Spark

In the 1920–21 season, coached by Bill Cornelisse, Calvin’s first women’s basketball team—the Rivalettes—took the court, won every game, and ushered in a new era of Calvin women’s athletics.

But seven seasons later, the team still struggled to build community support. A mid-season Chimes opinion piece about the 1927–28 team documented how the players were denied admission to a local Grand Rapids City League by the Calvin faculty and administration, struggled for practice time in the new on-campus gymnasium, and received little fan support from the student body.

Over the next 30 years, women’s basketball continued to be the primary offering for female student-athletes. Not until the 1950s did sports like tennis, team archery, and softball join the fray.

THE RISE OF A LEGACY

New Jersey native Doris Zuidema ’62 stood out as a star student- athlete during that era. Zuidema played four years of women’s basketball while also competing in team archery and tennis. Her athleticism and commitment to women’s athletics as an undergraduate set the stage for a notable coaching and administrative career.

Zuidema returned to Calvin in 1964 and served for the next 32 years as a professor, coach, and athletics administrator. For 13 years, she led women’s basketball while also coaching archery, tennis, field hockey, and golf.

“We had some wonderful athletes,” Zuidema said. “We didn’t always have prime access to facilities or the means of travel like the men’s teams did. We had to fight for everything we had, but we continued to grow and expand.”

Serving as Calvin’s first women’s athletic director, Zuidema broke barriers and opened new doors for female college athletes. She played a key role in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (AIAW) and guided Calvin women’s athletics into the Women’s Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WMIAA).

In 1978, the WMIAA merged with the MIAA to form a unified, single-league structure. Zuidema proceeded to help open five more sports to Calvin’s female student-athletes: swimming and diving, track and field, cross country, golf, and soccer.

CHAMPIONS IN THE MAKING

By the early 1980s, women’s athletics teams began to make their mark on a regular basis. The softball team, led by pitching stalwarts such as Sharon Boeve DeKleine ’85 and Laura Vroon Knapp ’84, advanced to the AIAW Division III World Series, hosting the event at the nearby Christian Reformed Recreation Center. Led by head coach Karla Wolters, Calvin advanced to its first NCAA III World Series in 1984.

Wolters also coached the Calvin women’s volleyball team, which placed fourth in the nation in 1984. In 1986, a senior-laden team led by All-Americans Julie Scholten Dykstra ex’87, Leah Calsbeek Schipper ’87, and Roxane Helmus Steenhuysen ’87 advanced to the national semifinals. Playing in front of a standing-room only crowd of nearly 4,000 fans, the Knights took two of the first three sets only to lose the match in a five-set heartbreaker.

Current Calvin head women’s volleyball coach and associate director of athletics Amber Blankespoor Warners ’90 was a starting freshman setter on the team and remembers the community impact of the event, despite the heartbreak.

“The crowd was electric,” Warners recalled. “One of the things that I took with me after that weekend were the comments from people who were amazed at the excitement of a women’s collegiate athletic event. It rallied our community in a way that had not happened before. The community was accustomed to being rallied by its male athletes, so this was a first.”

A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM BREAKS AWAY

In 1993, Renea Bluekamp Walkotten ’95 led Calvin to its first women’s national championship, by winning the individual cross country title. It marked the start of a Calvin women’s cross country surge led by head coach Nancy Meyer ’78.

Meyer flourished as a student-athlete in the 1970s, playing varsity volleyball and softball. She returned to Calvin as a professor and coach in 1979. She coached several sports over the years but left her strongest mark on women’s cross country.

In 1998, she led Calvin to its first women’s team national championship, marking a historic milestone. Meyer’s Knights repeated the feat in 1999.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL SERVES VICTORY

Meyer, who was appointed women’s athletic director in 1996, supported the Calvin women’s volleyball team on its run to its first national title in 2010. The Knights again claimed women’s volleyball national crowns in 2013 and 2016.

By that time, women’s volleyball had established a strong fan following. In 2012 and 2013, Calvin competed in the national finals at Hope’s DeVos Fieldhouse, losing in five sets in the final in 2012 and winning in five sets the following year. Both years featured sellout crowds of 3,600, filled with the Calvin faithful.

STILL SETTING THE STANDARD

Generations of Calvin’s female student-athletes have blazed new trails and redefined excellence. Calvin has produced multiple individual event national champions in track and field and swimming and diving. Multi-sport athletes Lisa Winkle Hammer ’07 and Carissa Verkaik Ratliff ’13 both earned the prestigious Josten’s Trophy in women’s basketball.

With Calvin in its sesquicentennial year as an institution, director of athletics, Jim Timmer, sums it up best. “Calvin University has been blessed by its women’s athletes, coaches, and teams. Their struggles, hard work, and achievements are woven into Calvin’s legacy.”