All Stars: Top Private School Athletes Achieving Big
Great Arm
Archbishop Hoban High School pitcher and shortstop Shawn Parnell is inching toward graduation — and his dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player. Now, he’s months away from playing college ball on a partial baseball scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.
His baseball coach and a Hoban teacher, Andrew Bonnette, says Parnell has all of the tools to achieve his dream of becoming a professional baseball pitcher.
“He’s consistently somewhere in the 90 mph range,” Bonnette says. “He has a cutter, splitter, change-up and fastball that gets up there on a kid. He has all the action on his pitches in the world, but we just keep fine-tuning his location even better and better every year.”
At the Akron school, Parnell has had great success on the field, winning a baseball championship and two football championships. He has been a defensive end on the football team for four years. His dad is the defensive football coordinator, so that prepared him not only for the competitive team but for the rigorous academic demands of Hoban and helped him get good grades.
“He had a good idea coming into Hoban what it was going to be like for him,” Bonnette says.
Despite his family being a part of Hoban’s top-ranked football program, his dad is OK with Parnell being more passionate about baseball.
“We have a very football-oriented family,” Parnell says. “But he’s always preached to me, If you love something, do it, and I will always support you. I love baseball, and once I figured that out, I knew that is what I want to do. He has supported me ever since.”
This baseball season, Parnell and Bonnette are working on his accuracy in throwing more strikes, and they are chasing another championship.
Before he graduates, Parnell hopes to leave his mark by mentoring young players who want to move up to the varsity level.
“It’s special to me to be able to pass on my knowledge,” Parnell says, “and help them grow as baseball players before I leave and take my next step to Cincinnati.”
-BB
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All Set
Many student athletes have been playing their sport for years by the time they reach high school, but not Gracie Turner — she joined the volleyball team her sophomore year at Central Catholic High School in Canton, with no prior experience. This past fall, the middle blocker finished her senior season strong, competing at district finals with the girls varsity team. But it was a long road to get there.
“There were a couple of tough games that we should have had that we fumbled on a little,” Turner says. “But we ended up being the underdogs, really pulling through and making it as far as we could.”
The pivotal factors were hard work and a change of mindset, which Turner encouraged. “We were taking charge in talking to our teammates,” she says, “telling them, Listen, we all want to go far. Let’s really push.”
“That’s what you want as a coach: People who are going to hustle and … lead by example,” adds Lauren Sharnsky, the girls volleyball head coach and a Central Catholic social studies teacher. “She wants to continually get better.”
When there were challenges, she kept encouraging her teammates. “If anyone, myself or anybody else around me makes a mistake, we shake it off, look to the next play,” Turner says.
The team’s efforts to improve set it up for some competitive matches at district finals. The team finished as district runner-up, and making it that far impacted her.
“Getting to districts is definitely going to be a great memory that I’ll always keep close to me,” she says.
Turner’s spirit doesn’t stop at volleyball. She works hard in her classes, excelling throughout her years at Central Catholic, with a 4.3 GPA her senior year. She also plays basketball, which she started in fourth grade, and is entering her fourth season at Central Catholic as a guard and forward.
She’s considering continuing basketball into college. She knows she’ll use the lessons she learned through sports in her next endeavors.
“Every single athlete at Central just has that grind, that work ethic,” she says. “I think that’s super important, especially for the future life too, when we stumble on challenges.”
-AS
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Goal Driven
Instead of relaxing over summer break, St. Thomas Aquinas High School senior Kendall Wood was toughing out 10 weeks of U.S. Army basic training. She enlisted to help finance college but was happy it also strengthened her performance as a varsity soccer midfielder, forward and captain.
“I was always that player that would be scared to be aggressive around the ball,” says Wood, who has played soccer since grade school. “But when I came back, I fought for my team.”
“I see the difference on the field,” adds girls varsity head soccer coach Kevin Destefano, who coached Wood for all four of her high school seasons. “Instead of trying to go around people, it was mostly trying to go through people.”
That steadfast approach was needed for the 2021 season as COVID continued to quarantine players. There were only a few games out of 15 where the Louisville school had its full team, and that led to losses. Since Wood can play any position, she helped teammates learn new positions, subbed in on defense and ran a conditioning practice. “She can lead,” Destefano says. “She’s a fierce competitor.”
