Hope Athletics

Title IX at 50: Grace VanDellen, Women’s Golf

Grace VanDellen, women’s golfer and mechanical engineering major

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae around the 9th of each month during the school year.

In the 10th installment of our Title IX celebration, we spotlight women’s golfer Grace VanDellen, a mechanical engineering major who is interning this summer at Gentex Corporation, a technology company based in Zeeland, Michigan, that develops and manufactures custom high-tech electronic products for the automotive, aerospace, and commercial fire protection industries. VanDellen was the MIAA’s Most Valuable Golfer last fall and a College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District® Women’s At-Large Team this spring.

What are you doing at and learning from your internship at Gentex?

I am an intern in the Mechanical Engineering Design Department. I am learning different design software like Catia that is used in the design process. One thing Gentex does is design and manufacture interior rear view mirrors. I am testing properties of components of the mirror in order to simulate and predict performance.

What did you do last summer during your research on campus?

Last summer, I worked under Dr. Katharine Polasek on a project to understand and create a device to treat phantom limb pain. I conducted tests on able bodied individuals to see how their brain responded to electric stimuli. I also worked to help improve the testing equipment.

How has being a student-athlete prepared you for working in your field?

I think the biggest thing being a student athlete has taught me is time management. This is helpful when managing many different projects or assignments. It has taught me how to set priorities and execute tasks. It has also taught me how to communicate and work as a team. As an engineer, I will work with many people and on teams with other engineers. Being a captain on the golf team has taught me how to lead and be a good teammate!

Title IX at 50: Saydee Johns, Women’s Tennis

Four Hope College women's tennis teammates high five on the court. — Saydee Johns, front left, high-fives Sydney Jackson on the tennis court.

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae around the 9th of each month during the school year.

In the ninth installment of our Title IX celebration, women’s tennis senior Saydee Johns talks the opportunity to pursue her academic interests, including a business major, as well as her athletic interests. Johns and her teammates will compete in the NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championships this week after winning the MIAA Tournament for a league-record 10th consecutive season on Saturday with a 5-0 victory against Kalamazoo College at home on the VandePoel-Heeringa Stadium Courts.

What’s next for you after concluding your tennis career at Hope College?

Saydee Johns: After graduation, I have a couple classes to finish up so I will be back next fall to take those. Also, I will be working for a company as an intern on the days I am not taking classes. Most important though, I will be cheering on the team from the sidelines.

What have you enjoyed the most about being a student-athlete and being able to continue your tennis career in college?

Saydee Johns: What I have enjoyed the most about being a student athlete is the people I’ve met, specifically at Hope. The athletic community is full of driven and caring people, and each of them have pushed me to work harder on and off court to take home championships for Hope. Some of these athletes have become my best friends that I will be able to journey through life with after we walk across the stage in May. Truly blessed by these three years and wouldn’t take it back for anything. I encourage the underclassmen to fully live in the moment and enjoy the ride, it goes way too quick.

How has being a Hope student-athlete helped shape you as an adult?

Saydee Johns: Looking back at these past four years, tennis was something that was always changing. Whether it was because of injury, lineup changes or COVID, I have learned to adapt and adjust to the circumstances in front of me and work hard no matter what. Also it has taught me to show grace, and to give myself grace as well.

Title IX at 50: Softball’s Avery Slancik

Avery Slancik throws a pitch to the plate. — Senior pitcher and neuroscience major Avery Slancik. By Michael Wilson

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae around the 9th of each month during the school year.

In the eighth installment of our Title IX celebration, softball senior Avery Slancik talks the opportunity to pursue her academic interests, including a neuroscience major, as well as her athletic interests.

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Avery Slancik likes to mix her pitches on the softball diamond as well as what she studies in the classroom.

Thanks to the neuroscience program at Hope College, the senior pitcher has found a perfect major.

Slancik is majoring in neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system, the most complex organ system in the body. The 2021 All-MIAA First Team honoree also is minoring in both biology and psychology.

“I wanted to study neuroscience. It’s like a mix of everything, biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and psychology — everything into one, which I think makes it amazing,” Slancik said. “Everything stems from the brain.”

Hope’s neuroscience program is made up of a variety of associated departments that work well with the study of neuroscience, creating a melting pot for interested students.

