Senior Sami Maniaci: Hello, Longhorns. I’m your host, Sami Maniaci, and in today’s episode, we have a very special guest: Siena Snyder. Siena started playing softball at only four years old, and had many goals from a young age.

Senior Siena Snyder: My dad played a sport in college. He played football. So growing up, it was just kind of in the back of my mind, like I always knew I wanted to play a sport in college.

Maniaci: So, would you say that kind of increased your motivation throughout the years?

Snyder: Yeah, knowing that I had big goals that I wanted to reach definitely pushed me to work harder.

Maniaci: Her recruitment process started as soon as the seventh grade.

Snyder: My coach came to me and said that they had had some colleges reach out to me, or programs that wanted to rank me or put me online. So, she kind of got me started posting my stuff on social media. A lot of emailing coaches and sending them videos or just letting them know that I was interested.

Maniaci: Siena wasn’t allowed to directly speak to any coaches until Sept. 1 of her junior year.

Snyder: It was very stressful, because I got calls at midnight. The second that they were allowed to call me, I got multiple calls, and it was really difficult to balance all of those, and I couldn’t answer every call. So, making sure I reached back out to coaches that I couldn’t talk to at the time was challenging.

Maniaci: Siena’s official tour started on Sept. 8.

Snyder: The biggest thing I was looking for was coaching staff that made me feel comfortable. They were who I was going to play for every single day and be around all the time. So, the culture between them and the team was really important to me.

Maniaci: What did you find in Ohio State that shaped your initial decision?

Snyder: So at Ohio State, I really appreciated the way that they treat their athletes. It’s like if you’re an athlete at Ohio State, you get whatever you want. It is like you’re royalty. And they treat all of their athletes like that. They get a lot of special treatment. And I also really appreciated the culture and bond that they had between the girls on the team and the coaches; they were all really close.

Maniaci: I’m sure you’ve been wondering what exactly happened. Well, Siena is here to explain.

Snyder: The softball coach at Ohio State got fired and a new athletic director came in and got rid of a few coaches, and she was one of them.

Maniaci: So what was that change like?

Snyder: It was pretty stressful, also confusing, because a lot of other schools had already recruited other people, so a lot of my options that were there in the beginning weren’t. Michigan was my number two option when I had first decided so they were the first thought in my mind to reach out to.

Maniaci: Why do you think Michigan still recruited you even after you were committed to their rival?

Snyder: We had a really good connection, and they could see me being a good fit on their team.

Maniaci: Siena went back to the University of Michigan about a month after she committed.

Snyder: I went to the school store, I bought a bunch of stuff, and just looking around campus, it was really fun.

Maniaci: So what stood out to you the second time that you visited?

Snyder: Campus is just beautiful. The architecture and the way it’s set out, everything is so nice. It’s just Michigan.

Maniaci: They got some good football.

Snyder: They got a great football team, and the softball coaches are just amazing people, and I’m really excited to play for them.

Maniaci: Have you connected with any of the players yet?

Snyder: I did meet a lot of them on my first official visit. I follow them all on social media, and a lot of them follow me back.

Maniaci: Starting in August of 2025 along with her college softball career, Siena will be starting a new chapter of her education.

Snyder: I am going to major in journalism. I want to be a sports broadcaster, so that is kind of the route that my coaches told me to take.

Maniaci: What advice would you give to another student- athlete going through a similar process?

Snyder: Make the decision that you feel you should make and not the decision that you think will make other people happy. That was a big challenge.

Maniaci: Because of what happened at Ohio State, has that affected your overall experience?

Snyder: Yeah, but I think I’m really happy where I ended up, yeah, and that overall, I ended up in the right place.

Maniaci: Right. Thank you Longhorns for listening in on today’s episode. Stay tuned for more to come. But wait, we have one final message from Siena Snyder.

Snyder: Go Blue!

Maniaci: Go Blue!

This story was originally published on Pathfinder on November 1, 2024.