SuburbanOneSports.com recognizes a male and female featured athlete each week. The awards, sponsored by Univest, are given to seniors of good character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete for week of June 2, 2022.
Sydney Steiner is undeniably passionate about softball. “Softball has always been something – I’m the most confident when I’m playing,” the Abington senior said. “It has always been my main source of happiness.” If she needed a reminder just how much she loved the sport, Steiner got just that when she tore the ACL in her left knee the winter of her sophomore year. Then on the first day she was finally cleared to return to the diamond just over a year later, she tore the ACL in her right knee. “I felt like the unluckiest person in the entire world,” Steiner said.
This past spring, Steiner was back on the softball diamond with her high school team for the first time since she was a freshman, and she excelled. A senior captain, she anchored the infield at third base and led the Ghosts in runs batted in. “Her dedication to getting healthy was inspiring to her teammates,” Abington coach Bob Baginski said. “She is admired as one of our leaders of the team. She led our team in RBIs, defensively she was phenomenal, and she’s a big reason we made the (district) playoffs for the first time since 2015.” This fall she will attend Marywood University where she will continue her softball career. It’s a happy ending, but Steiner’s journey has been anything but smooth. Although it certainly had a promising start freshman year when she not only played varsity softball but also shared the libero position for the varsity volleyball squad.
Then – in February of 2020 – Steiner went down at an indoor practice for softball. “I just completely pivoted the wrong way, and we were on turf, so it was a lot worse,” she said. “I felt like my entire leg popped open – that’s how loud the sound was. I immediately knew something was very wrong, but I was kind of oblivious because I haven’t had major injuries before.” An appointment with an orthopedic doctor and ensuing MRI revealed her ACL was indeed torn. And if a torn ACL wasn’t enough, COVID came along a month later. “Normally, you would have the surgery a couple of weeks after you tear something, but because of COVID, they shut down,” Steiner said. “I got hurt in February but had my surgery in late May.”
It was 10 ½ months before she was at long last cleared to play - just in time for tryouts her junior year. “I was so excited,” Steiner said. “I was going to a lot of workouts beforehand, just watching everyone play and just getting excited to play again. Then at my very first practice I tore my other ACL. I don’t even remember if it was painful or not because I was just so angry.” This time Steiner was running to field a bunt. “I knew immediately – the sound was the same, and as soon as I started walking on it, I was like, ‘This feels exactly the same,’” she said. “I remember crying, but it wasn’t because I was in pain or anything. It was because I was so frustrated.”
Steiner had surgery on May 5, almost a year to the day of her preceding ACL surgery. “I remember the second time my mom and dad sitting me down and saying, ‘If you don’t want to do this again, we totally understand.’ I was like ‘Absolutely not, I’m doing it again. I don’t care.” Within 10 ½ to 11 months, Steiner was once again cleared to play. “My first practice back was sometime in April,” Steiner said. “I was definitely excited, but I also was very scared. I felt like I was going to break in half no matter what I did, and I was just being so cautious, which was also scary because I was like, ‘Am I never going to be the same player I was because I’m just going to be scared all the time.’” Steiner refused to give in to her fears, and she went on to have an outstanding season, and the season – with the program’s first trip to districts in seven years – was both historic and enjoyable. For Steiner, every game, every practice took on renewed significance, and just being on the diamond is a win for the senior captain. “I thought I missed the prime of what my softball years would have been, but this was the best season I’ve had in my entire life, and that’s so exciting,” she said. “Even every practice – I’ll be there and if someone complains about being there, it’s so funny to me because I would not rather be anywhere else on the entire planet than on a softball field.”
An excellent student, Steiner – who is taking two AP classes – will major in criminal justice. This summer, Steiner will be playing her final season of travel softball before she moves on to the collegiate level. “Marywood is lucky to have her,” Baginski said. “She’s everything you’d want as a coach. She asks great questions, she’s a good leader, and on top of that, she’s a phenomenal softball player.”
To read Steiner’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/sydney-steiner-00101170
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of June 2, 2022.
Nick Smith had never once played competitive volleyball when he enrolled at Pennridge High School, and judging by what he saw through a window during an open gym his freshman year, he didn’t want to. Four years later, Smith has played in every match this season for a Pennridge team that played in its ninth District 1 final in the past 13 years. Not only that, but the Rams advanced to the Elite Eight in the PIAA Class 3A Tournament.
So, just how did Smith go from wanting nothing to do with volleyball to becoming one of Pennridge’s most consistent and important players? “I was into basketball and baseball, so that was my plan heading into high school,” Smith recounted. “I played basketball freshman year, but I wasn’t connecting with it, and I was unsure about baseball too. A senior on the volleyball team who I knew through a basketball connection recommended volleyball to me. I wasn’t sure and kept going back and forth, and finally my mom told me to just go check it out. So one night they had an open gym, and I didn’t even go in, I just watched from the window outside. And I just said to myself, ‘I can’t do this right now.’ But then that senior saw me in school the next day, and he encouraged me to come to the next one. I tried it, and it just felt right. That group of kids was a great, great fit for me.” According to Pennridge head coach Dave Childs, Smith has not missed an open gym or program event in the four years since, unequivocally throwing every bit of himself into a sport he wanted nothing to do with at first glance.
Smith didn’t want to try out for the team alone, so he convinced some friends to join him, and the group played jayvee together as freshmen. Smith started out as a setter that first season, and because setters touch the ball constantly and need to know where everybody is on the court, his learning curve accelerated. Following his freshman season, Smith began the transition from setter to middle hitter, a more aggressive offensive position that had him hunting kills and blocks in front of the net. Smith recalled the beginning of his sophomore campaign, which still saw him neck deep in trying to figure out how to be successful at his new position. Pennridge was able to sneak some scrimmages in that spring, but then word came down the line that the season would first be paused before eventually shutting down entirely, throwing a grenade directly into the path of Smith’s volleyball development. He did the best he could with what he had at his disposal. A year of inactivity was difficult on all spring athletes, but it felt especially cruel for Smith, who was making so much progress toward becoming a difference maker on the court. “Nick lost so much time developing as a hitter,” Childs said. “Once we were finally able to get back to it the following year, there was a ton of catching up to do in terms of teaching and learning. By that time, he’s already a junior, so there’s only so much time for him to turn into a varsity-caliber player.”
Smith didn’t play a ton as a junior, but he still got to see the court for a team that went 18-3 overall and won the district title. “Nick was slow to start, but he really picked it up,” Childs said. “He’s super efficient offensively. Nothing he does is flashy, but he’s very consistent: not a lot of errors, a lot of kills, smart hitter — just a big, persistent presence at the net. While he played a little for us last year, this year he has been in our lineup since day one. Teams need players like Nick to win championships, and the difference a lot of times between teams that get there and ones who don’t is because of players like Nick. He gets his job done, and that is super important.”
This fall Smith will be bound for Penn State, where he plans to study biomedical engineering. The field was appealing to him because it’s a combination of all the things he excels at academically: math, physics, biology and chemistry. One day, he hopes to invent new medical equipment that could help save people’s lives. “Just like in volleyball, being someone people can rely on is something I aspire to be,” he said. “For me, this path was just something that felt right.” As for volleyball, Smith said he knows several Pennridge volleyball alumni that are milling around on campus up in State College. Whether it’s outdoor, club or intramural, Smith wants to keep the game in his life, because it’s already given him so much in such a short amount of time. Until Smith found volleyball, he had never really felt like he was part of a larger community working in unison toward the same goal. Now, everything is different than it was four years ago when he nervously watched the open gym through the school window.
To read Smith’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/nick-smith-00101168
- Log in to post comments
