Her parents call her “The Switch.”

Like a light switch, Jaelynn Anthony toggles between the faces of her softball persona. Laughing and telling jokes one moment, she can be stone focused the next.

When the Oswego senior pitcher threw at state her sophomore and again her junior year, she was frightened. Not even her mom realized it.

“Nobody could tell I was nervous. I kind of just laugh, make myself as non-serious as I can be,” Anthony said. “When I was younger I was kind of crazy, I was not very focused. As I’ve got older I’ve realized that I can have fun – but there is a time and place for focus."

Anthony always flips the switch when the lights are brightest.

She came a strike away from throwing a no-hitter in a supersectional win over Marist her junior year. She went on to lead Oswego to its first state championship.

Anthony’s innings in the pitching circle were limited during the regular season this spring, preserving her for the postseason. And then the Purdue recruit went 28 innings without allowing an earned run during the playoffs. She also drove in the game-winning runs in the sectional final.

“Jae comes alive in the postseason,” Oswego coach Annie Scaramuzzi said. “We have seen that the last three seasons. She is a competitor out there. She turned it up a notch.”

Leading Oswego to its third consecutive state trophy, and rewriting the program record book along the way, Anthony is the Record Newspapers Player of the Year for the second straight season.

Voted a Class 4A first team All-Stater by the Illinois Coaches Association, Anthony batted .359 with a .421 on-base percentage and 1.165 OPS with 42 hits, 11 doubles, two triples, 10 homers, 33 RBIs and 30 runs scored. In the circle she posted a 13-8 record with a 2.34 ERA and 162 strikeouts over 140⅔ innings.

Anthony set records for career pitching wins, single-season pitching wins, career home runs, career strikeouts and career RBIs.

“I told Jae when our season was over, she would be the best player thus far to come through our program,” Scaramuzzi said. “I know we don’t have the success we’ve had without her.”

Sustained success this spring did not happen at first.

Oswego, with just three starters returning, started the season 0-4.

“It was very rough,” Anthony said. “I missed my teammates from last year I bunch. They were my best friends, people I will never forget. Getting to know new people, playing a sport I love, it’s not hard for me, but it was a change.”

Scaramuzzi knew that Anthony would lead the way in the circle. Every time Anthony was pitching she knew Oswego had a chance to win.

She led with her pitching and her hitting, but also Anthony’s happy-go-lucky personality that she brings to the softball field.

“It’s very evident that people around Jae feed off of her,” Scaramuzzi said. “Jae is the goofiest, silliest player that I have ever coached. She is so unserious and when she is her most unserious she plays the very best. She is always dancing, always having some joke to say at the most uncalled for times. There is zero filter.”

That is Anthony’s personality in its unvarnished splendor.

Diagnosed with ADHD when she was 7 years old, seeing it more end of fifth grade, Anthony finds that if she takes things too seriously she can’t focus as well. At the same time, she is very routine-oriented. She would rather start a game than finish it. She organizes the shirts in her closet by color and her room is always clean, the balanced, neat and organized side of Jaelynn.

“I have grown into it; it’s not as bad as when I was younger,” Anthony said. “I find that if I make a moment bigger than it is, then it can’t go my way. It’s really just muscle memory at this point.”

Scaramuzzi said you’d never see Anthony out in public and think she plays softball at such a competitive level. An awesome and funny person to be around, she lifts people up that are around her and can’t help but bring that positivity to the softball diamond.

“I know a lot of people strike out, give up a home run, they’ll get down on themselves. I’m not the kind of person to dwell on it,” Anthony said. “I have a job to do. They have a job. If I dwell on every bad thought it’s not going to help me. It is one ear out the other.”

As she looks back on her four-year Oswego varsity career, it’s hard for Anthony to put it all into words.

“Looking back on it, it’s just insane,” she said. “When we won state I was crying. I had goals when I got here, but not that many. Three trophies, three medals, it’s crazy.”