Hudsonville Adds to Diamond Milestones
April 27, 2016
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
HUDSONVILLE – After last year’s regular season ended, longtime Hudsonville baseball coach Dave Van Noord was on the brink of reaching a career milestone.
An early exit from the postseason tournament derailed the celebration.
Van Noord was two wins shy of joining an elite class of coaches who have won 500 games.
“I knew going into Districts last year that there was a chance, but then we lost in Districts and I didn’t think about it much,” Van Noord said. “Then this season started and I saw a plaque in the press box and I thought, ‘Oh man, this is going to happen this week.’”
Following Spring Break, Van Noord did reach the 500-win plateau with his team’s 6-1 victory over Zeeland East on April 13.
The victory was another milestone for one of the state’s top baseball programs – but also for the Eagles’ dominating programs on both diamonds.
Softball coach Tom Vruggink, who turns 66 next month, has been a mainstay at Hudsonville for 35 years and instrumental in turning that program into a state powerhouse.
Vruggink has nearly doubled Van Noord’s win total. He began the 2016 campaign with a 941-243 record and is the eighth all-time winningest coach in MHSAA softball history.
Combined, Van Noord and Vruggink have more than 1,400 wins.
“That’s incredible, isn’t it?” Van Noord said. “I wish I had his pitchers through the years, and they’ve had some incredible teams. He has a special way with girls.”
Van Noord, 53, is in his 22nd season as the Eagles’ head coach. He began his coaching career in 1991 at Lakewood Lake Odessa, where he spent two years before receiving a teaching job in Hudsonville.
He replaced longtime coach Larry Byle, who retired in 1994.
Van Noord has received help through the years from longtime assistant coach Joe DeSmit, and support from his wife, Sue.
“We’ve coached together 21 years, and there is no way I would’ve been able to stay in it without Joe,” Van Noord said. “We basically co-coach together, and my wife has put up with so much, especially my bad moods when the team’s not playing well. I wish the older that I get, the better I would be with losing, but I’m not.”
Van Noord said he was thrilled to accomplish the feat with this year’s group, which started 4-1 before suffering a four-game losing skid.
“It was cool for this team to do it,” he said. “Joe and I really like this team. We didn’t play very well last week, but the first week was good. It feels like a classic Hudsonville team.”
The Eagles were competitive through the early stages of Van Noord’s career, but were unable to make lengthy postseason runs.
That all changed in 2009 when the program claimed a District title. Three years later, Hudsonville won its first MHSAA Division 1 championship.
“We always thought if we could get by Jenison or Grandville, which were both good, then we could make a run and that would be sweet,” Van Noord said. “We won our first District in 2009 and went to the Quarterfinals. That’s when we got it going and started winning O-K Red championships. The state title was a cool thing to do.”
Van Noord looks back fondly on all of the players he has coached.
“I coached pairs of brother and trios of brothers and just a lot of good kids,” Van Noord said. “They believed in what we did and they worked hard. They all come from good families, and it has been special to be a part of that for so long.”
Ironically, Vruggink had aspirations to coach baseball. However, softball became his calling.
“My dream was to always get a baseball job somewhere,” said Vruggink, who began his tenure in 1982. “I got the softball job here before that and never looked back.
“It was tough at the beginning going from a male athlete coaching football and then coaching girls in softball. It’s a lot different working with girls than the boys, and that was the biggest adjustment.”
Vruggink has no regrets over his decision to stay involved in softball.
“I’ve loved it, and I think it is the best coaching job around,” he said. “I have kids who work hard and they love to play. The parents are so supportive of what the kids are doing and what we are doing as a program.”
The Eagles have won three MHSAA Division 1 championships under Vruggink’s guidance. They won back-to-back crowns in 2009 and 2010, and again in 2012.
“We’ve been very successful through the years, and all of the state championships are special in their own way,” Vruggink said. “We were close a lot of times and finally broke through in 2009 and got that first one. To do it twice in a row was special, and then we overcame a big hurdle in 2012 in our first year without Sara Driesenga (who has gone on to star at University of Michigan). That team had something to prove.”
Vruggink’s wife, Patty, has been with him every step of the way as the team’s scorekeeper.
