8 — Friday, April 7, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
For Wolverines, three voices form one vision
Every year, Carol Hutchins’
phone rings.
It’s the athletic department of yet
another college, and they want to
offer associate head coach Bonnie
Tholl and assistant coach Jennifer
Brundage head coaching positions.
And every year, these programs
receive the same answer.
The assistants always turn the
offers down.
When
asked
why
this
is,
Hutchins doesn’t need a second to
hesitate.
She provides a simple, yet
authentic, answer.
“I think they bleed blue.”
***
When Tholl graduated from
Michigan in 1991, she had already
made a name for herself in the
softball sphere.
As Hutchins put it:
“She was one of those kids who
was kind of a program changer.”
And that wasn’t an exaggeration.
Tholl — a four-year starter at
shortstop for the Wolverines from
1988 to 1991 — made history when
she became the first player to net
All-Big Ten First Team honors four
times.
During her tenure as a player,
Tholl was a captain, a record-setter
and a role model. She could have
left Michigan after her senior year
knowing she had already made
her mark, but she and Hutchins
both knew she wanted more. They
both knew she was meant to be a
Michigan coach.
“I think when you leave a place
that’s so special to you, you kind of
compare any other place you go to
the place that was special,” Tholl
said. “My vision and my thought
process was that someday, I wanted
to come back to Michigan.”
After working for two years as
an assistant coach of Indiana while
simultaneously obtaining a master’s
degree in athletic administration,
Tholl had the chance to return
to Ann Arbor much sooner than
she had anticipated. The current
assistant coach for the Wolverines
could only work part time, but
Hutchins was doing a majority of
the heavy lifting by herself and
needed more experienced hands on
deck. Tholl was the clear woman for
the job.
She returned to Ann Arbor for
the 1994 season, diving into her
second assistant coaching role just
three years out of college. She found
herself in uncharted territory,
working side by side with Hutchins
for the first time, instead of playing
for her.
It’s been 24 years, and Tholl has
never looked back.
***
Hutchins still remembers the
first time she saw Brundage play
softball up close. It was in a 1995
game
between
Michigan
and
UCLA, one of the best softball
programs at the time.
When the game ended, though,
the Wolverines were triumphant,
proving themselves worthy of
competing
with
the
big-name
teams. Despite the end result,
Hutchins found herself intrigued
by one Bruins player: Jennifer
Brundage.
“I just remember, I’m on third
base (as coach) and Jenn’s the
third baseman,” Hutchins said.
“And I admired her game and her
style.”
Brundage, a senior during that
game, batted .518 on the season,
above any other NCAA Division I
player that year. That season, she
broke the UCLA records for home
runs, runs batted-in and doubles.
After coaching as an assistant at
Tennessee-Chattanooga for a year,
she went back to UCLA for the 1997
season, having been offered the
assistant coaching spot.
At this time, Kelly Kovach
Schoenly, now the head coach at
Ohio State, worked as Hutchins’
pitching
coach.
But
in
1998,
Schoenly had been offered a position
at Penn State, a job that would be
both an upward move for her and
closer to her home in Pennsylvania.
Hutchins needed a new pitching
coach, and she thought of Brundage.
Having started in the circle just
five times for UCLA, she may have
seemed like an unusual choice at
first glance. But Hutchins had done
her research.
“(UCLA) was the only school
that didn’t recruit (Brundage) to
pitch,” Hutchins said. “If she’d have
played at Ohio State, she would have
been a pitcher, and so I knew, when
the job opened up, that she had an
extensive pitching background.”
In her interview, Brundage
convinced Hutchins that she could
take the pitching program and run
with it. Brundage was hired as an
assistant coach for the 1999 season,
joining a team that Hutchins
and Tholl had already brought to
four-straight
Women’s
College
World Series appearances. It was
this season that the foundation of
Michigan softball, as it is known
today, came together. And 19
seasons later, the core still hasn’t
left.
***
When the trio began working
together, a few questions remained
about how the dynamic would
shape out. For the first time, Tholl
began taking on many duties,
spearheading
the
program’s
recruiting efforts and coaching the
outfield. How would she handle
these newfound responsibilities?
And
while
Hutchins
knew
Brundage could pitch, there was
still the question of how she would
bode supervising the position as the
primary pitching coach.
The coaching staff had to
overcome
these
hurdles,
but
with a little bit of time, they
metamorphosed into a cohesive
unit.
“When I was here my first couple
years, I wasn’t mature enough
to make all the decisions I make
today,” Tholl said. “And I think
under Hutch’s tutelage, I’m now a
product of all of her teaching.”
One thing that didn’t take time,
though, was for each coach to
bring their unique knowledge and
experiences to the table, something
that proved vital to building the elite
program that stands today.
Hutchins
brought
expertise.
When Brundage joined the program
in 1999, Hutchins had already been
Michigan’s head coach for 14 years.
Just a year later, she notched her
638th victory, putting her in first
place for all-time wins among
Wolverine coaches. With upward of
1,500 wins today, she is the NCAA’s
winningest softball coach of all time
and arguably the greatest coach in
the history of the sport.
Brundage
brought
a
rare
combination of skilled pitching and
slugging knowledge. In her tenure
at Michigan, she has helped in the
batter’s box while also coaching
nine players to Big Ten Pitcher of
the Year honors. And Hutchins was
quick to note that no school has had
more All-Americans in the circle
than Michigan since Brundage
joined the staff.
