The RoundHouse | 4/23/2023 4:38:00 PM
By Paul Suellentrop
Jeff Glaze watched his niece dive for a ground ball. Sydney McKinney, age 7 or 8, gave her uncle a look at the future of softball with her glove.
"He said 'That's a DI player," said Jason McKinney, Sydney's father. "He started calling her 'DI.' That was her nickname growing up."
Sydney McKinney committed to Missouri at 14 – fulfilling the NCAA Division I prediction after her freshman year in high school. When she decided that program didn't fit, she transferred to Wichita State for her freshman season and started piling up more nicknames – "Syd the Kid" and "Hit Queen" chief among them.