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Teen of the Week: Parkersburg South senior Kara Snyder at home in nature

By Douglass Huxley 5 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Kara Snyder is a senior at Parkersburg South High School where she is on course to graduate at the top 10% of her class, has been on the volleyball and softball teams her entire career and has served as a captain for each the last two years.

"I've been playing softball since I was like, 6," Snyder said. "That's kind of been my sport, but I started playing volleyball in seventh grade, and I just love it. I love them equally, but I definitely put a lot more time into softball."

Snyder said she enjoys being outside on the field and spending time with her supportive teammates. She said the team is preparing for an upcoming sectional tournament and is having a good year.

""We started off really strong," Snyder said, adding they won their first four games. "We've had our ups and downs, but we have stayed pretty consistently strong the whole season."

Snyder said one of her favorite moments as a South Patriot came her sophomore year when the team was playing Point Pleasant and they were down 9-11 going into the bottom of the last inning with two outs and two girls on base.

"I ended up hitting a walk-off home run to win the game as a sophomore," Snyder said. "That was probably my favorite, most memorable (moment)."

Snyder said her father, Ryan Snyder, got her into t-ball when she was 7 and that he was the one that drives her to her out-of-town tournaments for her travel softball team.

"There's a lot of driving," Snyder said. "I really do have some of the best times sitting in the car, driving through some state with my dad, just talking."

Snyder said she also enjoys going turkey hunting with her father although she describes herself as not being the best shot.

"I'm a pretty awful shot," Snyder said. "But I really love going out and my dad is a great hunter. Just going out and sitting with him in the woods and being able to just experience the outdoors. It's so much fun."

Snyder said she sometimes feels bad because her father will do all this work to call a turkey in and she'll miss the shot. She said her father will tell her it's OK, everyone misses.

"I feel like I miss a lot, though," Snyder joked.

She said she does have a few kills and one of the more memorable ones came when her and her father were hunting in Rockport and a group of turkeys came walking through a clearing. She said one stopped and she lined up to take the shot.

"I'm already shaking because I'm nervous. I'm like, if I miss he's going to kill me, because there's no missing this turkey," Snyder said. "I end up shooting it, and he had to tell me to be quiet because I was like, 'Yes! I got it!' And he said I had to be quiet because what if there are other ones and I was like, 'I don't care. I got this one.'"

Snyder said she enjoys problem solving and her favorite subject in school is math because there's always an answer and it feels like a win when you find that answer. She said this love of solving problems began in grade school and lead her to want to pursue a career as a forensic examiner.

"I've always liked working around problems," Snyder said. "I've always been obsessed with logical problem solving and just using your brain to do something you don't think you can."

Snyder will be attending West Virginia University in the fall.

"They have one of the top forensic programs in the country," Snyder said. "It doesn't hurt that it's close to home and my sister already goes there. It's just always been a goal of mine to go up and be a Mountaineer."

In her free time Snyder said she enjoys snowboarding and spending time on the river. She said if she had her choice, though, she'd rather be on a mountain.

"I'm definitely in the mountains," Snyder said. "I mean, I love being out in the sun but I am such a winter person. I just love being out there in the snow."

Snyder said being a good person is the bare minimum for people. She said the poem "Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Lameris sums that.

"It's about how people owe it to each other to be good," Snyder said. "With my job, what I'm trying to do, I feel like I just kind of owe it to everyone to be able to put my own work in and use what I've been blessed with for good."

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

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