After graduating, Slancik plans to enroll into Physician Assistant school.

This spring, the Scotts, Michigan, native pitches the first game in doubleheaders for the Flying Dutch this season. The right-hander and three-time member of the MIAA Academic Honor Roll has a career record of 16-6, including four victories this season.

With Slancik’s help, Hope is off to an 11-5 start to the season, including a 2-0 mark in MIAA play. The Flying Dutch were MIAA co-champions last season.

Transformational Opportunity

Slancik is grateful for the ability to pursue her academic and athletic interests in college.

Accommodations made by head coach Mary Vandehoef and Hope professors are greatly appreciated, Slancik said.

“If I was at any other school, I wouldn’t be able to study neuroscience,” Slancik saad. “Coach still expects me to play amazing and perform amazing in the classroom. The opportunity is pretty awesome. She will let us miss softball in order to go to the classes that we need.”

Meeting student-athletes’ needs in the classroom is a priority, VandeHoef said.

“Academics absolutely come first,” she said. “We had players registering for classes during the games on Tuesday. We have players who miss practice, sometimes whole days of practice, with their academics, needing to take a certain class or needing to take it at a particular time. With certain majors, there are things that are unavoidable. We make it work.”

Seeing student-athletes like Slancik being transformed makes all the effort rewarding, VandeHoef said.

“Avery does everything she does with everything she has,” VandeHoef said. “She excels in the classroom. She is a committed student who puts a lot of work into preparing for what’s next for her. On the field, she competes and gives this team everything she has every time she is in that circle. Our team rallies around that competitiveness.

“To see her balance both and do them at a really high level, that’s great to see.”

Title IX at 50: Volleyball’s Grace Pettinger

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Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae around the 9th of each month during the school year.

In the seventh installment of our Title IX celebration, Grace Pettinger ’21, talks on the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast about her experiences as a volleyball student-athlete and the research she did as a history major. Before graduating, Pettinger published an article about the early days of women’s sports at Hope College for The Joint Archives of Holland.

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Grace Pettinger returns a serve on the volleyball court. — Grace Pettinger ’21

A Hope College Women’s Athletic Association jacket from the 1950s was left on the doorsteps of the Holland Museum. The anonymous donation served up an fulfilling research opportunity for Grace Pettinger ’21.

The Hope College student-athlete studied an era before Title IX became law in 1992 and opened academic and athletics opportunities women like her enjoy today. She published an article titled “The Women’s Athletic Association: The Foundation of Women’s Sports at Hope College” in the Spring 2021 edition of The Joint Archives Quarterly.

The Joint Archives of Holland is a department of Van Wylen Library and promotes the educational mission of Hope College and its partner institutions by actively collecting, caring for, interpreting and making available the unique historical resources in its care.

Pettinger worked for The Joint Archives while pursuing her studies at Hope and playing volleyball for the nationally-ranked Flying Dutch.

‘I want them to be remembered too’

In the latest edition of the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast, Pettinger discussed with sports information director Alan Babbitt about her experiences as a student-athlete, the opportunities Title IX gave her, and what she learned from her research into the Women’s Athletic Association at Hope.

Grace Pettinger poses for a portrait. — Grace Pettinger

“As a history major and someone who’s kind of obsessed with telling these stories, I always think about how I really want in the future someone to care enough to go through my jackets and my scrapbooks or someone to care enough to find my story,” Pettinger said. “I am so thankful for the people and women around me that empower me to do to work on women’s stories from the past.

“I want them to be remembered too and for them to be sought after in the future.”

Pettinger completed her studies at Hope in December. She plans to attend a graduate school to be determined to work on her M.A. in history and an M.S. in library sciences. She wants to become an archives librarian in a college or university setting.

Last fall, Pettinger helped Hope claim an outright MIAA championship in volleyball. She played in the back row as a defensive specialist. The Flying Dutch advanced to the regional finals of the NCAA Division III Championships.

Written transcript of the interview

Clayton Dykhouse, Evan Thomas: Hope Athletics Podcast

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Clayton Dykhouse and Evan Thomas quickly became friends when they became teammates on the Hope College men’s basketball team as freshmen.

