Resounding success: Coe softball sets a school standard

CEDAR RAPIDS - Everyone on Coe College's softball team was given one pull of the Victory Bell in front of Eby Fieldhouse Tuesday.

"Can we ring it twice?" Kohawk seniors Ashley Leonard and Sonja Schwenker asked. "Because we missed graduation."

Ringing the bell after graduating is a Coe tradition. But the five softball seniors couldn't attend the school's May 10 graduation ceremony. They were in Bloomington, Ill., where they beat host Illinois Wesleyan twice that day in an NCAA regional to advance to the Division III World Series.

Sacrifices were made on the Kohawks' run to their second-place finish in the World Series, which was concluded Monday in Montclair, N.J., with a 2-0 loss to Messiah College.

Leonard came home with a bandage on her chin that covered three stitches. She rounded third and headed for home after a teammate's base hit, collided with the catcher, and somehow had her helmet jammed into her chin.

But the catcher had to leave the game. Leonard, a Cedar Rapids native and Coe's top hitter, stayed and kept playing.

The sacrifice was more severe for Schwenker. Early in Monday's title game,she chased a foul fly ball from her right field position. Yielding to second baseman Katie King, Schwenker got a foot stuck in the turf. Her knee paid for it. She was the first Kohawk off the bus back at the school, supporting herself with crutches.

"It was a klutzy thing," she said. "I could possibly have a torn ACL/MCL."

King, meanwhile, had to postpone shoulder surgery scheduled for Tuesday because Coe's season had been extended.

"Oh yes, we've been sacrificing a lot, the entire team to get to this point," Coach Bob Timmons said.

But no pain, no gain maxim rang as true as the Victory Bell when Coe's team bus finished its trip from The Eastern Iowa Airport to a campus parking lot. There, about 100 fans were waiting with signs, applause, chants and cheers.

"It was emotional," Leonard said. "I wasn't expecting it. It kind of made it sink in."

She then had a long pause to gather herself before adding "My career's over, and I couldn't ask for a better way for it to end with all these people supporting us. Coe College deserves it."

No Coe team in any sport had ever finished as high at a national tournament. The Kohawk wrestlers were fourth in 2008 and 2009 to own the previous standard.

The softballers finished third in the Iowa Conference, but won four straight games to capture the league tourney and gain an NCAA berth, then won four of five games in Bloomington for the school's second World Series berth in four years.

"We knew we had what it takes," Leonard said, "the talent, the bond. We just knew with a little bit of luck, the heart of the Kohawks could do it."

With 11 wins in 14 postseason games and a handsome, heavy national second-place trophy in tow, the team earned these words from school president James Phifer:

"Well done, ladies. Very well done."