Sadie Guyette is busy.
Whether it’s finishing out her senior year of high school, putting in work as one of the leaders of the Tualatin softball team or running her own business, she always has something occupying her time.
“She is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met, and not just on the softball field,” Tualatin Softball Head Coach Shannon Strode said. “She puts in the work in the classroom and in her personal life with the job, and she umpires for Tualatin Little League. The things she gets done in a day blows my mind.”
Guyette is about to graduate from Tualatin High School and will head to Mount Hood Community College in the fall, where she received a scholarship to play softball. For the past four years, she has been a member of the Tualatin softball team, cracking the starting lineup as a freshman.
In her senior season, Guyette was one of two Timberwolves selected to the All-Three Rivers League First Team, making it the fourth straight year she has been named to an all-league team.
While Guyette is focused on her softball career – she plans to go to Mount Hood for two years and hopes to play well enough to earn a spot at a Division I school – she also wants to impart her knowledge to younger kids.
About two years ago, Guyette started offering one-on-one hitting lessons. Since then, she has taught lessons to more than 50 girls. This summer, Guyette will also take over a summer camp that a local Little League previously ran, and she hopes that more than 100 girls will come out to learn.
“I remember being 8 or 10 years old and seeing the girls at high school clinics,” Guyette said. “I would’ve loved to have a lesson with one of them and have them teach me their ways.”
In the private instruction and the summer camp coaching, Guyette said she has found a new way to share her love of softball. She said one of the highlights of her senior year was trying to help motivate her teammates and keep everyone upbeat.
Guyette thinks she’s in a good place to do those same things for younger girls, since she’s close enough to their age to know how to talk to them, and is also still receiving coaching herself.
“I’ve found it’s more about how you say something than what you’re saying,” she said. “My biggest goal is to be a motivator and help them so they can end up being where I am today. A lot of girls at 10 years old aren’t sure if they want to keep going with the sport, but I think I can motivate them to stick with it and improve.”
Guyette’s coaching career started off after she tore her ACL during her freshman year. While she was recovering, her family installed a batting cage in their yard so she could work out while recovering from her injury. Guyette had a neighbor who asked if she could show their daughter some pointers, and things blossomed from there.
While Guyette knows she’ll be busy in college with softball and schoolwork, she plans to return to Tualatin every other week to continue coaching her softball students.
“It’s definitely something I will do in the future,” she said. “When I have kids, I know I want to be a coach, like my dad did for me.”
Guyette said she wants to attend law school after college, and even then, she thinks coaching will be part of her life once she’s done with that. She also wants to stay close to her students so she can keep showing up for them, just as her hitting coach, Nemo Teccisini, has done for her. He’s been her hitting coach for six-plus years and still attends her games.
“He’s the person I look up to the most in the softball world,” she said. “He has taught me everything I know about hitting and has helped me with my swing so much.”
Guyette already knows the feeling of seeing her students succeed, as two of her earliest students made their all-star teams this summer.
Strode isn’t surprised Guyette is already making an impact with younger kids.
“Our program is going to miss her, but it’s great she’s going to be working in the community still,” Strode said. “Every game this year, our stands were packed, especially with so many younger girls, and I know that’s because of her and all the kids she had coached.
“Even when we went to Glencoe for the playoffs, our stands were packed with kids. I 100 percent believe that’s because of Sadie and the work she has done in the community.”
Guyette said having the girls come to her game and cheer her on has been one of the most fun parts of her high school softball career.
“Any time they’re at a game, they run up and give me a big hug,” she said. “They’re my biggest supporters. I love them so much. They think I’m like a Disney princess.”
Anyone interested in learning more about hitting instruction or her coaching can text her at 503-481-6261 or visit Guyette’s website at sadieguyette.com.
