said. “Shocker softball helped me find who I really am and going into the adulting world is scary, but I think finding myself along this journey has set me up for success in the future. To be able to leave Shocker softball and know who I am and be confident in myself, that’s the greatest feeling ever and there’s nothing that can compare to this.”