“She’s in the dugout every game, and she’s like an assistant coach,” Vruggink said. “I bounce things off her like I would any other coach and it’s been great.”
Vruggink, who taught fourth grade for 31 years and now is retired from the classroom, isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Although hanging up the cleats and bat is talked about at times, he can’t imagine life without coaching.
“Right now, I’m still having fun and I get fired up every year for the beginning of the season,” Vruggink said. “It will be a difficult thing to say ‘this is my last year,’ because there’s always that next girl coming up you want to coach.”
Players from Van Noord’s past were among those who reconnected after his recent milestone win.
“They did a nice presentation for me after the game and that was cool,” Van Noord said. “I don’t look back much, and the years have added up quickly, especially the last 10 years. It’s been a whirlwind recently, but the best part of it was the social network.
“I’m tied in with so many people and I must’ve had 50-75 texts and emails from staff, former players and other coaches. It was so cool to just connect with those people again.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Tom Vruggink (left) and Dave Van Noord both led Hudsonville programs to Division 1 titles in 2012. (Middle) Van Noord is surrounded by his players flashing five fingers after his latest milestone win. (Below) Vruggink raises his program's third MHSAA title trophy after the 2012 win. (Middle photo courtesy of Hudsonville athletic department.)
Where There's a Willea, There Are Several Ways for Oakridge to Win
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
April 9, 2025
Every so often at practice, Muskegon Oakridge softball coach Joe Coletta will hear fighting behind him and worry he has a problem on his team.
“Then I turn around and I see that it is just the Willea sisters getting after each other,” explained Coletta, who is in his 17th year as softball coach and 43rd year overall of coaching at Oakridge.
“And I know that we’re all good.”
The Willeas – specifically fraternal senior twins Kylee and Gracie and sophomore Avery – definitely push each other and certainly cause problems for opposing teams as one-third of the Oakridge lineup, all playing critical positions in the field and occupying key spots in the batting order.
Kylee is an honorable mention all-state pitcher for the Eagles, who compiled a 16-5 record last spring with 141 strikeouts and a 2.36 ERA. She also will be expected to knock in runs from the No. 4 spot in the batting order.
Gracie returns as an honorable mention all-state centerfielder, using her instincts and speed to cover tremendous ground. At the plate, she bats second and hit .402 last year.
Avery made a huge impact last year as a freshman and now will move to the crucial shortstop position as a sophomore. She hit .382 last year with 28 RBIs.
The Willeas have continued the strong softball tradition at Oakridge, helping the team to three consecutive West Michigan Conference titles, two straight Districts and a breakthrough Division 2 Regional championship last year – the first that all three Willeas were on the varsity together.
Now the trio gets one last season to play on the same team, and they are determined to savor every second.
“I don’t want it to be done,” said Kylee, who has added a curveball to her repertoire for this season. “I love high school ball, and it’s so much fun to play with my sisters and have our parents and family in the stands.
“I love that we come from a small school and have made something big out of it.”
Sisterly bond
Kylee came into this world two minutes before her sister Gracie, and the two have been together for most of the past 17 years.
But while the twins have many things in common (such as top-10 graduating academic status in their class and exceptional leadership skills), there are certainly differences that are evident in their roles on the team.
Kylee, who shares the pitching load for the Eagles along with sophomore ace Kelcey Osborne, is a steady and calm leader with the perfect temperament for a pitcher, according to Coletta.
Gracie is über-competitive and vocal in centerfield, and says she keeps herself entertained by making sure all of her teammates are lined up correctly and focused on every pitch.
“I guess you could say it is a blessing and a curse at the same time to have three sisters on the same team,” Gracie said with a smile. “We butt heads at times, but overall it’s a great thing. We definitely have a bond that can pull us through the hard times.”
Avery, who everyone describes as a blend of her older sisters, could be the key to the Eagles success this spring. Not only is she moving from second base to the pressure-packed shortstop position, but she is also being asked to provide more power and drive in runs at the plate.
Oakridge has become known for its home-run power, with past bashers Jasmine Pastor and Andrea Romero-Serrano and last year’s 1-2 punch of Kaelinn Jozsa (14 home runs) and Maddie Clark (12 home runs), who were both first-team all-state and have graduated.
In fact, Osborne is the only returning player who had more than one home run or more than 30 RBIs last season.