Two Hope basketball players pose for headshots — From left, Hope College men’s basketball juniors Clayton Dykhouse and Evan Thomas

Three years later, they’re leading the Flying Dutchmen’s pursuit of an MIAA Tournament title and an NCAA Division III Tournament berth.

Hope hosts Calvin University on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. in the MIAA Tournament champion game at DeVos Fieldhouse. Dykhouse and Thomas — both All-MIAA First Team selections, with Thomas as league MVP — have teamed up into a powerful force on the court.

While a significant part of their lives, their journeys at Hope is not defined solely by basketball. Dykhouse is an elementary education major with aspirations of becoming a teacher. Thomas is a biology major with goals of attending medical school.

Earlier this month, both sat down with Sports Information Director Alan Babbitt in the latest episode of the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast. Since the conversation, the Flying Dutchmen won the MIAA’s regular-season title and earned the No. 1 seed for the MIAA Tournament. During the February 25 semifinal win vs. Albion, Thomas became the 43rd Flying Dutchmen to score 1,000 career points.

Inspiring Conversations and Change

Now roommates as well as team co-captains with senior Tyler George, Dykhouse and Thomas talked about their friendship, what makes their basketball team special on and off the court, what they have learned about leadership, and their unique perspectives as Americans. Dykhouse is African-American; Thomas is biracial.

Both are involved in leadership within Hope’s Athletes Coming Together-Student Athlete Advisory Council (ACT-SAAC). They participate in ACT-SAAC’s Diversity and Inclusion committee.

“The group as a whole is just bringing leaders, athletes, from all different sports together to have a group that can talk to higher up faculty about what athletes need, what students need kind of in community,” Thomas said. “What Clay and I are doing in the diversity and inclusion kind of efforts are just to create a conversation within athletes about diversity, inclusion, how Hope can be more acceptable, more inclusive to all different kinds of people, no matter where they come from. It’s been a lot of fun so far, creating conversations. We’ve had great speakers come in and talk to us and just learning and are startings conversations to learn more about what diversity and inclusion really means.”

A recent interaction with two young fans at DeVos Fieldhouse reminded Dykhouse how vital diversity and inclusion is at Hope and society.

“I’ve spent my entire life with white parents in a predominantly white community. I think they did a great job of exposing me of me and my brother to just what it means to be black in America at a really young age,” Dykhouse said. “I know a couple of home games ago there was a family that I had gotten to know the dad a little bit, and he has two adopted sons. After the game, they were talking to me. They were talking about Evan, me, and T.J. (McKenzie), and how cool it was to see someone in a position at Hope that looks like them. They’re fourth and second grade boys recognizing that.”

Written transcript of the interview

Men’s Soccer Coach John Conlon: Hope Athletics Podcast

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John Conlon ’97 pours himself into coaching soccer and his student-athletes much like he did when he played the game himself at Hope College.

In many ways, the Flying Dutchmen’s new soccer coach is the same man driven for competitive excellence who came to campus nearly 30 years ago with lofty aspirations.

John Conlon chases a soccer ball when he was a student-athlete at Hope in this black and white photo. — John Conlon ’97

In many ways, Conlon also is a different man, a leader who’s evolved through his years as a successful high school soccer coach and fifth-grade teacher and keenly appreciative on the transformational experiences athletics can provide.

In the latest Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast, Conlon discusses, with sports information director Alan Babbitt, what he is bringing back to his alma after after being introduced earlier this month as Hope’s 10th men’s soccer coach.

Conlon returns to campus after becoming one of the most successful boys and girls soccer coaches in Michigan High School Athletic Association history. He guided the East Kentwood boys teams to a Division I record five state titles. He totaled a combined 674 wins in boys and girls high school soccer.

Learning from the best

“When I was a young coach like 23 to 27, I didn’t quite get it. I understood coaching. I was learning coaching, but I didn’t understand the impact coaches have on players,” Conlon said. “I studied guys like Tom Izzo, I was a fiery guy, too, but his guys love him. Mike Krzyzewski is another one that I absolutely learned everything I could about the way he does things. Nick Saban, some of the great coaches, I just studied the way they did things. That changed my mentality and changed the way I lived and died with every second of every day. And it’s made all the difference.

