After receiving scholarship offers from 12 Division I women’s basketball programs, Sydney Jaynes decided to visit all 12.
In the middle of those 12 visits over a two-week span a couple months ago came a trip to Butler University. By the time the Trinity Lutheran junior had seen all 12 schools, she liked Butler the best.
On Saturday morning, Jaynes affirmed her desire to play the Bulldogs with a verbal commitment to attend Butler beginning in the 2021-22 school year.
“They didn’t offer me for awhile,” Jaynes said. “They were just talking to me and wanted me to come for a visit, so when I went for a visit, they offered me.”
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Jaynes’ first offer came a little more than a year ago from Murray State. Since then, she’s had offers from Bradley, Indiana State, IUPUI, Loyola, Miami (Ohio), Murray State, Northern Kentucky, Purdue-Fort Wayne, Southern Illinois, Toledo and Western Michigan, as well as Butler.
“She had a lot of great offers on the table, and this was a tough decision for her,” Trinity coach Mike Lang said. “More importantly, she’s going to a great school with a great program, and she’ll get to play where her friends and family can watch her play. I couldn’t be more excited for her.”
A couple of big factors that played into Jaynes’ decision were Butler’s proximity to her home in Seymour and it’s place in a Power-Five conference.
“I wanted to play at that level,” Jaynes said. “I got really close with the coaches, and that was awesome. I feel like my biggest thing was being close to home. It’s only an hour and maybe 15 minutes from home, so my family can come and watch me play. It’s in the Big East, and actually UConn just got back into the Big East, so I could be playing against UConn someday.”
This winter, Jaynes averaged 15.3 points and 8.8 rebounds and led the Cougars with 4.1 assists a game in leading the Cougars to a sectional title.
Jaynes, who has played travel basketball for Indiana Elite Thunder the past three years, is glad to have her decision out of the way before her senior year.
“I’m very happy,” Jaynes said. “I was going to try to just enjoy my senior year. The fact that this (coronavirus) pandemic happened kind of pushed up this process. Since the AAU season got canceled, I just had to weigh every option, and Butler just fit my personality the best.”
Jaynes, who plans to major in business at Butler, has played both volleyball and basketball while growing up. She helped Trinity’s volleyball team reach the Class A state final last fall.
With three starters returning to the basketball team, including Jaynes and leading scorer Bailey Tabeling, Jaynes is hoping to make a deeper run next postseason.
“I have higher expectations this coming year than I did this past year,” Jaynes said. “Hopefully, we exceed those and can go a little further.”
