'She has a God-given talent': Inside Jordynn Parnell's summer as a top softball prospect

South View softball 's junior pitcher has taken her successful two years in high school and capitalized on her talent throughout the summer.

As a member of Mojo of the Carolinas 18 and under softball team, South View's 15-year-old Jordynn Parnell is taking the softball world by storm after a successful summer.

During her travel ball summer, Parnell has done more traveling than she's ever imagined the game of softball would take her; visiting Spartanburg, South Carolina, Asheville, Atlanta, Tennessee, Colorado, and Myrtle Beach — all for tournaments where she's come out as one of the top prospects in North Carolina.

"It's my recruiting year, so I'm playing the best that I can — I'm playing a lot more free this summer," Parnell said.

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How it began

It all started for Jordynn at 9 years old when her mom, Serita Parnell saw Jordynn's love for softball, when she would roll up a pair of socks and practice her pitching motion in the house due to the inability to afford expensive pitching lessons. Eventually, expanding that dedicated spirit, Jordynn took the initiative to perfect her pitching by tossing a softball along the brick wall of her then-apartment building on a consistent basis.

"She knew she wanted to be a pitcher," Serita Parnell said. "I never had to tell her to go out there and pitch — she always did it on her own. I'd hear the ball hitting against the brick of our building, and it was the perfect strike zone for her."

Constructing mental toughness

When it comes to laying down the foundations of becoming mentally tough, some are born with the skill, others learn it as they go, and the rest can never grasp the mastery.

Jordynn Parnell was born with it, and she has learned how to hone in on a mentality that most 15-year-olds can't fathom — situational toughness.

"I remember during 14U, she'd walk a batter, and you'd see the frustration on her face," Serita Parnell said. "Now, if she gives up a home run, she takes it personal and comes back to strike out the next two batters — she just doesn't fall apart."

This summer, Jordynn Parnell began the season with her age bracket at 16U and quickly moved up to the 18U age group after one tournament with Mojo of the Carolinas. And now, after playing up in age, her frustrations have subsided, keeping a level head is one of her top goals.

"I'm not exactly sure how I become so mentally tough, I just try to always focus on the next thing," Parnell said. "Everyone messes up so you can't pin everything on that one mistake. Giving up a home run isn't the end of the world so I just make sure I tell myself that."

Making sacrifices for the future

For summer travel ball, traveling is one of the key pieces to getting to major tournaments and gaining exposure for the players — and for this, making sacrifices is most important.

Sacrificing is never easy for anyone, especially teenagers, but neither Jordynn nor her mom, a single mother of four, mind making a few to better the future of the family.

"It's been kind of hard, but it's very fun," Serita Parnell said. "It's a lot of money, but I tell anyone that it's priceless. There are very few games that I've had to miss, but I just find a way to make it happen."

During her busy summers, Jordynn Parnell has skipped out on celebrating birthdays with friends and family; her mom spent Mother's Day traveling to out-of-state tournaments and taking time off from work to support her daughter.

"My mom is my biggest supporter," Parnell said. "She's always in my corner, and I can always count on her to be in the stands being the loudest one.

"Softball is all I ever knew at a young age, so when I sacrifice hanging out with friends, they understand because they know that I have a goal that I want to get to, and I have to stand out."

Building a brand

So far, Parnell's social media presence is one of the largest in the Fayetteville area among student-athletes, and is strongly known in the softball community.

Parnell has over 10,000 Tiktok followers, and over 2,500 followers on X so monetizing herself and building a brand is the next step for Jordynn.

Her social media tactics include tagging different brands of bats, in hopes of gaining brand ambassador deals. And in the end, Jordynn's goal is to write a book about her journey and detail everything that she's gone through during her softball career.

College interest

Parnell is approaching her junior year and has already collected many accolades in her two-year high school career so far including first-team United 8 all-conference, Best of 910Preps All-stars, All-District team and All-state as a sophomore.

As a rising junior, Parnell can't receive college scholarship offers until Sept. 1, but that hasn't stopped the college coaches from watching closely.

Staffers from North Carolina A&T, Duke, UNC, Claflin, NC State, Coastal Carolina, and Gardner Webb are just a few who have come see her this summer.

"Duke and A&T have shown the most interest by supporting her at camps and coming to her games, and we're really excited for what the future holds," Serita Parnell said.

"I always tell her, when the going gets good, you have to keep things going — she has a God-given talent, so we want to make sure she's at her best."

During her summer, Jordynn Parnell put up spectacular numbers at the plate with a .420 slugging percentage on 34 hits. She hit 20 home runs, and four doubles, along with 38 RBIs. In the circle, she pitched for 56 innings with a 1.875 ERA, and 93 strikeouts, and walking only 27 batters.

What's next?

In her freshman and sophomore year at South View, Parnell was a three-sport athlete, competing in volleyball, basketball, and softball. This year as recruiting is ramping up for the junior, she will forgo volleyball season while learning to take time off and focus on things outside of sports until basketball season where she was a major contributor for the 20-win Tigers.

"Each sport runs into each other, and skipping volleyball will give me time to rest and also pick up more classes to help my recruiting," Parnell said.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: 'She has a God-given talent': Inside Jordynn Parnell's summer as a top softball prospect