“I’ll be honest, my greatest accomplishments are not championships. It’s the guys who’ve graduated, the guys who have gone on and are successful, the guys who are having kids now. That’s what means the world to me.”

As a student-athlete at Hope, Conlon started as a midfielder for four seasons for the Steven Smith-coached Flying Dutchmen soccer team from 1993-96. The Flying Dutchmen went 60-12-6 during that time and advanced to the national quarterfinals in 1994.

He helped Hope three-peat as Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association champions during his senior, junior and sophomore seasons.

Conlon was voted as the MIAA’s Most Valuable Player for the 1995 season by the league’s coaches. He was selected to the All-MIAA First Team three times (1994-96). He totaled 36 points during his career with 18 goals and 18 assists. He received National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-America honors and was a three-time NSCAA all-region selection.

Conlon graduated from Hope after majoring in both psychology and communication.

Written transcript of John Conlon’s interview

Title IX at 50: Women’s Lacrosse Coach Keagan Pontious

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae around the 9th of each month during the school year.

In the sixth installment of our Title IX celebration, head women’s lacrosse coach and equipment manager Keagan Pontious discusses the different ways she has benefitted from Title IX — ranging from her days as an All-American lacrosse student-athlete at NCAA Division II Seton Hill University (Pennsylvania) to working in athletics as a career.

Hope College women’s lacrosse head coach Keagan Pontious

Q: What is one of your favorite memories from playing lacrosse?

A: One of my favorite memories I have is from playing in college when my lacrosse team at made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. I remember sitting in a classroom with my whole team on selection day. We truly had no idea if our strength of schedule was good enough to qualify that year. I remember listening to our name be called and instantly crying because I was so proud of our team. I was a fifth year senior and could not hold back my tears of joy. The underclassmen on the team had no idea how hard the women before them worked to put our name on the map and make an NCAA Tournament.

Q: How did your time as a lacrosse student-athlete shape you into the person you are today?

A: Being a student-athlete allowed me to realize that life is short (just like my playing career) and that you must enjoy every second of it. My time as an athlete was precious because I got to play the sport I love with my best friends and teammates. Lacrosse taught me how to be humble, stay disciplined and be grateful. These three characteristics helped me define who I am today.

Q: When did you realize you wanted to pursue a career in athletics? What or who inspired you to make that choice?

A: I realized that I wanted to be a coach and continue to have lacrosse be the center of my life when I was a fifth year at Seton Hill. I started to enjoy helping my teammates succeed and reach their goals rather than worry about mine. I developed a new understanding and appreciation that brought me so much joy. Helping my teammates smile while playing the game they love meant more than anything in the world to me. At that time in my life, I knew that I needed to keep lacrosse in my life and become a coach.

Q: You work with student-athletes, female and male, across all of Hope’s 22 varsity sports. What do you enjoy most about your work in supporting them?

A: I love to constantly remind them to be grateful and enjoy the little things in life. It goes by so fast. I wish I was a student-athlete again, so I try to remind them daily that every rep matters. Every interaction with their teammates matters. Every tough day makes them stronger and that they have an opportunity to have a great attitude every day they wake up.

Q: What advice would you have for girls who are just beginning their athletic careers?

A: My advice to a girl just starting out in her athletic career would be to develop a strong work ethic so that in college it is second nature. It helps to start playing competitive sports at a young age to understand the importance of healthy competition and realize what you can achieve with hard work. My other advice for any young athlete would be to have confidence. Develop your own unique style, and be confident about it. If you hesitate in lacrosse or in life, an opportunity can be quickly taken away, so be confident in your decisions and go for it!

Matt Margaron, Shomari Tate: Hope Athletics Podcast

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Sport helped Matt Margaron ’03 and Shomari Tate grow their Christian faith as youth. After finding a higher calling, both now are ministering as chaplains to the Hope College community, including our student-athletes and coaches.

Margaron is in his third year as Hope’s Chaplain of Athletics. Tate is in his first year as Hope’s Chaplain of Discipleship.

Matt Margaron and Shomari Tate pose for portraits. — From left, Matt Margaron and Shomari Tate

On the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue Podcast, Margaron and Tate talk together with sports information director Alan Babbitt about their rewarding work as chaplains, their paths to Hope, and how sport helped them in a variety of ways, including being good teammates on Hope’s Campus Ministries department.

