FORTVILLE — Sydnee Perry has grown accustomed to winning.
She’s done it a lot in travel ball, winning four national championships in the past five years with the Indiana Shockwaves-Perry team, her fourth coming Saturday in Florida with a USSSA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship.
That success transferred over to her high school teams this year, with sectional championships in both basketball and softball adding to the list of title wins.
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Perry was an integral part of both of those teams, making all-county honorable mention for basketball and all-county, all-conference and third team all-state for softball, leading the Mt. Vernon Marauders into the regional round of the state tournament in both sports.
“It was just an amazing feeling to win both of my first two sectionals of my entire high school career, being the underdog in both situations and just pulling through,” Perry said. “The team bonding experience after we won those is just an amazing feeling. I can’t even explain it.”
The junior averaged 10.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game on the basketball court. She hit .394 on the softball field, ranking top five in the county in multiple statistics, including RBIs (37), doubles (9) and triples (2). She also hit four home runs and stole six bases.
The stat she’s most proud of, though, is her defense. A defensive stopper for both Marauders’ teams, she excelled at the shortstop position this spring, drastically improving her fielding percentage from a year ago.
“Defense is probably definitely my strong suit. I’ve worked a lot on that,” Perry said. “Going from 14 errors my sophomore year to two was a big thing for me. But then my hitting needs to get more consistent. I’d have really good games and really bad games, they’d kind of even out.”
Coming into her junior year, Perry was expected to be a leader for the Marauders basketball team. It was a young group, with just one senior, and Mt. Vernon coach Julie Shelton knew she’d have to rely on Perry to help guide the team.
There weren’t as many growing pains as some might have expected. After starting the season 1-1, the Marauders rolled off nine straight wins. They finished the season with 20 wins and a revenge win in the sectional championship game against New Palestine.
In a year filled with memorable moments, that win stands out above the rest to Perry.
“As much as I love softball and winning that, our sectional game for basketball was such an amazing feeling,” she said. “Just having all of our students running on the court, just holding up that trophy, that was just like probably the best feeling, ever. The feeling in that gym, how intense it was, all those people around you, that was probably my favorite moment of this year.”
She scored 37 points in the three sectional wins, with 17 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.
“She had a great season for us,” Shelton said. “She stepped up and owned a leadership roll and was a big part of a great season.
“She leads by playing hard and being competitive. She also became more of a vocal leader this season. She is a great athlete that is an all-around good basketball player.”
The leadership transferred over to the softball field, where the Marauders expected to have a strong year and lived up to most of those aspirations.
After falling just short of a sectional title a year ago, Mt. Vernon had another big season, following a 21-win 2018 with a 24-win 2019. The Marauders started 8-0 before sustaining their first loss of the year, a 5-2 defeat to Class 3A three-peat champion New Palestine.
They won an extra-innings classic against Pendleton Heights to claim the sectional championship before falling in the regional to Cathedral.
Perry led the Marauders in batting average, RBIs and doubles. Her numbers were slightly down from a fantastic sophomore campaign but were still good enough to earn her the third team all-state nod.
“Sydnee had a good year, however not the year that she really wanted to have. Everyone knows who she is now what her strengths and weaknesses are,” Mt. Vernon softball coach Veronica Kirby said. “She had to learn mentally how to handle that part of the game. She learned that if my teammates see me upset, they feed off of me and lose confidence. If she worried about herself and her stats all year, we wouldn’t have had the success that we did. Through it all she still was always so happy with the success that the team was having. She was a great leader for us.”
While she enjoys playing both sports, softball is where Perry’s true passion lies. She’s already committed to play at the next level, as she is planning to go to the University of Indianapolis after her senior year to play softball and study exercise science.
She originally committed to a D1 school, Evansville, but changed her mind due to the distance and made the switch to UIndy. It’s closer to home, the coaches and atmosphere are “amazing,” and she felt like things just clicked there, she said.
“Softball, it just has a connection. When I’m on the field, I forget about everything else,” she said. “Just my one love is softball, and I just feel different when I’m on the field. Just playing the next four years is kind of a relief. Next year I don’t have to worry about anything. I can just relax and do good in my last high school season. I’ve got four more years to get better and continue to make new relationships.”
Being closer to her family is a big benefit of going to UIndy. Perry likes to spend as much time with her family as possible, whether on the field — her father coaches her travel team — or off.
She started playing travel ball, with her dad as the coach, when she was around 5 years old and playing t-ball. She credits her father for much of her success.
“He is my biggest supporter for sure. I owe everything I have to him,” Perry said. “He is my hero, I guess you could say. He’s always been there for me through everything. Yes, he’s hard on me, but I know that he wants me to be the best that I can be. Where I’m at, I would not be here without him.”
The goals for next year are lofty. She wants to win conference and the sectional again in basketball, while having a better showing in the regional. She wants to win the sectional again in softball and make a deeper tournament run, and hopes to see her team finally topple New Palestine and take the Hoosier Heritage Conference title.
And before her high school career is over, she really wants to get a chance to switch positions. She’s played every position on the field before — she hopes to maintain her shortstop position at UIndy, though — but she really wants to get in the circle just once for the Marauders.
“I’ve pitched, I’ve caught. Just throw me out there, it’s fine,” Perry said. “I really wanted coach to put me in one of these games, just to pitch. She was like, ‘eh, I don’t know.’ Senior Night, put me out there. I’m going to try it. One inning, that’s all I ask for. I need that. That’d be amazing.”
Regardless of whether or not she gets the chance to pitch while wearing a Mt. Vernon uniform, she is ready for one more year of what she hopes is continued winning.
“I’m super motivated for it. We know how good we can be, and we want to strive to get better than that,” Perry said. “We want to show people that yeah, we are that team. We are meant to be here. I’m super excited for it to all start again.”