Tholl brought creativity to the
team with defensive coaching,
mainly in the outfield, and an
aptitude for recruitment. Right
off the bat, in her first recruiting
class, she found Sara Griffin and
Kellyn Tate, the class that propelled
Michigan into its first WCWS in
1995. Tholl’s hard work and skill led
to a promotion for the 2003 season
to associate head coach.
“She has an even better mind
for the game than I do, and she
has a better recruiting mind than
anybody in the country,” Hutchins
said. “She’s like a Rolodex.
“People from all over the country
would call her and say, ‘Hey do you
remember this kid that played for
a certain team?’ and (Tholl) knows
her name, she knows the year of
graduation, she knows all about
her. If Bonnie sees a kid play she
remembers them for life. She even
remembers their birthday.”
And with such a strong knack
for recruitment, it would have been
easy for Tholl to take every step
of the recruitment process under
her wing. But that was never how
the Michigan coaching dynamic
worked. Everyone was invested in
the future of the team, and everyone
wanted to be involved in all aspects
of coaching.
The
recruitment
of
senior
centerfielder Kelly Christner was a
clear illustration of that.
Christner
still
recalls
that
Brundage was the first to see her
play in a game in high school, and
that she left quite an impression
on the assistant coach. During the
game, Christner went for a foul ball
before colliding with a fence and
flying off of it.
“I’m pretty sure that’s why
(Brundage) called Hutch and was
like, ‘You should check this kid out,
she’ll do anything.’ ” Christner said.
“But honestly, she and Bonnie and
Hutch all rotated around. … I think
they try to work that in with every
recruit just so they aren’t focusing
on one coach.”
While
this
deep
level
of
investment
and
involvement
from Hutchins’ coaching staff
has become commonplace in the
Michigan
program,
Hutchins
doesn’t take it for granted.
She remembers what it was like
before having Tholl and Brundage
around and is very grateful for
their
consistent
presence
and
commitment to the program.
“I’m glad I have them,” Hutchins
said. “I wouldn’t want to live
without them again.
“Everyone expects that the
head coach is really invested in
the program, but the key to our
success has been that my assistant
coaches are every bit as invested
than I am.”
The three core coaches’ equal
investment in Michigan softball
comes along with their three
distinct and strong personalities.
Because of this, the staff is not
always in agreement on every small-
scale decision regarding the team.
Every day, the coaches work
together to prepare their next
practice — and the planning sessions
are not always simple. When the
meetings get heated, and they often
do, they can last upward of an hour.
But at the end of the day, the
coaches can consistently agree on
one thing: They want what’s best
for the softball team. And given
the unique circumstance Hutchins
and her assistants find themselves
in, they have had more time to
formulate and perfect a singular
vision for the team than most other
coaching units.
“We walk in every day to make
this program better and to try to
get us to the College World Series,”
Hutchins said.
Michigan has seen this vision
realized many times. With the
earliest in 1995 and the most recent
just last year, the Wolverines have
made 12 WCWS appearances, with
the trio being together for the last
eight.
The triad’s cohesion has numbers
to show for it as well. It has netted
the Great Lakes Region Coaching
Staff of the Year accolade on 12
separate occasions, including the
last four consecutive years.
In 2005, the coaching staff
earned Michigan’s first Speedline/
NFCA National Coaching Staff of
the Year honor. The season was
monumental, as the Wolverines
claimed their only NCAA national
championship and finished the
season with a program-best 65
wins.
Undeniably,
the
Michigan
softball program has a lot to be
proud of.
Yet it is equally important, if
not more so, that coaches of such
a celebrated program understand
how to work with failure and not
just success. Whether an individual
is struggling or the team as a whole
is in a slump, performance will not
always meet up with expectations.
Last
year,
Christner
dealt
firsthand with not meeting up to
her own expectations at the plate.
Under the tutelage of the seasoned
coaches, she was able to take on a
new mindset for this season.
“I think I’ve become much more
comfortable with failure,” Christner
said. “Being mentored by them has
really taught me how to handle it
and how to come back from it.”
Part of what has made Michigan
players like Christner feel that they
are able to come back from a slump
is having three supportive mentors
to go to.
And Hutchins shared these
sentiments.
“We’re very lucky,” she said. “We
have three people that are all head
coaches, really.”
Hutchins, from the start, has
treated her assistants with the
responsibility
and
respect
of
equals. This coaching style has paid
dividends both for the team and for
the tight-knit nature of the coaching
staff.
“(We) all have a voice in our staff
meetings and she wants input from
everyone,” Brundage said. “She
doesn’t have an ego where she has to
be right all the time. It’s pretty cool
that arguably the greatest coach in
our sport wants to hear what the
rest of us think and allows us to
have a voice.”
The way in which Hutchins
supervises the staff has given each
coach the opportunity to learn
from one another. The Michigan
coaching philosophy is that no
matter one’s success and expertise,
there is always room for growth.
“(Coaching)
doesn’t
get
old
for us,” Tholl said. “The game is
always changing and we are always
learning. It doesn’t matter if Hutch
has been the coach for over 30 years
here, she’s still learning different
parts of the game.”
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins has worked alongside Bonnie Tholl and Jennifer Brundage for nearly 20 years, and together they have made 12 WCWS appearances.
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
Jennifer Brundage came to Ann Arbor as a pitching coach in 1998.
ANNA MARCUS
Daily Sports Writer