MUSKEGON TWP - Madison Snyder shed a few tears when she learned she had earned a spot on the Reeths-Puffer varsity softball team as a freshman, four long years ago.
"I was surprised," Snyder said, admitting that she cried a bit. "They were tears of happiness. I had just achieved a big goal of mine."
R-P head coach Sarah Bayle said she recognized some qualities in Snyder that convinced her to bring her up right away, despite the fact that she was only a ninth-grader.
"When I first saw her, I thought she could be a great No. 2 pitcher for us, and she did a phenomenal job," Bayle said. "But the main thing I saw was a great work ethic and passion for the game. I could tell she was someone who would never give up."
R-P softball standout Madison Snyder.
Bayle's decision turned out to be a very good one.
Snyder has gotten better every year she has played for the Rockets, as a powerful hitter and quality pitcher who eventually bloomed into an All-Stater.
And the Rockets became more successful over the first three years of her career, largely due to her efforts.
R-P finished 19-18 in Snyder's freshman year, then took a step forward with a 22-13 record in her sophomore season.
Last year, the Rockets broke through with a 34-5-1 record, an O-K Green conference championship and a Division 1 district championship.
Snyder has 15 career home runs for the Rockets. Photo/Jeremy Clark
"It was really exciting," Snyder said about the 2024 season. "The girls were all very passionate and all loved each other a lot. We had been working really hard to achieve our goals, and being able to do that last year meant a lot to all of us.
"I could tell, from my freshman year, that we were kind of young, but were definitely capable of doing great things after gaining more experience at the varsity level."
Snyder played a huge role in last year's success, particularly at the plate, when she hit a gaudy .407 with a .500 on base percentage. She had 28 singles, 10 doubles, 4 triples, 4 home runs, and knocked in 39 runs.
Those stats were enough to earn Snyder a spot as a first-team Division 1 All-Stater.
"I was shocked, at least at first," she said. "It's very competitive and I wasn't expecting it at all. But it was an honor to represent our school and community."
Unfinished business
The great 2024 season was the kind of year that Snyder had been working and living for. But she knew she had one more season left, and would be playing with a lot of very good teammates who were also returning to the roster this spring..
In short, she wanted her senior season to be even better, and by the time it's over, that may turn out to be the case.
But so far it's been a really good year - but not quite a great one - for the Rockets.
One complication arose when Byron Center and Jenison, two very strong softball schools, became part of the O-K Green conference in 2024-25..
Snyder beats out a throw to first. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets also made their own path more difficult by purposefully scheduling a lot of tough non-conference games, knowing that only better competition would make them a better team.
The result was a 22-10 record in the regular season, which the Rockets wrapped up on Wednesday.
There have been high points, like when R-P won its second consecutive Greater Muskegon Athletic Association Tournament championship this spring. There have also been tough days, like when the Rockets were swept in a three-game conference series by Byron Center, and lost two of those games 1-0, both in extra innings.
But the tough days have not changed Snyder's determination to help push her team at least a little further than last year, when the Rockets advanced to the Division 1 regional finals, just one win shy of the state quarterfinals.
R-P will try to start another long postseason run on Saturday, when they host a Division 1 district tournament and try to replicate their 2024 title.
Their opening game, at 10 a.m. will be a tough one against a good Grand Haven team that they split a doubleheader with earlier in the season. The winner will advance to the 2 p.m. championship game.
Snyder is one of the Rockets' two standout pitchers. Photo/Jeremy Clark
One loss would mean the end of the season for R-P, but Snyder is definitely not thinking about losing.
"This team has a lot of drive," said Snyder, who recently signed a letter of intent to play softball at Siena Heights University next year. "We work hard at practice every day. We are very motivated as a team and we will do whatever we can to achieve our goals together. Playing great teams has definitely helped us. We have now been in different situations that we may see in the postseason.
"We have never hung our heads after a loss. It's very easy to get frustrated, but we've done a good job of bouncing back every time, coming to practice eager to get better every day.
"We had a lot of fun last year, and now we have the opportunity to go even farther."
Really good pitcher, great hitter
While Snyder does a lot of things very well, there's no doubt that she has made the most noise with her bat.
The numbers tell the story.
Over four years of varsity, she has 146 hits, including 91 singles, 30 doubles, 9 triples and 15 home runs. She has knocked in 126 runs and scored 120.
Her 2025 stats mirror those numbers. As of about 10 days ago, Snyder was hitting .381 with a .480 on base percentage. She had 32 hits, including three doubles, three triples, four home runs and 20 RBIs.
Snyder hit .407 last year, when she was an All-Stater. Photo/Jeremy Clark
"She's definitely a power hitter," Coach Bayle said about Snyder. "She's been our No. 4 hitter since her sophomore year. She's very aggressive and sees the ball really well, and when she sees it, she's gonna smash it."
A good example of that came in an April 1 victory over Zeeland East. Snyder belted a home run far over the left field fence at R-P's field, even clearing a pine tree that sits well beyond the fence. The blast had an estimated distance of 240 feet.
"That was the hardest and longest hit ball I've seen in a long time," Bayle said.
Despite her success at the plate, Snyder says she prefers to pitch, even though she has shared that responsibility over the past two seasons.
Snyder chases down a fly ball in center field. Photo/Jeremy Clark
She said the greatest moment she can imagine in a softball game is when she's pitching and "gets a big out in a tight situation, like when the bases are loaded and I get a strikeout or a popup or ground ball. It's huge. I love that feeling."
She was the Rockets' No. 2 pitcher as a freshmen and No. 1 as a sophomore, but started sharing the top billing last year when sophomore Lainey McDaniel came along and started blowing hitters away with her fastball.
The two of them give the Rockets a great 1-2 pitching punch that most teams lack, and they complement each other perfectly. McDaniel is the flamethrower who strikes out dozens of batters, while Snyder relies on her control and uses the defense more.
The two of them shared a big day on April 22, when McDaniel pitched the first game of a doubleheader and reached her 400th career strikeout, then Snyder took over in Game 2 and recorded her 300th career strikeout.
Snyder recorded her 300th career strikeout this season. Photo/Jeremy Clark
This season Snyder has a 10-3 record in 85 innings in the pitching circle with 83 strikeouts, 27 walks and a very nice 2.30 earned run average.
"She has a drop ball, and the goal is to get people to hit it in the dirt or get a popup," Coach Bayle said. "She gets so many weak grounders and fly balls.
"It's great to have two really good pitchers, and they each bring something different to the team. Lainey was a little more effective last year, but Mady has been really bringing it this year."
Whether she's hitting, pitching or playing defense in the outfield, Snyder is adamant about one thing. She wants the Rockets to have another exciting state tournament experience, win at least another trophy or two, and prolong her awesome high school career for a few more weeks.
"This is my last year, and I want to play as many games as I can, just to soak it all in," she said.