“Our team is a little different this year, but we have a lot of athletic girls,” said Avery. “I feel like I will have more power at the plate this year. That’s what I’m working on.”
Daddy’s girls
The Willea softball era for the Oakridge varsity started three years ago, when Gracie made the varsity right away as a freshman, while Kylee started that season on the junior varsity.
But injuries forced Coletta to move up Kylee, then a 14-year-old freshman as well, to pitch in a critical early May rivalry game against Ravenna.
“I remember being so nervous that I was shaking,” said Kylee, who is known for her rise ball and changeup. “I literally thought I was going to throw up.”
After a shaky first inning, Kylee settled down and led the Eagles to a huge doubleheader sweep. She has been a fixture in the circle ever since.
It’s no surprise that the Willeas were ready for varsity softball as freshmen, as they have played summer travel ball for years with the Michigan Sabercats – with their dad, Dan, as their coach. All three have a tight bond with their father, both as coach and dad.
“When we’re driving home after a tournament, one of them will ask me a question and I’ll say: ‘Do you want Coach to answer that, or do you want dad to answer that?’” said Dan, a handyman who also has worked tirelessly to improve the Oakridge softball facilities.
Gracie was the only one of the three who wasn’t “all-in” on softball from the start. All three girls grew up following in the footsteps of their mother, Shanda, in gymnastics, but Gracie took it the farthest – becoming the first gymnast at her mother’s family gym (Gonyon’s Gymnastics) to make the all-region team a few years ago.
“When I was little, I did gymnastics and I thought that softball was stupid,” Gracie said with a laugh. “But then I fell in love with it.”
The athleticism she developed in gymnastics is evident in the way she plays centerfield, making diving, acrobatic catches look somewhat routine.
“Gracie covers so much ground out there and is absolutely fearless,” said Coletta, who is assisted this year by former Oakridge players Alyssa (Wahr) Fessenden and Morgan (Giddings) Wahr.
Avery Willea might actually be the most like her father, even though he hasn’t coached her nearly as much as the twins. Avery and Dan share a passion for the outdoors, and when they take a rare break from softball, can often be found hunting and fishing together.
One final run
The singular focus of the Willea family this spring is to make the most of their final season together.
Specifically, the Willeas would love to put together a repeat of last spring, when the Eagles not only repeated as West Michigan Conference and Division 2 District champs, but then played some of their best softball in wins over Grand Rapids Catholic Central (13-4) and Allendale (14-8) to capture the second Regional title in school history.
That led to a police escort out of town, as residents and classmates lined the streets to send the team off to Ferris State for the Quarterfinals, where the Eagles lost to eventual Division 2 champion Gaylord.
Oakridge, 2-0 this season, has managed to get in only one doubleheader, a sweep of Division 1 Muskegon Mona Shores, before this week’s spring break, but faces a challenging, whirlwind schedule for the next two months.
“Softball is a pitcher’s game, and we’ve got that this year,” said Coletta, who also has talented sophomore Chloe Smith backing up Kylee Willea and Osborne on the mound. “And it’s sure nice having girls like the Willeas as one-third of the lineup. They all know how to play the game, and they make things happen.”
The other seniors on the 13-player Oakridge roster are Maddy Bowen, Brenna Cabrera, Rylee Vanderputte and Lily Coppedge.
Kylee and Gracie Willea will play together for at least the next two years at Muskegon Community College, but the whole family knows that their 12-year-plus softball odyssey - with countless restaurants, hotels, hilarious stories and treasured memories along the way – is nearing its end.
And all they can do is make the most of every minute this final spring.
“I’m going to miss them so much the next two years – it’s going to hit me pretty hard,” said Avery, with a sigh. “So, yes, all we can do is make this the best season ever and not take anything for granted.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Clockwise from left: Kylee Willea delivers a pitch, Avery Willea gets ready at her shortstop position and Gracie Willea makes a diving catch in centerfield. (Middle) From left: Avery, Gracie and Kylee pose with the trophy after winning a tournament title in 2022. (Below) Dan Willea, who has coached his daughters for several years, takes a photo with Kylie and Gracie (standing) and Avery five years ago. (Photos courtesy of Shonda Willea.)