Like many youth throughout the community, Sydney Kipp enjoyed playing many sports, eventually sticking with and excelling at softball, and ultimately earning an opportunity to head down to play in the United States at Ursuline College.
Kipp, who was born and raised in Paris, played an array of sports and found the one that has led her becoming a university-level athlete.
“My parents put me into a lot of sports when I was younger like soccer, figure skating, and dance. I also played hockey when I was little, and then I switched over to Ringette for a few years, and then I went back to hockey for a bit. But softball has been the sport I played throughout my entire life, I started with T-Ball, and then played on club teams in Paris for softball, and moved over to rep in Brantford,” she explained. “I then switched to select when I was ten years old. The team was called the Brantford Diamondbacks and the next year, I was allowed to go rep. I just remember my first year there playing there…and that got me wanting to be competitive. I liked going to tournaments and winning games. One of my memorable achievements during that time was winning some medals from a tournament.”
However, the rising softball talent started finding more success with the U15 Teir I Brantford Bobcats team and has continued through the years.
“U15 is when we won tier one with the Bobcats. So that was our first year…was the highest level of softball. And we actually did pretty well and won the player-of-the-year award. My team in Brantford has been so successful because we actually work really together. We’re all close and get along well. We’re all friends and we had great coaches. That’s probably the reason we were successful when we were younger, because we’re all on the same page, and that just carried with us as we got older and kept us like some of a core group of girls,” Kipp explained. “I remember when we were getting into provincials, and weren’t expected to win anything. We were underdogs and just went out there and tried our best. And then we ended up winning games…kept that momentum going, and we carried that to the finals, winning our provincials. We gained so much confidence and knew we could be good and successful.”
Kipp also mentioned coaches who have mentored her.
“Ryan Warren has coached me for the past few seasons. He’s always been a great [and] really supportive of everyone on the team. Blayne Partridge…was one of our coaches during that U15 season and also been very important in my development. And then there’s my high school coach for softball and a couple other sports, Shelley Weaver, who has been a big help, especially when I started the scouting process for universities,” she said.
Kipp, who played with the U17 Brantford Bobcat’s last year, experienced more success, playing in both Canada and the United States.
“It was good. We were like a tournament team, so we played in a bunch of tournaments [and it was] really a great all-around experience. We went to the United States which was really different from Canada. And that’s when I really started getting interested going down there…especially in Ohio. We played in these big tournaments at these huge facilities. But we just went down and competed, doing pretty well. Most of the tournament had 30 teams in each bracket, and were very competitive…placing fourth in one in of them,” Kipp noted.
However, Kipp’s mother Nicole, soon realized that her daughter’s skills were appreciated and possibly land her an opportunity to play in the United States.
“We knew that Sydney was a good softball player, but when coaches started approaching her after games, and telling her how outstanding she was, when we were down in the United States, that’s when you start thinking that she’s can really take this to the next level. We kind of realized, as parents, we probably need to figure this out…so, we did seek out and look at a bunch of different recruitment places [and] we ended up with Next Level U Sports. Ethan Andrew, helped us get started and he put together a skills video and a short biography. And we sent out a lot of emails with this information on Sydney. It was a lot of trial and error. There were a lot of phone calls and zoom calls and eventually visits to the school,” Nicole Kipp noted.
Nevertheless, another memorable event that she participated in was the Ontario Summer Games.
“That was my first year of U17 [and] it definitely was one of my favorite softball experiences I’ve had. It was like a pre university or college experience. We were up in dorms [and] we were staying with our teammates. We were going together on busses to and from games. The opening ceremonies was like a mini-Olympics and it was really cool. And especially with all the other sports there. We could walk around and we could see athletes that were part of basketball and volleyball, and we would go to our games that come back,” she said.
After some thought, Kipp eventually chose Ursuline College, situated in Ohio. The school’s ability to provide athletes the support they needed to excel as a student-athlete.
“The first thing was the coaches. They were really nice and open…they explained a lot of what would happen if I went there to me and my parents, and then when it was time for a visit and we went down, I just, well, first, it was driving distance. Lots of the schools that were talking to me were a flight away, which would be tricky, because I wouldn’t be able to visit before I committed. I wanted to see the school before I committed to anything. We drove down there, which was a plus, and I just didn’t want a massive school, because I wouldn’t have a car. I wanted a place that could walk around, a place where things are relatively close,” she said. “And then we toured the school, and we spoke to some of the professors, and they were talking about how the class sizes are really small, and that these professors would know me personally, and they would plan around the athletes. For example, if I have softball on Fridays during the tournament season, then they wouldn’t put classes on that day. They focus on helping you [and] I thought that would be definitely a good idea, because if my professors know me personally, and we can figure that stuff and sports wouldn’t affect my schooling. School is very important to me, so having this type of system in place really appealed to me.”
The young athlete was very impressed with the team after meeting them as well as the success of the program.
“When I met the team, they were just really nice to me, and they started talking to me right away. They seemed like they had a really good team dynamic, just like my team here in Brantford does. So that definitely drew me to their school competed to the other schools I saw,” Kipp noted. “They’ve been doing pretty good the last couple years. I’ve been watching some of their games and they’ve been playing well this year so far at a tournament in Florida.”
For her leadership, Kipp was recently nominated for Phyllis Gretzky Memorial Award, presented by the Brantford Sports Council, and focusing on getting better.
“I actually didn’t even know about getting nominated for it until the other day when I got an email about it. I was surprised and grateful to be recognized. Also, I just want to prepare myself for college. I want to build my skills up as much as possibly can…like my hitting. I want to be consistent. I want to hit the ball hard. I want to be able to be the best all-around s an athlete. And then for my team, working well together and hopefully making it to either Easterns or Nationals,” Kipp stated.
Along with continuing to ball softball, Kipp will be studying with a focus on becoming a teacher and coach.
“My major is going to be Exercise Science, and my minor is Psychology. I hope to come back and become a high school teacher and also coach softball or hockey in the community. I just want to give back because of the time and effort others gave to me,” she said.
