Alan Babbitt: Welcome to the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast. My name is Alan Babbitt sports information director here at Hope College. It has been a pleasure this school year to talk with Hope College coaches and staff as we navigate the certainly interesting, to say the least 2020021 school year. With me today is head softball coach Mary VandeHoef, who is also the Dow Center director here at Hope College. Mary, it's been a year since you played a softball game, it's been longer since we've been able to even see a home softball game. You have been preparing to play here very soon. What's the mood, the excitement I don't know what the right word is, talk about how the softball team as we get closer to finally taking the field.
Mary VandeHoef:We are so excited to be able to play again. The fall was this really great energy and a renewed appreciation I would say after the loss of the 2020 season. Last spring was just really, really hard,hard for our seniors last year, Shelby (Steele), Jordyn (Diaz) and Amanda (Diaz), whose last games came way earlier and in a really unexpected way without warning. The returners had that same sense of loss as they were going through, but the freshmen lost their high school senior seasons, and so it was a pretty unifying thing in the fall. Sometimes, freshmen coming off of high school we're coming off of our returning season Everyone had sort of that loss and had been struggling with it in their own ways. It took a hit to our mental health, no question, and last year navigating online classes. It just was a lot and a lot of different feelings and emotions for our players. We tried to do our best, really channel that energy in the fall and that appreciation of when we get the chance to do it. In my lifetime I've never seen something like that get taken away. To have it happen when you're playing yours is really hard. We wanted to acknowledge that but also be like moving forward and pressing on. We really were able to make the most of our fall season. I'm really grateful we were able to get a chance to do so. Now, we're just getting better every day and itching to get out there and play and compete. I cannot wait to compete with this team and just get after it and enjoy it, but also take a lot of pride and try to do things really well and with excellence and getting after it. This group is embracing that; I think they're whenever let's play and let's go. We'll be excited to get back out there, no question.
Alan Babbitt: I know, culture is important for you for this softball program and the athletic department as a whole. How do you think that culture helped you absorb everything that has been going on to be there for each other and wherever different stages people were at. You were able to rally together and not feel isolated, which is something, obviously, is a real challenge here in this pandemic.
Mary VandeHoef: That was an aspect that was really hard both last spring, the summer, this last break of these two months between first and second semesters. There definitely have been aspects that are tough. As far as our culture, we talk about being a five-minute friend, being that friend and teammate who is there for each other when you need it in those moments you need someone to talk to, or to facetime or text. I think they really did a good job of staying connected in their own way. We try not to have that be to prescribe so that it feels organic and authentic and people can know you gravitate towards. We're certainly connected as a team. There's also teammates you have closer connections with and letting some of those things play out. We wanted our freshmen to feel connected and a part of things and that's been tougher with some of the guidelines on campus, understandably so, and some of those policies being different so, that really had had to work at the cultural piece, I think our assistant coaches are incredible and are at helping our culture to, helping our kids feel cared for and feel like they've got someone they can talk to, and that are going to be reaching out in that so they process through things. I think it's one thing to process through everyone; I think it's another thing to process through with a coach or a mentor or someone that just has a little bit more space or distance from the immediacy of the things that they're feeling. I know their wisdom helped our players and that's where having a coaching staff — we're five women who have really strengths that are really different. That has really served our culture well and it's always my hope that every one of our players definitely knows that they can come to one of our coaches at any point and just say, I'm struggling. We can grab coffee and talk. Our coaches love doing that sort of thing with us with our players as well, so that certainly helps to have good leadership here. Our seniors are doing a great job; they're a great group, and they have good ideas and are really doing their best to keep the team together, which is good.
Alan Babbitt: Let's talk about this year's team, give us a scouting report. How have you guys prepared between practice at the Dow Center and SportsQuest in Zealand, the indoor facility there. What have you been working on preparing to take the field?
