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A record-setting journey as S.V. senior finds success
SOUTHERN VALLEY, Neb. — Suddenly, a fastball that could speed past many motorists on Highway 34 looked like some driver stalled on the dusty shoulder.
“I was throwing a pitch and my arm started tingling,” Kynlee Marquez explained. “Then it just went numb.”
The arm injury ended her junior softball season, just as a torn labrum in her hip while playing JV volleyball hindered Kynlee’s freshman year at Southern Valley High.
Did the one-act play performer decide this stage of her life was done?
Of course.
Not!
Instead, Kynlee uttered her favorite four-letter word which has helped lead to so much record-setting, all-state softball success.
“I didn’t sign up for any of this to be EASY,” she proclaimed. “That’s why we have driven to Omaha every week to play club ball. To get where I want to be, I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone.”
Kynlee’s career path has certainly take some twists and turns.
She’s played tournaments from California to Georgia after making the elite Omaha-based Nebraska Gold club softball team.
Yet her family has also hit snowstorms before they even got close to Omaha from her original home in Sedgwick, Colo.
“We’ve had to turn around and go back,” Kynlee admitted.
She’s set the Nebraska Class C state RBI record twice since her family relocated at Southern Valley where dad Brandon Marquez is activities director.
Kynlee drove in 66 runs during 2019, then broke her own state record with 71 RBIs for the SV-Alma Saints this fall.
She was only two from Lincoln Southwest slugger Carson Fisher’s all-class record of 73 in 2017.
Not to mention a 2020 home run total surpassing the candles on her most recent birthday cake: 19 in 36 games.
“I was actually walked the last 11 times of my Saints career,” she said about the 26-10 district finalist team.
However, Kynlee can recall when walking wasn’t so easy. She was playing JV volleyball as a freshman at Southern Valley when she tore the labrum in her hip.
She returned to run some track, play basketball and resume her stellar Saints softball career.
Then came the stunning, numbing arm injury.
“I sort of knew it needed to be done. It was about six to eight weeks (of rehab),” she said. “And my elbow feels 1,000 times better now. “The surgeons really did a great job.”
She returned for an amazing senior season not even mentioning those 19 homers, 71 RBIs or plus-.600 batting average.
Kynlee also resumed pitching where she won 23 games this season. She threw several no-hitters and fired 263 strikeouts, according to gamechanger.com stats.
Kynlee’s career aspirations are targeting medicine ranging from anything to physician’s assistant to her ultimate goal of becoming an obstetrician.
That’s just one reason why she will play for the NCAA Division University of South Dakota Coyotes starting this fall.
A high-quality medical school is also located in Vermillion, S.D.
Kynlee chose South Dakota even after visiting other D-1 programs like the Louisville (Kan.) Cardinals and Missouri State University.
“I just fell in love with it (South Dakota),” she said. “Vermillion felt the most like home.”
Kynlee will continue playing weekend tournaments for the Nebraska Gold.
Most recently, the Gold were set to play in a Kansas City tournament where players signed to attend superpowers like Florida and Oklahoma would be competing.
“Club ball is crucial to really reaching that next level,” she said. “It’s definitely a commitment but worthwhile.”
She’ll also play her senior basketball season for the Southern Valley Eagles beginning soon. Kynlee expects it will be similar to softball in 2020.
“We’ll be a young team but have a lot of potential,” she observed. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure early on we would 10 games this year (instead they only lost 10). It was great to see the younger girls improve so much.”
Plus another transplanted ingredient has helped grow so much Saints success: coach Brad Reaves.
Reaves moved from North Carolina after visiting relatives in the Beaver City/Southern Valley school area several times.
“I always told my wife if we ever moved, that would be a great place to go,” Reaves remarked recently.
Reaves also loved the hunting area whether it was quail, turkeys, deer, etc.
Plus it helped a true friendship and connection to his Saints team leader.
“Coach Reaves has been like a second dad to me,” Kynlee said. “We’ve hunted quail and deer and I still remember the big tom (turkey) I got.”
“Coach always wants you do better in softball,” she added. “But he always supports you no matter how performed.”
Now the great Saints days are over as Kynlee takes that next turn on her career-life path and will soon venture north.
But she never plans to be too far away.
“This was definitely my favorite place to play of all,” Kynlee concluded.
“I absolutely loved it. I will always be a Saint.”