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Kayla Norsworthy a champion for female collectors in hobby
Kayla Norsworthy is young but don't let her age fool you. She's grown up a sports fan and it led her to sports card collecting.
In 2013 Kayla started to attend Tampa Bay Rays games, which was her local team at that time. She noticed people getting their cards signed by the players. Soon she was seeking out baseball cards.
She pulled a Manny Machado rookie, her favorite non-Rays player, out of her first couple of packs. She knew she was in this hobby for the long haul.
The cards allowed her to meet some of her favorite players, including Willy Adames. Five years later her family moved to northern Virginia and she started attending Frederick Keys minor leagues games in Maryland.
She was drawn to Austin Hays since her mother's maiden name (Hayes) is similar. He was a pivotal Keys player at the time and wound up giving her a cracked bat, and Kayla's Austin Hays collection was underway. She completed a Hays Spectra rainbow but one of her biggest thrills was getting to interview him as part of her high school journalism project.
Speaking of journalism, it's a career she is interested in pursuing. She'd love to become a sports analyst like her idol, Erin Andrews, and her dream is to cover the Olympics. When I asked her where she got her journalism chops at such a young age she pointed to her father, who she said is an excellent debater and public speaker.
Her card passions include Adames, Hays, Rays players and female athletes, especially soccer players. She enjoys going to card shows to add to her growing collection.
In 2021 she was the winner of a giveaway by Jimmy Mahan’s Kentucky Road Show Shop and Tyler Santiago of Santiago Sports, which was an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.
She points to her love of the hobby community and the ability to hold cards in her hand as her favorite things about attending shows. She appreciates seeing more females in the hobby as collectors, dealers, breakers and working on the corporate side of the hobby.
In terms of improvements she'd like to see, she said would like for dealers to be less condescending to female collectors. (Full disclosure, this is something I've seen unfortunately first hand from dealers I've been setup near.) She also would like to see more dealers carry cards of female athletes, and is encouraged that she is starting to see more of that.
She recently attended the Mint Collective in Las Vegas and enjoyed participating and interacting with the panel discussions. She would like to see the Mint's card show be more budget friendly for all types of collectors.
She is looking forward to attending this year's National in Chicago, meeting new and old friends and, of course, adding to her personal collection as well. She currently writes for Hobby News Daily and can be found on social media at @KaylaCollects.
— John Newman is a collector, dealer and the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast. Catch his Hobby Quick Hits on Monday and his guest interviews on Friday on your favorite podcast platform. You can reach him at sportscardnationpc@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ sportscardnati1
John Newman is the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast
