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By: Abby Vandenberg
March 6th
A warm sunny day in the beginning of June 6, 2023. A perfect day to go to the beach, an even more perfect day to play some softball. The dirt glistening and the balls clanking. Couldn’t be a better day for Hamilton to go to battle. As teams started arriving, you could feel the tension in the air as players surrounding were getting game ready. Possibly playing their final game of the season, to some the final game of their career. This was nothing for Hamilton though. The fierce Hamilton girls were ready to go to war and fight for their very first district title in 26 years.
Hamilton Softball hasn’t always been so determined to win a title, let alone a game. Nobody feared Hamilton’s team or thought of them as dangerous. They were like a joke. Like any other high school team it was filled with favoritism, drama, and no determination to be the best they could be and to take it, and thrive.
After the man who already had given so much of his time to kids and the school, Mark Behnke – loved by the community, took over the program the summer of 2019 things were about to look a lot different for the program.
With prior varsity coaching experience for Hamilton Football and Baseball, Behnke had a lot of knowledge on how to grow and sustain a program. When he got the position he had a plan and a goal and he wanted nothing more than for the Hamilton’s softball program and its girls to finally get what they deserve.
With hopes coming in high from the 2019-2020 team, it became a huge disappointment when that season was canceled due to COVID-19.
The Corona-Virus didn’t stop Coach Behnke and the future teams of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 from giving up on the program goals. Over the last couple of years Hamilton Softball has done an astonishing job with earning fundraiser money with unique, popular fundraising ideas – being able to supply new uniforms, a new scoreboard, renovations needed to the field, social media attention, and to strive for harder determination to end the season record feeling like there were no regrets.
With a heartbreaking end to the season of the first two teams after COVID, the 2023-2023 team was ready to make the end of season look differently. They were ready for hours and hours of hard work, determination, focus, and most important – the team to maybe reach their goal and bring home a district trophy.
“The biggest change I saw was a huge culture shift within the program and within school,” says Madie Jamrog. “When I was in middle school it seemed no one in the high school ever cared about softball and the team didn’t really want to be there to play. It was more of a social activity. Once I got into high school softball was more about winning and getting better everyday. The community and school started to notice softball more and we got more wins than ever. Softball has become a bigger topic of discussion than it was in years past.”
The day the girls have been working for months for was finally here, 06/03/23. They were nothing but ready to make history vs. South Haven on Hamilton’s home field.
Final score, 6-4. Hamilton showed up and finished what they were there to do. Emotions heavy, energy high, those girls were on cloud 9. Finally, Hamiltons now known to be a force to be reckoned with.
Alumni player Madie Jamrog (4 year varsity player, now attending and playing at Akron University) was a major contributor to the team’s success. Her energy and motivation pushed the team to keep fighting even when it was hard. Madie has followed the program’s progress since she was little.
“Hamilton Softball has helped me to become a better leader on the field and in my personal life,” Madie Jamrog explains. “The coaching staff always encouraged me to speak up and share my thoughts and that has helped me in every aspect of my life. Hamilton softball also taught me how to deal with adversity and overcome difficult situations. Hamilton Softball helped me build relationships with different people as well.”
Now onto the 2023-2024 season. With many strong seniors that left, only time will tell on what Hamilton Softball can achieve this year.
“I feel like we are going to have to be a lot mentally stronger than last year and be more open minded to different ideas.” Says Kianna Vork, a junior at Hamilton. “I think that we will be really good though because we have a lot of girls that want to be good and we have great seniors to help direct the team.”
The season starts March 11, 2024 …