Mary VandeHoef: SportsQuest is a real blessing being able to get there, a couple times a week when their members aren't is such a great thing for us. To be able to go live, to be able to have a lot of batting cages out there has been great for our preparation as well as at the Dow the rest of time. We are excited about our group. We've got five seniors, all of whom certainly will have an opportunity for impact this year: Morgan Kanouse, Savannah Dixon, Jo Cook, they've been in the everyday lineup since their freshman year and that experience on the field is really critical. Morgan started every game at third as a freshman and then moved behind the plate ever since then and does a tremendous job back there for us. Savannah is great on both sides of the ball: incredible defensive shortstop and provides a lot of power for us in the lineup and Jo Cook as well in the outfield is a really great source of energy and leadership for us. She is great read on the ball in the outfield and is a five-tool player at the plate. We really rely on that experience. Megan Soderbloom has been big for us these last two years, both in the circle. She's a great defensive first baseman and with her offense. We're so excited to see what she'll bring this year in her senior season and Claire Bates will definitely be in the mix and have some great opportunities at the designated player spot. She has really come on strong offensively in these last two years of her career. We have great senior leadership and are excited to see what each of them will do. Kaelin Callow and Arinn King are juniors who make up the right side of our infield. They bring really good things offensively as well. Then Avery (Slancik) and Chloe (Haskins) are both pitchers who have some really good, solid innings under their belt heading into their junior years and in their first two years. Bre Nolan wraps up that junior class and has looked great at third. She is likely to get a shot there this year as well. We are excited about both our freshmen sophomore classes, certainly the sophomores in a unique situation of not having much on the field opportunities in games last spring, so not as much game experience. We are excited seeing what they'll do for us. We think we do have some freshmen and sophomores who will be some key pieces for us this year.
Alan Babbitt: Every softball team has a unique identity or style or trait, Some are power-based. Some are speed and contact. How would you assess offensively how you are going to try to attack opponents this year.
Mary VandeHoef: It's a pretty fun, aggressive style softball we want to do. I don't want to face any pitcher who could shut us down offensively so I want to have a variety of ways to score. We like to have some short game slappers, scrappers in our lineup who can find ways to get on and be tablesetters for us. We also want the ability to drive in those types of players. We like to have power certainly in different spots in our lineup to be able to, with one swing really change the momentum of the game. I also really value the contact hitter who minimizes the strikeouts, hit singles and doubles to score runs, maybe have a little more compact swing so that we are putting the ball in play and forcing defenses to make plays. We very much view baserunning as a critical part of our offensive attack and short game as well, so we really want to get it done there. We want to be a tough team to beat and I think that this year, our offense is looking really solid. We've worked at that piece a lot in this fall and through the offseason. As we've been going into preseason we are so excited to see what this offense will do for us. Certainly our sport is one where you've got to pitch it and defend it to be in games and we are optimistic about what will happen in those two areas as well.
Alan Babbitt: With your pictures, how are you approaching them? What are you asking for them when they're on that mound? It is building that trust with the defense so that they know they're making hitters put the ball in play versus obviously walks are always a concern, as an old pitcher like myself as a baseball player, walks are just killer.
Mary VandeHoef: I want pitchers who want the ball in their hand. I want a pitching staff that is a unit that wants to compete together plus trusts the decisions that we will make as coaches for the combination and the way we utilize our staff. We have five pitchers on our roster and I absolutely think that each of them has the opportunity to give us good innings so that's always a fun part of the first games of a season is in finding combinations work well together, who has a great compliment to come in and shut a game down, who can get us twice through the lineup. What we're looking for from our pitchers is pitchers who want to compete, who trust their stuff, who trust the defense behind them. We can certainly minimize walks, minimize the damage that's done when we miss a spot. We want pitchers who allow a defense to have confidence in them by their demeanor, by their confidence in themselves, by their ability to put the team on their back when we might not have a sharp of an inning as we'd like defensively. We'd also like for that defense to be, when there may be another team scattering some hits that the pitcher knows she can throw and trust that the defense behind me is going to make it happen. I just want there to be a real mutual belief in both of those directions. We want the pitchers and the defense to be in it together and be and be competing.
Alan Babbitt: The schedule this year, obviously, is a little different because of the pandemic. You are scheduled to open with a doubleheader down at Hanover Indiana and March 6 and then we'll visit Defiance (Ohio) a week later before finally opening up at Wolters Stadium against Franklin (Indiana) on March 20. From there you're adding some more MIAA doubleheaders against two different teams in one day. They won't count toward the league standings but obviously a great opportunity to get some more games. Talk about your schedule and how you assess it.
