Sargent sisters help lead Cardinals

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WEBB CITY, Mo. — Chrissie (Greninger) Sargent said the curious relationship she has had with the number three began the day she was born.

She was born a triplet, with sister Nicole (Greninger) Moore and brother Mark Greninger.

Today she has three daughters — senior Kylee Sargent, junior Abby Sargent and sophomore Brecklynn Sargent — who help lead the Webb City Cardinals girls basketball team on the court.

The thought of three sisters sharing the court is nothing new to Chrissie Sargent. During her high school career, she played with her older sister by 10 months, Annie Greninger, as well as Moore.

“Everyone thought we were the triplets,” Chrissie Sargent said.

Mark Greninger, the third triplet, chose a different path, later serving his country as a decorated member of the military, including service in Afghanistan.

Foundation

As sisters, Sargent and Moore were a big part of the foundation of Webb City girls basketball in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As seniors, Moore averaged 18.75 points per game, 10.11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Chrissie Sargent added 14.19 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3.1 steals.

Both Chrissie Sargent and Moore played for Missouri Southern State University, with Moore staying for her entire career and Chrissie Sargent transferring to Crowder College after a redshirt season.

This past October, the sisters — who both earned all-state status their junior and senior years — were inducted into the Webb City Cardinals Hall of Fame. Both were also key cogs in the softball program at Webb City High School, leading the Cardinals to a second-place finish at the Class 3 state tournament in 2000.

Their high school basketball careers ended more than 20 years ago, but their legacy continues today with another set of three girls from the family tree — Kylee, Abby and Brecklynn Sargent — who also followed their mom and aunt with success on the court and on the softball diamond.

Kylee Sargent said playing in the shadow of two Hall of Famers isn’t creating pressure on her to preform but instead serves as an example of playing her best, no matter the outcome.

Abby Sargent said she also is able to appreciate it, but does not feel any pressure from the success of her mom and aunt on the court.

“If that’s the path that God has for me, then I’d love to be able to meet that, if not go beyond that,” Abby Sargent said. “But if not, I’m just playing for Jesus.”

Brecklynn Sargent also said she feels no pressure following in the footsteps of her mom and aunt.

“Our mom has always taught us to just give our best effort ...,” she said. “Our mom has always positively reinforced us when we have given our best effort, so there has been no pressure at all.”

On the court

On the court, Chrissie Sargent said she sees aspects of herself in all three of her daughters.

“Abby’s like a carbon copy of me, but there are small segments of me I see in all my girls,” Chrissie Sargent said. “Defensively, I was more like Brecklynn.”

In Kylee Sargent, the shorter of the three sisters, their mom sees her heart.

“I always wished I was taller,” Chrissie Sargent said. “I always had a dream of going to the WNBA, but I felt like my height prevented me from experiencing that dream. Kylie is about my height, and I tell her, ‘God just has a different outlook for you.’ It seems like Kylee has always had to fight for everything, and that is where her heart and determination come from.”

Chrissie Sargent said she encouraged her girls to get involved in sports at an early age.

“I don’t think they had a choice,” she said with a smile. “I started them out in Carterville at 3 years old. Basketball was such a big part of my life and became my identity, so I try to instill in my girls that one day, this is going to end and that it is not their identity. It’s something that you do, but it’s not who you are. I tell them to enjoy it while it lasts because it’s not going to be forever. I think that drives them to give it all they have.”

She said sports have given her much and what she hopes her daughters also gain from playing.

“It’s not just about the satisfaction of competing and being proud of accomplishing your own goals,” Chrissie Sargent said. “It’s also about connections and relationships and spreading kindness and love.”

One of those formative connections for her was coach Walter Resa, who helped create the softball program at Webb City High School.

“Coach Resa and I had such an amazing relationship. He coached me in both basketball and softball. There was such a level of respect I had for him and a level of respect he had for me,” Chrissie Sargent said. "Still to this day, that coach had such an impact on my life and I will always think of him in such a positive light.”

She said she tries to convey to her own girls to not only try to connect with their coaches but also their teammates because those healthy connections are lasting. She said that is what she hopes her girls gain most from their involvement in sports.

'My best friends'

Kylee, Abby and Brecklynn Sargent shared both the upside and downside of playing with their sisters.

“They are my best friends and a constant source of support that I always get on and off the court. If it’s a rough game, they are always there to support me. But sometimes we get a little too competitive with each other,” Kylee Sargent said with a smile. “Sometimes we take it a little too seriously on the court, but it’s like built-in best friends. I wish everyone had the opportunity to play with their siblings.”

“The upside is just getting the opportunity,” Abby Sargent said. “I think anyone would love to play with their siblings. I just love passing the ball to the girls and them getting a bucket or them passing to me and me getting a bucket. It is just a really cool feeling. On the downside, we really go at it at practice. We definitely have our moments, but there are definitely more bright sides then downsides.”

“All our memories are from playing softball and basketball and laughing and having fun together with all our teammates,” Brecklynn Sargent said. “As far as a downside, we are all really competitive and just go, go, go. If we make another one mad, sometimes we take it out on each other, but there aren’t whole lot of downsides.”

In two years, the youngest of the three, Brecklynn Sargent, will put a bow on her high school career, but waiting in the wings are — you guessed it — three more sisters from the family lineage who are already active in sports, including basketball.

Nicole Moore’s daughters, sixth grader Maddie Moore and 9-year-old twins Markie and Morgan Moore, may well be another set of three sisters to share the court at the same time for the Cardinals.

Chrissie Sargent said her three nieces bear an uncanny resemblance to her own daughters.

“They not only look like my girls, but they act and play like them too," she said. “They seem to have the same disposition on the court. It’s pretty wild to see.”

Chrissie Sargent mused about the Greninger-Sargent-Moore triad at Webb City.

“I think it’s wild that we three (sisters) played basketball together, my three girls are playing basketball together, and then my sister Nicole’s three daughters will get to play basketball together. I tell Nic (Nicole) all the time, ‘Why didn’t we plan this better? Because with your three girls and my three girls, we could have had our own basketball team,” Chrissie Sargent said with a laugh.

Kylee Sargent said she and her sisters enjoy helping their cousins grow in their love of sports.

“Having them come up right behind us, I’m excited for them to pick up the legacy,” Kylee said.

“I love going to their games,” Abby Sargent said of her cousins. “They work just as hard as us, and it’s really fun to see them at such a young age with bright, red faces, breathing hard after a game and seeing how hard they play.”

Brecklynn Sargent said she too thinks her cousins’ futures are bright.

“They are really hard workers, like us,” she said. “Their mom coaches them about effort, effort, effort. So I think after we all graduate, they will all come up to be like another legacy.”

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