All-Delco Softball Player of the Year: Garnet Valley’s Anna Sidlowski followed hairy path to dominant season
CONCORD — Anna Sidlowski grew up in a house with older brothers, so it didn’t take her long to realize what kind of activities she wanted to explore.
The story goes that when she was 4 years old Sidlowski managed to cut off most of her hair as a way to protest her mom Amy’s choice to have her do ballet.
“She loves telling that story,” Anna said of her mom.
Call it the origin story of the best softball player in Delaware County.
“Before every lesson I had to put her hair in a ballerina bun. There was this one day, it was a Sunday, I was shopping,” Amy Sidlowski recalled. “(Anna’s dad) David was watching the kids. When I got home, she had chopped off her hair. She looked at me and said, ‘I don’t want to be a ballerina and I don’t want a ballerina bun.’ Ever since then…we got the tee out and we’d be swinging off a tee.”
Young Anna gravitated toward softball, swimming and eventually rowing. She performed the latter with her brother, Matt, who graduated from Garnet Valley a year before his sister. Last fall, Anna and Matt rode in the Head of Charles, which is the world’s largest three-way rowing competition.
Rowing and swimming were the offseason sports that helped Sidlowski build her strength, helping her become a dominant pitcher and hitter on the softball field. There’s a reason her family has affectionately nicknamed her “Dirt.”
“Rowing works every muscle; your legs, your arms, and your core. It definitely helped my game and my strength. It was a huge factor in everything with the sport,” she said. “Even with teamwork, because in rowing you have eight other people in the boat and you have to be in sync with them. You can’t give up, you have to be working for them, too. It definitely helped me with many aspects of my life, including softball. And being able to do it with my brother definitely helped, too.”
This year Sidlowski guided the Jaguars softball team to the Central League championship and a trip to the PIAA Class 6A tournament. She is the 2023 Daily Times Player of the Year.
Joining Sidlowski on the All-Delco team, selected after consultation with area coaches, are Garnet Valley teammate Elisabeth O’Connor, Ridley’s Paige McLaughlin, Haley McMenamin, Sydney Schaefer and Jolie Torrens, Episcopal Academy’s Hanna-Mae Legaspi, Maddie Masiko and Sophia Santinelli, Haverford’s Shannon Gavigan and Kylee Ingram, Penncrest’s Riley Signor and Sun Valley’s Jordyn Skarren.
Sidlowski and the Jaguars finished 22-3 overall, one of the best records in program history. In her career as a full-time pitcher, which covered less than three full seasons, she recorded 572 strikeouts, including back-to-back seasons of 200-plus KOs. As a senior she posted a 0.99 ERA, allowing 12 earned runs all year. She had four no-hitters and two perfect games.
As one of the top power hitters in the area, Sidlowski belted 19 homers in her career, including 17 over her junior and senior campaigns. She had 32 RBIs, 28 runs scored and 19 stolen bases.
“I am not sure if one player could do more for a team than Anna did for GV over the last two seasons,” coach Bryan Garrett said. “Incredible kid, incredible player. One of the best I’ll ever coach.”
Sidlowski was determined to help lead the Jaguars as far as possible in the postseason. Winning the Central League championship and ending Haverford’s two-year reign was one of the team’s top goals coming into season.
“As a team, winning the league was something we all really wanted … and we knew it was possible,” she said. “We all had to work hard together to get there. And I think we all wanted to make it as far as we did in states and districts. We all had a common goal in mind. We never really talked about setting goals, but we definitely were aware of what we wanted and who we wanted to be.”
Sidlowski’s signature performance came in early May at Ridley. It was the game that would, for all intents and purposes, determine the league champion. All Sidlowski did was go 4-for-5 with three home runs and nine RBIs, and pitch a complete game in a 15-5 win.
Was that her favorite game?
“Oh, yeah, it definitely was,” she said.
Sidlowski is off to Marist to continue her softball career. She will pitch and hit for the Red Foxes, who went 12-8 in the Metro Atlantic Conference and advanced to the NCAA Regionals this past season. She wants to major in political science. She’ll report to campus at the end of August and take a few days to settle in before offseason practice starts.
Division I softball sure isn’t ballet. Sidlowski’s mom and dad will be cheering her on every step of the way.
“They’ve never missed a game,” she said. “They always have to be there and it’s great support.”
