Sydney Romero - Softball Coach - University of Oregon Athletics

Sydney Romero

Title:
Assistant Coach

Sydney Romero, a two-time NCAA champion as both a coach and a player, is in her third season as assistant coach on Melyssa Lombardi's staff, which was named the NFCA Regional Staff of the Year in both 2024 and 2025.

Oregon's defense anchored the team's Big Ten Championship and Women's College World Series run in 2025. The team went 54-10 and 19-3 in the Big Ten. The 54 victories were tied for the second-most in team history. The team set a program record for fielding percentage at .980, which ranked fifth nationally. Kedre Luschar, Rylee McCoy and Paige Sinicki were all named to the Big Ten All-Defensive team.

Luschar and McCoy earned NFCA All-America second team honors, while Lyndsey Grein was a third team All-America selection.

Romero was drafted by the Talons in the 2025 Athletes Unlimited Softball League professional draft. She was the 51st overall pick (11th round) and was a part of the AUSL’s inaugural season. She helped lead the Talons to the regular season title and then hit the eventual game-winning home run in the sixth inning during the Talons' series-clinching 2025 championship series win over the Bandits

During her first season in Eugene, Romero was instrumental in the development of Gold Glove shortstop Paige Sinicki, the first Duck to win a Gold Glove. Sinicki was also named the Pac-12's co-Defensive Player of the Year. Oregon finished the season with a .974 fielding percentage, which ranks tied for third in program history.

Romero joined Coach Melyssa Lombardi’s staff after stops at Duke and Oklahoma. She was an assistant coach at Duke in 2023 when the Blue Devils went 48-12 (19-5 in the ACC) and hosted an NCAA Super Regional for the first time in program history. She was Duke’s hitting and infield coach.

Romero mentored outfielder D’Auna Jennings, who earned NFCA All-America second team honors in 2023 after setting Duke’s single-season record for batting average (.462) and hits (80). Jennings ranked sixth nationally in both categories.

Prior to Duke, as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma, Romero helped the Sooners win back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. Oklahoma's staff was named the 2022 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division I National Coaching Staff of the Year, after going 59-3 overall. The Sooners were 56-4 in 2021.

In addition to her coaching duties, Romero has continued to play softball professionally as one of the top players with Athletes Unlimited since 2020. Prior to signing with AU, Romero was the third overall pick in the 2019 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Draft by the USSSA Pride, where she was named to the 2019 All-NPF Team.

Romero, who holds dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States, played for the Mexican National Team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

As a player at Oklahoma, Romero earned two first team All-America awards and won national championships with the Sooners in 2016 and 2017. She was named the 2019 Big 12 Player of the Year and was a top-three finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. Romero was also a 2019 Senior CLASS Award Finalist and was named to two Women’s College World Series all-tournament teams (2016, 2019).

The four-time all-Big 12 selection finished her career as Oklahoma’s all-time leader in at-bats (853) and doubles (58). She also ranked second in OU career history in hits (320), extra-base hits (121) and total bases (558); third in games played (258); fourth in RBIs (215); fifth in batting average (.375), runs scored (229) and home runs (54); sixth in assists (367) and seventh in slugging percentage (.654).

A native of San Diego, Calif., Romero graduated from Oklahoma with a degree in criminology in 2019. She then earned her master's degree in adult and higher education with an emphasis in intercollegiate athletics administration from Oklahoma in 2022.