Sometimes, life has a funny way of working itself out.
One can call it divine intervention. Another can call it fate.
Regardless of how circumstances happen, however, the opportunity to play college sports athletically, at any level, doesn't happen without hard work.
A 2024 graduate of South Webster High School who was a three-sport athlete, a two-time All-Ohioan in softball and a player that led the Jeeps to OHSAA Final Four appearances in both volleyball and softball, Skylar Zimmerman has continued enjoying similar success at the collegiate level.
Through nearly two full seasons of coming for NAIA Mount Vernon Nazarene, Zimmerman has proven herself as one of the best softball players not only in the Midwest, but nationally — as the sophomore outfielder is batting .418 with nine home runs, 85 RBI and 95 runs scored in 93 career games with the Cougars so far.
For Zimmerman, the opportunity simply represents another way that she can put South Webster on the map to the best of her ability.
"I feel very honored to be able to continue playing at this level," Zimmerman said. "It means everything to me because I worked so hard my entire life in every sport to help my little school of South Webster out, in any way that I could. To play at the next level — it just means that all my hard work has paid off. To play an important role on the team my freshman year and this year — it just validates my feelings on how hard that I've worked."
Sports, in the Rose and Zimmerman family, has been life. Zimmerman's grandfather, Mike Rose, was a terrific basketball player back in his day who was highly regarded across the area.
Her parents, Brandi Rose Zimmerman and Shanen Zimmerman, were terrific athletes not only at the high school level but then at Shawnee State, with Brandi helping lead Shawnee State to a NAIA National Runner-Up finish in 1996 in the sport of softball under legendary head coach Ralph Cole. Zimmerman also lettered in women's basketball and was among the letterwinners on Shawnee State's first NAIA Fab Four team in 1995 under legendary women's basketball head coach Robin Hagen-Smith.
Zimmerman, a First-Team NAIA All-American in 1996, was ultimately inducted into the Shawnee State Athletics Hall of Fame twice — individually as a player in 2016, then again with the entire 1996 softball team in 2024.
Skylar's late father, Shanen, had a pretty strong career himself. Zimmerman still is tied for first all-time in triples in a single season (seven), is first all-time for triples in a career (15) and is second all-time in single-season batting average (.458).
Then, there's Skylar's older brothers — Shane and Trae. Each multi-sport athletes in their own right, both were All-SOC honorees. Shane ultimately continued his own soccer career at Shawnee State after a three-sport career that saw Zimmerman lead South Webster to the district finals in boys basketball and the regional semifinals in both boys soccer and baseball in his senior season alone.
"Whenever I could pick up a ball," Zimmerman said of when her journey in sports began. "That's pretty much when I started playing. My family loves sports. My Dad (Shanen Zimmerman) was very athletic, played baseball in college and coached baseball. Whenever I could do it, he definitely made me do it."
Considering that much of her immediate family played a sport in college, Zimmerman felt that she needed to keep that legacy going.
"I wanted to play a sport in college my entire life," Zimmerman said. "I felt like that was what was expected of me. When I played travel sports, a lot of my coaches would tell me that I could play at the next level, and to contact them if I needed anything. That made me say, 'Okay, I can play at the next level in college.'"
Zimmerman, however, has made her own name with the successes that she's had.
A key rotational piece in volleyball, Zimmerman amassed 860 digs and 495 kills in her final three seasons of play in the sport to help South Webster go 74-6 in those three years of competition.
The Jeeps won no worse than a share of the SOC II Championship in each of those three seasons, and after advancing to the OHSAA State Final Four in Zimmerman's sophomore year, made it back to the OHSAA Division III Regional Semifinals in 2022 and the OHSAA Division III Regional Championship Game in 2023.
As a standout basketball talent as well, Zimmerman became the team's go-to scorer following the graduation of Bri Claxon, as Zimmerman averaged 15.7 points, four assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game as a junior followed by averages of 19.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.5 steals and three assists per game as a senior.
The Lady Jeeps went 25-21 over Zimmerman's final two seasons in a South Webster uniform despite being placed in Division III as one of the smaller schools in enrollment in that division before the expansion to seven divisions beginning with the 2024-25 campaign.