Team has won several recreation league championships
By Dan D’Addona
The Holland Sentinel
HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — Four decades ago, four strangers moved to Holland.
Not knowing many people, they went to a Holland Newcomers meeting and decided to form a softball team.
Those four original players — Kathleen Ponitz, Donna McConnell, Sharon VanderWoude and Lynn Schweibert — have been on the same team ever since, and are celebrating 40 years together this season.
And for those four, only one thing has changed on the field, according to The Holland Sentinel.
“We can’t run as fast as we used to,” said VanderWoude, a 71-year-old pitcher. “But it has been more about friendship than anything.”
The rest of the 40th anniversary team consists of Schweibert’s daughter, Leslie Reimink, Heather Heemstra, Deb Kiekover, Michele Mathews, Sue Carlson, Krista Liverance, Beth Post, Mary Bake, Patricia Gosselar and Mindy Smith.
“Kathleen Ponitz and myself decided we needed something to do for the summer and softball sounded fun. We got a bunch of our friends together,” said McConnell, 67. “I have been on the team from Day One. I think it says a lot for our character. We used to go out together after all of the games. Now we just kind of limp to the car.”
They say it was the best decision any of them have made.
“At that meeting, I found my physician, dentist, veterinarian and softball team,” said Schweibert, the 79-year-old second baseman. “The only one not retired out of that group is the softball team.”
Playing for four decades is something no one thought would happen.
“I don’t think I could have imagined 40 years. We have all had many lifetimes since then,” Ponitz said. “We all care about the game, but we all care about each other more.”
The team has won several recreation league championships over the years.
It started in Holland, but the team also has played in Holland Township and, for the past two years, Zeeland.
“I am so proud to be a part of this. I feel so honored,” Schweibert said. “I say ‘lucky me.’ I have had some awesome years with this team. One year, all four of the originals had their daughters playing on the team together. My daughter Leslie has been on the team for 35 years. It has been awesome to play with my daughter all of these years. Three years ago, we had three generations with my granddaughter, Sarah Reimink. It was kind of heart-pounding. It was very exciting.”
The feeling is mutual for Leslie Reimink.
“My mom is such an inspiration,” she said. “I want to be able to do what she does at her age. I love to play with my mom. It is the best. She has created a lot of friendships for me as well in the next generation. Our values are very similar. They always had their advice to give me. I didn’t just have one mom, I had a lot of them.”
That’s a testament to how close the team has become.
“We started a family feel,” Ponitz said. “We have coaches and women who played in college, so we can be competitive, but it is still about the camaraderie.”
One of those players is Liverance, 24, the assistant coach for Hope College.
“Three years ago, they needed a pickup player and I sort of stuck around,” she said. “It has been a ton of fun. It is so much fun to watch them in the game still at 77 or however old. They carry out the love of the game and still want it as bad.”
That love of the game keeps the core four from leaving the field.
“At the end of each year, I say ‘one more year,’” Schweibert said. “Of course I have been saying that since I was 60. But I am really hoping for one more year so I can play at 80.”
Her daughter doesn’t think it will be just one more year.
“I don’t think that year will ever come,” Reimink said.
