CMS women’s softball can expect a boost from new coach Betsy Hipple, who led Hunter College’s team to three NCAA Championships and three City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) tournament titles, winning the CUNYAC Coach of the Year award at each conference. Softball has been a part of Hipple’s life since her childhood, although a debilitating knee injury in college helped her change course. She developed an interest in outdoor sports and extreme sports which led her to work with outdoor youth intervention programs and eventually business simulations. Hipple also spent two-and-a-half years as an AIDS/HIV educator with the Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa. Coaching softball, she says, is “like coming full-circle, like coming home.”
While the softball season officially starts in the spring semester, Hipple is excited to meet the CMS team and begin conditioning and recruiting. After working with the City University of New York, which has a 10-college arrangement similar to the Claremont University Consortium, Hipple sees the five-college environment as advantageous for recruiting—different kinds of students with different academic focuses and interests make for a more interesting team.
The fall season, though strictly non-competitive because of NCAA rules, is very important for team-building, which Hipple emphasizes as at least as important as strength training and technical practice. “It’s important for this to be a part—hopefully a fun and challenging part—of a student’s college experience,” she says. “Whether they won a championship or who stole a base—they don’t remember those kinds of things. The greatest accomplishment would be for someone who plays for me to have eight of her teammates at her wedding 15 years down the line.”
Of course, she is naturally competitive—in addition to softball, she was on track to play college basketball before her injury, and has since become a competitive cyclist—but she reminds herself and her players that “there’s a big world out there. Keep it in perspective.” Hipple thinks that her unique experiences have provided her with an unusual worldview, compared to many of her fellow coaches. This broader perspective may be just what the Athenas softball team needs to grow together and develop the kind of teamwork and real friendships that Hipple feels are so important for building a strong team. With such a different emphasis, these Athenas will be a team to keep an eye on next spring.