By Jeremy Krakosky
Staff Writer for the Daily Toreador
Texas Tech outfielder Sydni Emanuel led the softball team with a .418 batting average this season and broke the school single-season stolen base record with 36, and she’s just a freshman.
Tech coach Shanon Hays said Emanuel has surpassed everyone’s expectations and is already a leader for the team.
“When Sydni is healthy, I don’t think there is a freshman better in the country then her. I think she has proven that,” he said. “She’s having an All-American season as a freshman. When you have someone that’s as impactful as she at the top of the lineup, usually if you walk her it’s like giving up a double. That’s something that is rare to have in this game and it’s been a thrill coaching her.”
Sydni Emanuel was quick to credit her father, Bert Emanuel, for her immediate impact at the collegiate level.
Emanuel said speed comes natural to people on her family but being a great athlete is something that is almost expected.
“Speed is definitely something that runs in the family,” she said. “I’m fast, as we have seen this season, and my sister, Cortni, who will be here next year, is actually even faster than me.”
Bert Emanuel also was a standout athlete in baseball and football at a young age as he was drafted out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays but chose to play both sports at Rice University.
After playing at Rice, he was once again drafted by a Major League Baseball team but decided to play professional football instead and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1994.
Bert Emanuel went on play eight seasons in the NFL and recorded 381 catches for 4852 and 28 touchdowns, according to NFL.com.
Sydni Emanuel was born and raised during her father’s NFL career, but she said she was too young to fully realize what her dad was doing at the time.
“It was fun growing up with my dad being in the NFL. I don’t really remember him playing, I remember the moving around and being in daycare while they were at training camp or during some games,” she said. “It’s cool looking back on it now and watching his old film and seeing my little brother look up to that. It’s amazing.”
According to NFL.com, in the 1999 NFC Championship game, Bert Emanuel made a clutch diving catch late in the fourth quarter that would have given his team the ball in red zone, down by five points with a Super Bowl trip on the line.
The game was suddenly stopped by the referees to review the play, despite the play looking like a clear catch to most people in attendance.
The play was eventually ruled not a catch and two plays later, Emanuel’s season was over.
The next season, the NFL changed a rule that would have caused Bert Emanuel’s play to be a catch. The play still remains one of the most controversial NFL calls today.
Sydni Emanuel said her dad still strongly disagrees with the returned call, as he never reached the Super Bowl after that.
“He never lives that down, any chance he gets to talk about that play – he loves it,” she said. “Especially since he has a son now, my little brother loves looking up old film of my dad and literally picking piece by piece apart everything that he did.”
Due to her father’s disappointment on the field, Bert was determined to make Sydni a star athlete from a very young age.
Sydni Emanuel said for as long as she can remember she has been working on her speed and quickness as much as she can.
“(Growing up) the biggest thing was focusing on speed latter, we did that a lot, focusing on quickness” she said. “When we were a little bit older, we got a trainer and he really focused on making us faster and building our muscles so we were faster.”
Since Emanuel is only a freshman, she said she will be looking to double her stolen base record in the upcoming seasons.
Sydni Emanuel jokingly said now that her father is older, he would not stand a chance against her speed.
“I think I would win,” she said. “If he was in shape, he would completely blow me out of the water, he is crazy fast.”
SOURCE: http://www.dailytoreador.com/sports/article_f29aa850-d61d-11e3-b9c9-001a4bcf6878.html
