Athletes of the Week: Aragon’s Megan Grant and Olivia DiNardo

Senior Night had a special air about it as it marked a return of the traditional Big Game rivalry matchup between Aragon and Hillsdale to Chanteloup Field, where because of the pandemic the game has not been played since 2019, when DiNardo and Grant were freshmen.

“I was actually driving up, and I was looking at the balloons, and I was like: ‘Wow! The last time I was here was freshman year,’” DiNardo said. “Then COVID hit, and I haven’t been here. So, I got to warmups late and [head coach Liz Roscoe] was like: ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I was like: ‘It’s senior night, I’m getting emotional.’”

Yes, San Mateo County softball world, DiNardo and Grant are human. Very much so. They looked forward to attending prom, just as most every high school student does. The only difference is, the softball royalty attended Aragon’s senior prom with their bats in tow.

But from coaches, to teammates, to opponents alike, it is common to hear people marvel at how two such otherworldly talents are so down to earth. They are. And perhaps more than anything else, the thing that has allowed them to preserve that sense of normalcy has been each other.

“I literally have watched [DiNardo] play my whole life,” Grant said. “It’s not surprising to me but I just know she is such a special player. It’s an honor to always just be beside her and to be so close to her too.”

Teammates at Aragon for four years, and with their West Bay Warriors travel team for even longer, next season will mark the beginning of a new chapter in each of respective softball careers. Grant is set to attend UCLA, where the left-handed hitting shortstop committed to play softball before she arrived at Aragon. DiNardo will play in the ranks of the Pac-12 Conference as well at University of Arizona.

Of course, the two can’t afford to get too caught up in their bright futures. There’s still work to be done. Aragon clinched the PAL bay Division title last Tuesday with a 10-0 win over Woodside. The Dons are now bound for the Central Coast Section playoffs, where there’s a good chance, when the brackets are announced later this week, they will find themselves in the eight-team cut to play in the elite Open Division tournament.

“I’m trying to stay in the moment,” DiNardo said. “I often find myself in the present thinking: ‘Oh, Arizona; oh, senior year is ending,’ all this type of stuff. I think softball keeps me humble, like when I’m not playing well, and it’s like: ‘OK, it’s a game. It’s just one day at a time.’”

“Not playing well” is a relative idea. For DiNardo, even when she’s not perfectly dialed in, the hits come naturally. A natural catcher who has played mostly corner infield at Aragon for the past two seasons, DiNardo has enjoyed a prolific senior season, batting .586 with a PAL-leading nine home runs. She has played in 20 games, hitting safely in 19 of them.

And she’s finishing her days with the Dons in style. In three games last week, she was 5 for 13 with three home runs, hitting two homers last Thursday in an 18-14 win over Carlmont, and another the next night at Chanteloup in a 4-3 win over Hillsdale.

Grant, meanwhile, is batting .622. And while she hasn’t homered since May 3 — she still boasts six longballs on the year — she has seven RBIs over those four homerless games.

The numbers are similar. So is the talent. And personality-wise, the hyper-focused Grant and the laid-back DiNardo are somehow a perfect complement to one another.

“If you get to know me and Liv closely, you know our personalities are different,” Grant said. “She speaks honestly to your face. … She’s just strong, straight to the point, and that’s a good characteristic to have. I think I’m more like the laid-back, just chill. But I think our personalities are great together.”

DiNardo’s reverence for Grant — who she calls her “No. 1 hype man” — is mutual.

“God love Megan,” DiNardo said. “She’s the most focused, determined person on the face of the planet. And I try to strive to be like her because, man, I’m not focused all the time. I’m just living my life. I can’t turn it on like that.”

Yet the wunderkind talents have flipped the switch time and again, putting Aragon softball into the upper echelon of CCS teams.

They will leave some big shoes to fill. Impossible probably. But the way they’ve walked in those shoes has left a mark on a youthful Dons program, one that has just three seniors on roster this year — DiNardo, Grant and Lauryn Horita.

“Olivia and Megan, they bring a sense of excellence to this field and these other girls have got to live up to that,” Roscoe said. “When I started and coached this year, I had to find coaches that coached softball. I couldn’t just get coaches to help me — they had to be coaches — because these girls command respect. You’ve got to know what you’re doing.”

But don’t worry, young Dons. Aragon will always be home to the greatest one-two punch in school history.

“The season is winding down but I’m never leaving this place,” DiNardo said. “This is my home. … This is where I’m from and I love it here. … So, yeah, senior year is ending. But is it ending? I’m going to be back. I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry.”