Mary VandeHoef: Our schedule is definitely different. First I would be remiss to not mention just how critical it is to lose our spring trip, I mean there's just there's certainly the aspect of playing 12 teams from across the country, trying to get as tough of schedules, so we can be tested well for the MIAA doubleheaders. Plus, the team aspect of our spring trip every year, the one week of the year, when they are not balancing classes with softball, the team bonding that happens down there …. you start to see freshmen personalities come up that we didn't see, just so many of those things that are really special. That's been a hard transition I know for our players. That will be a big adjustment and it means the importance of some of the team building that we're doing in some things within practice and what we are able to do there becomes a little bit more critical this year. That is a loss, both on the field and off the field, but we're excited we have a 40 game schedule. We are excited for what it will look like. The mixture of non-league games and the tri weekends within our conference, I think it's a great solution to get us to recover some of the games that we won't play down in Florida that are against teams we know are testing at the level that we expect in our league. To have a three-game day with three teams, I think that those days will have some fun atmosphere. I just want to play as many games as possible and there'll be teams we've played before our MIAA doubleheader, there will be teams we haven't. We're going to play on the days we get a chance to play so you can't get worried about those things this year. It'll be great. It'll be an exciting season, and we know there can be ups and downs, seeing how winter sports and the teams that are getting a chance to compete, I also really am optimistic that our team will be able to weather the ups and downs, and maybe the unexpected things. I think we have steady leadership, and I think that our team will be well prepared to manage the changes that might come. I feel good about the schedule and the way it's come together and the solutions that our coaches and the MIAA have come together to land on and the athletic directors helping make that happen as well.
Alan Babbitt: You alluded to the level of play from the other league schools, the MIAA as a whole softball has been so deep, for many, many years. Calvin and Trine and Alma and on down. There's a lot obviously a lot of variables there, but just talk about what you expect to see from the league this year, based on just the tradition that is MIAA softball.
Mary VandeHoef: It's definitely a deep league and a deep sport within the MIAA, which is really good. There's times it doesn't feel good, but it really serves our teams well. It helps our strength of schedule to have so many strong teams on and so whoever doesn't win the conference tournament like we have a good shot to still make the NCAA tournament if you're in those top two or three spots, which is a good benefit. I think the mIAA going to be a dogfight. We've seen everybody's juniors and seniors and that's it, so there will be just a really unique aspect in just even game preparation being. Different things like hitting charts and spray charts and things that you have a good quantity of at-bats from the previous season, to go off of and less so. This year, not so it will be unique. I think it's just going to be a matter of being able to weather some of the storms that will come and being able to come ready to play and be in the moment and at one pitch at a time type mentality and I think that it'll be a fun race.
Alan Babbitt: This is your 11th season as head coach. What makes being the head coach of Hope College Softball special for you. You've had a lot of success, but what makes it just for you so rewarding.
Mary VandeHoef: The people and relationships is for sure the No. 1 thing. It's definitely what makes it special here. The assistant coaches, who are like family to me, who helped strengthen and encourage and help push through the tough stretches and have fun with, is such a key thing that makes it special. The alumni and players, who you get to see grow and develop and then leave this place and go change the world and have impact, it's just really, really special. To get to do what I do and to get to be a small part of players' lives, the 18 to 22 year range of life, is just a privilege to have a small chance for influence in those really formative years, That's just like something that makes it really, really special. The friendships within the athletic department, too. We have such a blessing here. Our athletic directors who are in unison with us and support us as coaches so incredibly well. To be at a place where our administration puts us in a position to win that's something that's important to me. When I interviewed here 11 years ago, the people and the commitment to excellence at this place is what stood out to me, and I would say, I found that to be true every day of my 11 years here.
Alan Babbitt: Did you always know you wanted to be a softball coach? Was there a moment, you as a player, had great experience at Central (Iowa) and some lifetime memories there, and also a legendary coach as well. Is that what inspired you to pursue coaching as a career? Where did it start for you?
