Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month: Pleasant's Whitney Waddell a Jill of all trades

rob mccurdy, marion star

Sun, Feb 18, 2024, 4:01 AM·6 min read

MARION — Whitney Waddell is a lot of things.

● The Pleasant senior is an all-league soccer player, golfer and basketball player as well as a state caliber middle distance runner in track. However, her best sport is softball, one she doesn't play in high school, but one she will pursue in college as a shortstop and outfielder.

● She's a National Honor Society student with a 3.9 grade point average who takes college credit plus classes online as well.

● She's an entrepreneur, who with her older sister Makenna, makes and sells dog bandanas to a world-wide clientele.

● Waddell most enjoys gardening and cooking in what little free time she has.

"I take my sleep very seriously," she said with a laugh. "I try to go to bed by 11ish every night to make sure I get a good enough amount of sleep."

More about Whitney Waddell: From Top Golf to contributing golfer, Whitney Waddell helping Pleasant girls team dominate

Another Pleasant honoree this month: Dollars for bowling: Pleasant's Carter Colby works to bowl, earns Fahey Bank Award

How does Waddell do it?

Girls basketball coach Keriann Pratt marvels at her multi-faceted forward.

"She's a 10 out of 10," Pratt said. "Everything she does, she does well. We both bond over our love of cooking."

It's not easy being a 10 out of 10 at everything she does.

"It’s definitely tough, but I’m thankful that my family is super flexible and help me get everything done that I need to," Waddell said. "I’m definitely busy. There’s no downtime. I take advantage of my downtime and do my hobbies. My family has been a big part of it, helping guide me through scheduling. My coaches are super helpful, but I’m able to get everything done that I need."

Pleasant's Whitney Waddell drives to the basket during a home girls basketball game with Clear Fork this season. Waddell was named January's Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month for Marion County girls.

Juggling sports

Waddell's best sport is softball, even though she only played it as a freshman at Pleasant.

"I love track and I love softball," she said. "It didn’t work out super well. I love track and I knew I wanted to continue to do that. The whole scheduling conflicts was a big thing. I wasn’t able to excel as much as I wanted to in track. I made the decision because I can continue to do travel softball throughout the rest of the year, that I would continue running track since there’s not another time to run it other than for the high school season."

So she played travel softball on a club team during the summer where she was seen as a Division I college recruit before deciding two weeks ago to play at Indiana Wesleyan in Marion, Ind., where her sister has blazed a trail as a big hitting first baseman.

"They are all super-welcoming. They feel like family," Waddell said of her decision to go to IWU. "When I went there, I liked the culture. The head coach is a pastor as well, so we implement faith every day. I loved the balance between athletics, your faith and academics. It seemed like the perfect fit."

Besides softball and track, Waddell was the goalkeeper on the girls soccer team, but with not enough girls to field a squad this fall, she turned her attention to golf. Even though she'd never played a round before this summer, she became good enough to help the Spartans to another Mid Ohio Athletic Conference championship where she earned second-team honors.

Pleasant's Whitney Waddell looks to pass after rebounding the ball at Shelby during a girls basketball game earlier this season. Waddell is a multi-sport standout and a senior at Pleasant.

Fahey Bank Award winner

That's the kind of athlete Waddell is, and it shows on the basketball court.

"She is so good and helps us in so many ways," Pratt said.

With Waddell, the Spartans finished as MOAC runners-up and earned a top four seed in the upcoming Central District tournament. In January, she averaged 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block as she emerged as one of the league's most well-rounded formers, ranking with the leaders in all stat categories.

It was enough for her to earn her first Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month Award for Marion County girls in January, joining her sister on the wall at Pleasant with other honorees in the 40-plus year tradition.

"I feel like this award is super special," Waddell said. "It’s definitely been one of my goals for the past four years, earning the Fahey Athlete of the Month at sometime. It’s definitely cool to be able to do it in basketball."

Juggling hobbies

As varied as she is as an athlete, that's how diverse her interests are off the court and field.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak when facemasks were hard to find, the Waddell sisters started sewing homemade versions for first responders.

"We had all this leftover fabric, and we got our dogs right before COVID started and they were just puppies," she said. "We wanted to spoil them. We saw all these people with bandanas and they were so cute, but they were pretty expensive. You’d get them for $20 to $30.

"They don’t seem that hard to make. We can probably make them ourselves. We started going through the fabric and coming up with different designs. Our friends started to like them, so we made them for their dogs."

This is how their business Dood's Danas at Doodsdanas.com and Instagram was born.

"We’ve had a lot of success with it," Waddell said. "We’re going to try to still do it while I’m in college, but I’m going to downsize to do the different holidays and make the stock ahead of time since I’ll be in a dorm. It’s going to be hard. I don’t think my roommate wants to hear a sewing machine."

Also during the COVID pandemic, she discovered gardening. It's her escape from any pressure she might feel while playing sports.

"It helps me slow down. It’s my way of getting away," she said. "You’re out in the sun getting your vitamin D and just tending the garden. It’s just nice. You’re still staying active but getting away and slowing down. That’s the biggest thing. My parents wanted a way for me to get away from all that."

Maybe her favorite pastime is cooking.

"I’ve always loved cooking. My parents were always watching cooking shows like Master Chef and those competition shows," she said. "I grew up watching those. I tried to copy all the stuff they did. I’ve always used cooking as a way to get away from all the hecticness that can happen with sports and school."

Waddell hopes to turn her hobbies into a way of life after college.

"I’m trying to implement my entrepreneurial side with biology and my love for cooking and gardening with whatever I try doing with my life," she said. "I want to own businesses. My bigger goal is a farm-to-table restaurant so you can implement all the different passions."

Whatever direction she chooses, Pratt knows success will follow.

"She's just a phenomenal person," the coach said.

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