“It’s such a gift. I often say I have the coolest job in the world because I’m a huge sports fan,” Margaron said. “Any sport I love to watch. I love to analyze. We can talk about stats. Those are things that I’m really passionate about. But I’m these athletes’ biggest and coaches’ biggest fan. I love it. I love talking about it and walking alongside, but then also talking about the deeper issues as well.”

Added Tate, “I’m like a kid in the candy store. Just having fun. In month four of my job, I would say that my biggest job right now is just getting to know Hope, getting to know students, getting to know the collective stories that make up our beautiful campus, our beautiful community.

“In terms of my formal duties, I just get the distinct honor and privilege to walk alongside of students and make sure that they are being formed well in Christ as they go out into the real world. Also, I have an expansive history doing diversity, equity and inclusion work, so I’m excited to bring that level of expertise to the team as well.”

Chaplains See Sport’s Potential as a Positive Influence

Both chaplains believe sport can be a positive influence on a person’s life. Both see how the difference sport made in their own lives.

Margaron’s athletic career culminated as a Hope soccer standout. While majoring in psychology and religion, he was a three-time All-MIAA honoree and two-time all-region selection.

After Hope, Margaron earned his master’s degree in community counseling from Regent University. He returned to work on campus after working for Young Life for 10 years.

Tate was on a walk-on to the Michigan State University football team after a standout three-sport career at Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School. He played for the Spartans for one year before hanging up the cleats. He then worked for the Spartans as a recruiting operations assistant.

Tate majored in political science and government at Michigan State. He went to earn a master’s degree in public policy from Michigan State as well as a master’s degree in ministry leadership from Cornerstone University.

Before joining Hope’s staff, Tate worked as Catholic Central’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for two years. He also was an assistant coach on Catholic Central’s highly-regarded football team.

Read a written transcript of the podcast interview

Title IX at 50: From One Former AD to Another, Thank You for Your Legacy

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing this summer, Hope College Athletics shares the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae on the 9th of each month during the school year.

In this fifth installation, Eva Dean Folkert, former co-director of athletics at Hope and now the interim director of public affairs and marketing at the college, reflects on her early playing days just after Title IX was passed — starting in recreational leagues and high school in New York in the 1970s and then at Hope in the early 1980s. Her experiences in the world of collegiate athletics were life-changing because of mentor, Dr. Anne Irwin.

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When I was a baseball-loving 12-year-old growing up in central New York in 1973, I had no idea that 600 miles away, a woman with the tenacity and determination of a second-wave feminist was about to pave the way for girls and women like me to one day be taken seriously as female athletes.

All I knew and felt back then was this: Girls’ sports were at best an afterthought and at worst an annoyance.

Why did I feel that way even at that young age? Because in the mid-1970s, all I wanted was a “real” uniform when I played softball for my summer league team. Like the big boys in MLB and the younger boys in Little League, I too wanted a jersey, stirrup “socks” and knee-length pants. Instead the girls who played softball on my team in Cayuga County only got cotton t-shirts and plain truck caps which, by the way, were not that cool then.

The trend somewhat continued in high school. The girls of Union Spring Central School (and at many other high schools around the country) wore the same uniforms for three seasons when we played field hockey, volleyball and basketball. The boys had different uniforms for each of their seasons in soccer, football, basketball and baseball. At least, we got knee-length pants when softball season rolled around, but our jerseys remained the same.

I matriculated to Hope College in 1979 and never expected that I’d see and experience a uniform change by season for women. But then again, I didn’t know Dr. Anne Irwin, Hope’s first director of women’s athletics, was here and had already begun to make women’s sports a prioritized presence, and not the afterthought that I had experienced.

From the moment she stepped on Hope’s campus in 1976, Anne went to work to ensure Hope female student-athletes received equitable treatment, not just in the uniforms they wore, but also with the transportation they were provided, the practice space and times they were awarded, and even the “shoe money” they were allotted. When I received reimbursement for the purchase of my Adidas All-Stars, even as a Hope basketball benchwarmer extraordinaire in 1980, I felt like I had won the lottery. For 27 years, Anne helped hundreds of other student-athletes feel like they were some of the luckiest people in the world too, even if they may not have realized it.

