Huntley's Wisniewski chooses Valparaiso

One could easily say that Huntley senior Amanda Wisniewski hit the softball recruiting radar a bit late.

With the summer of 2009 being her first year of travel softball, Wisniewski wasn't sought after by college coaches at a young age. But her summer season with the Wasco Diamonds 18U SC team proved to be more than beneficial.

Wisniewski, a shortstop-outfielder, recently accepted a scholarship offer to play for Division I Valparaiso University and coach Randy Schneider in Indiana.

"She's going to be a good one," Schneider predicted.

Wisniewski was brought up to the Huntley varsity as a sophomore and had a stellar season, hitting over .300. She slumped some her junior season, hitting .172, but came back strong in the summer and impressed the Valpo coaching staff at exposure tournaments.

"Coach (Scott) Mennie really helped me with my hitting and defensive skills," said Wisniewski of one of her summer coaches. "We practiced a lot."

Wisniewski chose Valpo over Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan and DePauw.

"I liked the school and the town," she said of Valparaiso, which is 125 miles southeast of Huntley on U.S. 30. "The coach seems really nice and the team seemed really nice."

Until last summer, Wisniewski played park district softball but when she got called up to the varsity as a sophomore, she said she started thinking about playing the game in college. She also plays basketball at Huntley.

"She's one of the most athletic players I've ever coached," said Huntley softball coach Mark Petryniec. "Her athleticism alone is worthy of a Division I scholarship. She's got a lot of power and she's a natural athlete.

"She just had a slump last year. We never took her out of the lineup because of her potential. We hope she rebounds back to where she was her sophomore year."

Wisniewski, who played five different positions for Huntley last season, scored a 25 on her ACT and will study biology at Valpo.

She becomes the third Fox Valley area player to attend Valparaiso on scholarship, following Courtney LaFerle and Tracy Korth of Larkin, each of whom, graduated from Valpo and played softball for Schneider.

Valpo is a member of the Horizon League. Schneider is in his seventh season as head coach of the program and has a career record of 137-166-1, including 25-24 last season. Despite being a mid-major, Schneider has a reputation for playing an incredibly tough schedule.