If there is a sport Jenna Wood can't conquer, she has yet to find it.
The senior at Lebanon High, the St. Clair County Journal Female Athlete of the Year for the 2009-10 school year, competes in volleyball, basketball and softball, and also is a Greyhounds cheerleader. Prior to high school, she was an accomplished gymnast.
"She's a good student and a good athlete and you can coach her," said Lebanon softball coach Hank Feldt. "She plays summer ball and she works at it all the time.
"She's just a real good kid. If I had a daughter, I would want her to be like Jenna."
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Wood's brother, Blake, earned male Athlete of the Year honors in 2008.
"I was kind of shocked (being named Athlete of the Year) because Blake had won it, which is pretty cool for a brother and sister," said Wood, who along with other athletes from the Suburban Journals circulation area will be honored prior to the Cardinals-Atlanta Braves game Tuesday at Busch Stadium,
"I like being well-rounded. If you ask anyone what type of person I am, they'll say 'she's in everything.' I love sports and my grades are always important, too.
"I'm in Ecology Club and I went to Costa Rica for that (planting trees and constructing a sidewalk for school children). I also got inducted into National Honor Society, so I stay busy all the time."
Wood was especially busy during the winter, playing basketball for the girls team and cheering for the boys team.
"The hardest thing was playing a basketball game and then having my dad get me to the boys game to cheer," Wood said. "But I've been doing sports since I was 6, when I started in gymnastics (at Midwest Twisters in O'Fallon). That was 20 to 25 hours a week from 4 to 8 at night, so I would come home and do my homework and go to bed. I'd get up the next morning, go to school and do it all over again.
"I did that from first grade through eighth grade. I quit right before going into high school so I could do sports."
"Once she sets her mind on something, she brings that same kind of dedication to everything she does," said Lebanon cheerleading coach Kelley Rutherford. "She got along with the other girls really well. She seems to get along with everyone at school."
Wood's gymnastics background is still important as she prepares to graduate from high school.
"Without it, I wouldn't be as athletic as I am today," said Wood, who reached Level 9 while with the Midwest Twisters. "I can jump and I can tumble. Strength-wise, it also helped me a lot because we worked out every day."
Softball is probably Wood's best sport and the one she will play in college, at Maryville University in St. Louis.
"I like it the most, but it hasn't come easy to me - it's something you have to work at," Wood said. "I enjoy hitting so much. Going to state my freshman and sophomore years was like a shock because I had never done anything like that.
"I've been playing since I was 5 and I started with T-ball. They used to call me 'Jenna McGwire' when I was little because I could hit. I even played on my brother's baseball team a few times when they needed a sub."
As a junior, Wood batted .451 with 14 RBIs. She's been even better this year, batting .552 with 19 RBIs and 14 extra-base hits, including two home runs, through Sunday.
"I'm not sure what the difference is, but I think it's just having an extra year of experience," said Wood, who has earned 14 varsity letters at Lebanon. "This is my fourth year as a starter, so that has definitely helped.
Wood has a solid relationship with Feldt, who this spring is celebrating his 50th anniversary of coaching at the school.
"Pretty much every sport I've played, he's helped me with," Wood said. "He knows everything about every sport."
In basketball, Wood joined the team midway through her sophomore year, when coach Kerry Allen needed another player.
"I don't even know if I wanted to play," said Wood, who averaged 6.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game as a senior. "I saw my brother play and I said 'I can probably do that.' But it was hard - I couldn't even dribble the ball without kicking it off my foot and I couldn't make a layup. I wanted to quit almost before I started and I didn't know what I had gotten myself into.
"I started coming in with Mr. Feldt on Sundays and working for three hours on my shooting. Once I developed a shot, I knew I couldn't stop playing."
Allen said Wood pours everything she has into whatever she does.
"The thing that impresses me most about Jenna is her will to compete," Allen said of Wood, the only senior on this year's team. "When she does something, she does it with the idea to be the best that she can be. She puts her heart and soul into it and she doesn't like to lose."
Woods' progress in volleyball was similar, as she started playing her sophomore year.
"Once I quit gymnastics, I was looking for something to keep me in shape," said Wood, who played outside hitter as a senior. "I could jump and I could actually spike a ball. I caught onto that quicker than basketball. For me, it was more of a conditioning thing for softball, but I ended up loving it."
"She was figuring out how to play the game in August of her sophomore year and she was a varsity starter the following year," said Lebanon girls basketball coach Jeff Teasley. "That's a lot of pressure, but it showed her athleticism in that she was able to step into that role so quickly."
As with her Athlete of the Year selection, Wood is following in her brother's footsteps. Blake is a sophomore baseball player at Maryville, and Wood plans to study occupational therapy there.
"My top choices were McKendree, Maryville and SLU," Wood said. "I had visited Maryville because of Blake going there and I felt it was the best choice for me. It's about an hour from home and I'm not making the step to a huge college. Maryville is smaller, so it should be like the same feel.
"I'm also thinking about doing cheerleading. I guess I can't settle for doing just one thing."
