Why not both?: Sydni Schetnan preparing to play two DI sports in college
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (BVM) — On March 13, Sioux Falls Washington beat RC Stevens in the South Dakota High School Activities Association girls basketball Class AA state championship, accomplishing a goal it had set for itself after a runner-up finish in 2018 and a consolation championship in 2019.
“It feels really great; it’s something that we as a team have worked really hard for so it’s great that that finally paid off,” Sydni Schetnan said.
Averaging 15.3 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.81 assists, the 6-foot-5 forward along with wing and four-star Class of 2022 recruit Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, senior star Schetnan led the Warriors to a 20-2 record with 15 straight wins to finish the season.
“It was super tough,” Schetnan said. “None of us really got to play with each other until that first day of practice in December so only having that couple of months to really prepare and get our team working together was pretty tough, but we all adapted and figured it out.”
The McDonald’s All-American nominee now turns her focus to college where she will be taking on the impressive task of playing DI volleyball and basketball at the University of Louisville.
“I haven’t really wrapped my head around how I’m going to do it,” Schetnan said. “I’ll kind of just go with the flow. I’m just happy to even have the privilege to go out and do it.”
Schetnan grew up constantly around both volleyball and basketball. Her mom and uncle both played basketball in high school and her aunt, JoElle (Byre) Benson, is inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame for basketball. Her cousins also played both sports and they were the ones Schetnant grew watching.
“I grew up really only focusing on those two,” Schetnan said. “Yeah I played other sports but I grew watching my cousins play basketball and volleyball specifically.”
Her practice and training quickly paid off for her as she began to get attention in volleyball. Around her 13s year in club volleyball, Schetnan was receiving offers from colleges, including Louisville.
Schetnan has not disappointed either. In her final season of high school volleyball, she led SF Washington to a third place finish at state while having a career-high 285 kills and 59 total blocks as an outside hitter.
At the time of her initial recruitment for volleyball, it was also her favorite sport as she had not reached her full potential in basketball yet. But the offers were soon to come.
“I was planning on only playing volleyball until I got those other offers for basketball at the end of my sophomore season,” Schetnan said.
Now with a decision to make, Schetnan had to decide which sport she was going to play and where she was going to play it. Schetnan decided on both and began reaching out to colleges, asking if they would allow her to play both. Most of the programs said maybe but would not give her a straight answer except for Louisville.
“It was really different to see that they said that I could definitely do both and it wasn’t just a maybe thing, they were totally on board with it,” Schetnan said.
Schetnan verbally committed last April and will be on campus two days after she graduates high school later this spring.
With such a quick turnaround, Schetnan is spending the rest of her time getting prepared to do what few DI athletes can do. There will be some overlap between the seasons, but there is no doubt Schetnan has what it takes.
