A lone figure walks about the grass beyond the outfield fence at Point Loma High School home softball games. He paces, casting his eyes toward the diamond, too nervous to be close to the action.
It’s former San Diego Gulls winger and center B.J. MacPherson, whose daughters, Avery and Leyton MacPherson, led the Pointers to the school’s first section and Southern California Regional championships last season. It was the Pointers’ 52nd softball campaign.
“It’s harder for me watching my daughters play softball than it was for me to play hockey, and the reason is you just have no control,” B.J. MacPherson said. “It just kills me that way.”
Fortunately for Point Loma, Avery, a catcher, and Leyton, a first baseman, handle the stress just fine.
Avery, now a senior, hit .382 last season, led the team with 39 hits and knocked in 22 runs. Leyton, now a junior, batted .357 last season and led the Pointers with 32 RBIs.
Leyton earned first-team All-CIF honors. Avery was selected to the All-CIF second team.
As co-captains, they’re off to even better starts this season for the No. 6-ranked Pointers (7-4).
Point Loma High School’s Avery MacPherson (10) during last year’s CIF San Diego Division 2 softball championship game between Point Loma and West Hills High School. (Xavier Hernandez for the UT)
Leyton MacPherson leads the team with a .469 batting average. Nine of her 15 hits have been doubles. Avery MacPherson is batting .412.
To be certain, Point Loma was deep in talent last season and was hardly a sister-sister act.
The same goes for 2026.
Sophomore Ella Poulin is 2-2 and has slugged five home runs. Freshman left-hander Remington Spangler has struck out 39 in 23 1/3 innings and freshman outfielder Kendall Vickers is hitting .464.
But no one denies that the MacPhersons are the Pointers’ heart and soul.
“In my opinion,” said Bill Hunyady, in his eighth season as Point Loma’s coach, “as a captain, you have to have ability on the field. You could be the greatest leader in the world, but if you can’t play, kids are not going to listen to you. They can obviously play.
“And they lead through example. They’re the first to run sprints. When the focus isn’t where it should be, without me or other coaches having to say anything, these girls rein the other girls back in. And they will go to the aid of a kid who is struggling and encourage them. They’ll say, ‘You got this. Keep fighting. You’ll be OK.’”
Said Poulin: “They’re firm with what they say. Everyone knows to listen to them.”
But they’re not bossy.
“They’re just really chill to be around,” said Poulin.
During a 75-minute conversation at the MacPhersons’ Point Loma home, the sisters were alternately nagging at each other and playful. It was readily apparent that they respect and love each other.
Avery has signed a scholarship offer from Towson University in Maryland, 21 miles north of Baltimore. Leyton has committed to UC Santa Barbara.
Asked what it will be like next summer when Avery leaves for college, Leyton, sprawled on the family couch with a blanket across her, said: “Like a big light in my life’s not there anymore. She’s very funny. She’s comedic relief in our household.
“We do everything together. Sometimes I’ll be in the car with her and think, ‘I’ll be driving here by myself next year.’ I’ll probably be lonely. Probably bored, too.”
Leyton paused for a moment, then added: “But I am going to take her room. My room’s the size of a closet.”
Incredulous, Avery said: “It’s not like I’m never coming back. It’s not like I’m dead. You go use my bedroom. Just don’t change (stuff) in my room.”
As for being away from Leyton, Avery said, “It’s going to be crazy not to just walk two feet into her room and see her. She keeps me in line, which is probably an older sister trait. She tells me how it is. She’s like my therapist. She’s an old soul.”
While Leyton MacPherson is three inches taller at 5-foot-10, they wear the same clothes. As to who wears what, Leyton said, “I think it’s a footrace, who grabs the laundry first. It goes in their dresser.”
“Or,” added Leyton, “who hides it first.”
B.J. MacPherson said the sisters are more different than similar. Leyton throws and bats left-handed. Avery is right-handed all the way. Leyton’s more of a morning person, Avery the night owl.
But, “they’re the same in their feistiness,” their dad said. “Neither one backs down. When push comes to shove, they’re there for each other.”
They bat third and fourth in the Pointers’ order, Avery, then Leyton.
Point Loma’s public-address announcer routinely introduces Avery by saying, “Number 10, Avery MacPherson.”
One time, he followed up by introducing Leyton as “Number 21, Avery’s sister.”
B.J. MacPherson, who was born in Toronto, played five seasons (1996-97 to 2000-01) and 361 games for the Gulls, scoring 156 goals and handing out 237 assists. His career ended nearly 25 years ago, when he suffered a life-threatening injury in a road playoff game against the Idaho Steelheads.
B.J. MacPherson attended a Gulls playoff game with his future wife, Angela, and his mother six days after he suffered a career-ending injury in a May 2001 incident in Idaho. (Union-Tribune file photo)
MacPherson slipped to the ice and was on his back. As he sat up, Idaho’s Adam Borzecki drove both knees into MacPherson’s head, then punched him in the face. MacPherson suffered a dislocated neck and ruptured vertebrae. He was partially paralyzed for a while. His heart stopped beating on the ice, necessitating a tracheotomy.
That night, doctors told MacPherson, then 27 years old, that he would never walk again, never play hockey, never drive, never have children.
They were only right about the hockey part.
He was walking within 27 days. Nearly 25 years later, he does suffer side effects. Some of his reflexes, he said, aren’t natural. He falls easily and sometimes stubs his toes.
At one time, MacPherson was bitter.
“It was a gutless play,” he said eight years after the play.
Now, he has moved on.
“It’s just so far and long, I can’t stay mad at anything for that long,” said MacPherson, who has worked as a Gulls color announcer for 10 years. “But I never forget Adam Borzecki’s name, that’s for sure.”
Hunyady says the sisters reflect their father’s toughness. More than once, a foul tip has glanced off Avery’s hand or legs. She might wince in pain, Hunyady will step out of the dugout, but the catcher’s reaction is the same.
“She waves me off,” said Hunyady.
The sisters say the toughness comes from both parents, including their mother, Angela, who owns a hairdressing business.
“Our mom and dad’s parenting style definitely is not coddling,” said Avery. “He has never been one to baby us.”
Said Leyton: “They taught us to be punctual and work hard.”
Point Loma added bleachers and two picnic tables down the left-field line this year. As an ode to B.J., it has been dubbed the “Penalty Box.”
As to who’s better, younger sister Leyton or the older Avery, the girls laugh at the question.
Avery says she wasn’t jealous that Leyton earned first-team All-CIF honors to her second-team recognition last year.
“Not in the slightest,” said Avery. “She played better than me.”
As an airplane roared overhead after taking off from Lindbergh Field, Leyton said, “I’d say Avery’s better than me right now.”
Then she pressed her hands together as if in prayer, moved them to her right cheek, tilted her head as if to fall asleep and said: “I don’t think to myself at night, ‘Oh, I’m better than her.’”