Mary VandeHoef: I started coaching in high school. I coached our fifth-grade team in high school. I was coaching our middle school team at my high school, so I always had sort of a love of doing it. When I was younger I didn't really think of it as a career. At that point, I went to college. I thought I'd be in the business world. My first job out of college wasn't a great fit and coaching was always one of those things like sort of in the back of my mind. When I would be in a coaching environment, I always sort of felt like it was this place where I felt like alive and totally filled and where I was really able to put into use the gifts God's given me. I was in a job I wasn't happy in and wasn't feeling that fulfilled. Through the process, I thought about it and landed on 'Why not give it a go?' I decided I would want to coach at the college level so grad school became that next step, and my college helped me look at some options and land at a school where I could get a good master's degree that would be applicable to coaching and sports psychology was one that landed in. I wanted to be a Division III school with a female head coach that was a perennial winner. I found Ithaca College, which was really two great years of my life and learning more about coaching. I played for a male head coach so I really wanted that comparison point of working under a female head coach, which was a really powerful thing. I wanted to be able to coach for two years there. I really loved that experience and it really helped me realize that coaching was in my blood. I really didn't want to bite off more than I could chew in the coaching world so right after grad school I went back to Central as an assistant coach, the junior varsity coach and an assistant with varsity. I just keep learning from coaches who I knew and respected. My coach George Waters and his wife, Alicia O'Brien, who also has been a key mentor in my life as well both as a coach and as a friend. For those three years before coming to Hope and between grad school were also just really helpful firming up some of my beliefs and thoughts and ways that I would want to go about doing things as a coach.
Alan Babbitt: You have a rich experience with Division III Athletics as a student-athlete and now as a coach. What makes it something that you really think has value for someone that's considering what to do after they graduate from high school and want to keep playing?
Mary VandeHoef: I love D-III. I didn't know anything about the difference between D-III, D-II and D-I when I was going through my college search process. I landed at a school that I just felt like the right fit for me. The breadth of experience I got in college was priceless to me. Being able to do two sports as a freshman both volleyball and softball, I loved that. Getting a chance to narrow that and focus on softball the last three years. I was involved in campus ministries and things within student life. There are just so many things on campus. I feel like I lived every last drop of my college experience. I loved there was the flexibility to do that at a D-III school and to be able to compete and play at a high level. I competed in the College World Series. My four years of playing, which was a great experience, but also getting a lot of experiences off the field that helped shape me into who I was. I'm absolutely a believer in Division III. I think the sports at this level are the purest you're ever going to get. There's not a scholarship that is exterior motivation. You're playing the sport, because you love it. At the same time, though, at the D-III level, there are not many teams winning at the national level without players that could have gotten opportunities to play on at the scholarship level. They choose a school like Hope, like many in D-III because there is a little more balance, there are opportunities to be involved with. We get some players that they did everything in high school and they want to be able to have more opportunities than class and softball, eat sleep, and not much in the way of just social and being a college student. I find that Hope can be a real draw for some.
Alan Babbitt: You're still actively involved with campus with your role as Dow Center director and the work you've done there since you came here as help. Talk about what you do and how you try to make a positive impact there as well, in addition to the softball program.
Mary VandeHoef: Getting to run the Dow has sort of morphed over the years. I also was running intramurals for the first nine years at Hope. I ran the Dow with (Brian Morehouse). That switched recently to now being the Dow director. It's such a great way to be meeting more people through the whole Hope community. The Dow is so important to our campus. I think having a place to recreate and have some fun and be with your friends is important. I just think there's a lot of aspects of campus life that happens at the Dow that are fun to be facilitating. Also the community members, the faculty, the staff and their families that are in here at the noon basketball games, those types of things that happen here, make the responsibility really, really fun. It's a great position to know more of the Hope community and what makes this place special.
Alan Babbitt: Thank you for talking with us here at the Orange and Blue Podcast today, Mary. I'm going to be looking forward to seeing the snow melt soon and see you on the softball field. Good luck this spring.
Mary VandeHoef: Absolutely. Thanks Alan.