Wood scored the majority of the team’s goals this season, and her best goal was during a Canton South High School game when she dribbled the ball past a few defenders and kicked it about 25 yards from left field into the right corner of the goal.
“It was amazing, like a curveball,” says Wood, a four-year soccer letterman and two-time STA offensive player of the year.
She’s readying to bring that competitive edge to her senior track season, running the 200-meter dash and the 4x100 meter and 4x200 meter relays. With all her commitments, she still succeeds in the classroom, with a 3.9 GPA and a National Honors Society membership, while also volunteering over 100 hours the last three years. She also helped her soccer teammates catch up in classes after COVID absences. This fall, she is set to attend St. Leo University in Florida, where she will do ROTC and is still deciding on a major.
Being an athlete, student and aspiring soldier while rising to the challenges COVID presented has equipped Wood to tackle whatever the future throws at her.
“I was able to solve something going into things head on,” she says. “It made me feel complete.”
-KP
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Nice Serve
From the time summer break starts until when the tennis team resumes in August, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School student Andie McKnight practices tennis for two or three hours daily. To her, it’s not work. She has enjoyed the game since she began playing the summer before second grade.
“I instantly fell in love with it. I put in 110 percent,” says the now senior. “When I found out how much I like tennis, I kept playing and trying as hard as I could.”
“[She’s] really dedicated to self-improvement, likes to challenge herself,” adds head tennis coach Alan Walker. “It’s gotten results.”
McKnight was the only freshman to make the Akron school’s varsity tennis team, and she was named its best doubles player that year. She played first singles the rest of high school, getting named MVP twice and becoming captain her junior and senior years, yet remaining humble and focused.
“I always saw a tough match or tough loss as a learning experience rather than a reason to give up,” she says. “I took a good win as a gift and a reward for how hard I work and never took it for granted.”
After she made it to districts her junior year but didn’t place, her positive attitude helped her be grateful for the opportunity and set a goal to qualify for districts again her senior year. She did, playing an emotional match against her best friend. She advanced onto the next round, finishing sixth, just short of states.
“I’d gone further and done better than the year before,” McKnight says, “so [I was] very proud of myself.”
Her determined work ethic translates to the classroom, making the principal’s list every year for achieving a 4.0 GPA or higher and receiving two academic letters. She also stays busy by volunteering, including teaching at Buddy Up Tennis, a program for those with Down syndrome. Plus, she helped Walker teach 5- and 6-year-olds tennis at Fairlawn Swim & Tennis, where he is head pro. It’s inspired her to pursue early childhood education in college, and Walker says she has great potential in that field.
“It comes back to a love of playing the game, hitting the ball and trying to discover how to do it better,” he says. “Even a 5-year-old can pick up on that from her.”
-KP
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Fighting Spirit
Walsh Jesuit High School student John Paul Fyda has tackled some of his toughest challenges over the last two years. Despite the obstacles, he has not only reached the top 10 in his senior class academically, but he is also a starting defensive end for one of the best high school football programs in the region.
“His dad passed away from cancer, but JP has maintained an incredible spirit and is a great role model for our student body,” says athletic director Mark Hassman. “He is a wonderful young man who has persevered through a lot.”
A big part of that spirit and tenacity comes from the smaller, more personal learning experience at the Cuyahoga Falls school and the close relationships he developed with classmates and football teammates.
The football players’ trust in each other grew through adversity, culminating in an exhilarating regional final run against rival Archbishop Hoban High School this season. While Walsh Jesuit lost the playoffs, the team got some new coaches and made a huge improvement in its overall record, from a combined 1-19 Fyda’s freshman and sophomore years to 11-3 his senior year.
“We were able to turn it around,” Fyda says. “We made a deep playoff run, and it was a lot of fun.”
About 20 of his teammates from those difficult first two years stuck it out to enjoy the winning season and playoffs.
“They are some of my best friends now,” he says. “The team has grown over our four years together, building relationships and teaching valuable life lessons.”
Fyda’s friends, family and faith were crucial when his dad died in November 2020, which he says is still like yesterday.
“I don’t think you’re ever really ready for it. But I’ve gone through it with a lot of help from my family. I have a great family that is very supportive,” he says. “My friends were really good for me during this time. Just the whole support system really helps.”
-BB