When Anne retired in 2003 and I became the next director of women’s athletics, I was the beneficiary of her wisdom both tangible and intangible. Her spirit of fairness (and detail orientation) permeated the Excel spreadsheet I opened regularly which laid out a 15-year plan for rotating uniform purchases for both genders. The policies she helped create and oversee addressed multiple levels and areas of equity for all. Today’s Hope student-athletes, both male and female, owe a debt of gratitude to Anne for her trailblazing ways and mindset. Her unfailing advocacy proved that gender equity is right and necessary and good, no matter your sport, no matter your gender.

Anne passed away on April 3, 2021 at 79-years-young. I was hiking a trail in northern Michigan when I received a phone call from my longtime friend and colleague Tim Schoonveld who let me know she had died. Regrettably, Anne and I had not seen each other in over a year because of the pandemic. I finished my walk filled with sorrow but also with a profound appreciation that my playing and professional life was deeply impacted by a woman who forged a way for me, and thousands more, to experience excellence in athletics at Hope.

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Shameless plug: To learn more about Dr. Anne Irwin’s impact on and legacy in Hope College Athletics, order a copy of In Pursuit of Excellence by Tom Renner ‘67, the newest Hope sports history book that covers stories from 1970 to 2020. In it, you will find a chapter about Anne’s arrival and tenure at Hope that details how she helped lay the foundation for the first-rate program that Hope Athletics is today. Full disclosure: I wrote a chapter about Anne in that book, too.

*Eva Dean Folkert (center) and the 1981 Hope softball team coached by Anne Irwin (in the gray sweatshirt, right) after they won the state of Michigan AIAW Championship.*

(Historical aside: The AIAW was the only national collegiate women’s sports governing body until 1983. When the NCAA began offering women’s championships in 1981-82, it proved to be the end of the AIAW.)

Title IX at 50: Sisters Ana and Heleyna Tucker, Women’s Cross Country

Editor’s Note: On June 23, 1972, a federal civil rights law was passed that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding. Title IX also gave girls and women the equal opportunity to compete in sports across the country. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX’s passing next summer, Hope College Athletics will share the memories and perspectives from Hope College student-athletes, coaches, and alumnae on the 9th of each month during the school year.

In our fourth installment, we spotlight sisters Heleyna and Ana Tucker, who also are teammates on the Hope College women’s cross country team that finished eighth at the 2021 NCAA Division III Championships. It was the Flying Dutch’s second-highest finish at nationals. This fall, with a boost from the Tucker sisters, the Flying Dutch also ran their way to NCAA Great Lakes Region and Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association team titles this fall. Ana, an exercise science major, earned All-America honors at nationals with an 11th-place finish. Heleyna, a mathematics major, ran in Hope’s top seven at nationals and finished 199th.

Ana and Heleyna, who attended H.H. Dow High School in Midland, Michigan, are part of a set of triplets along with their brother, Charles, who is studying computer science at the University of Michigan.

1. What does it mean to you to have the opportunity to be student-athletes and teammates at Hope College after this past fall?

Sisters Ana and Heleyna Tucker, from left, hold the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional trophy won by the Hope College women’s cross country team.

Heleyna Tucker: Being at Hope together both in athletics and academics is so much fun. Having that support system always by my side if I need a pick-me-up is so special to me. This was my first year on the varsity team and my first nationals race, so Ana really helped me stay calm and ready. It’s interesting to see how similar and different we are, especially in academics. With Ana being an exercise science major and me a math major, it’s fun to learn from each other’s interests.

Ana Tucker: I am very grateful to have the privilege of being on the Hope Cross Country team with Heleyna. Heleyna and the entire team are always there to encourage each other — whether it be in school or on the race course. I couldn’t ask for a better group of friends! Heleyna always reminds me to keep having fun in the sport and she serves as a great example for the rest of the team. We both have different strengths and weaknesses, so it’s always good to be able to work together as a team to support each other.

2. What makes your sister such an exceptional student-athlete?

Heleyna Tucker: Ana has raced her way to many school records and awards throughout her career. It’s been a joy to both cheer her on and get a chance to compete with her at such high levels. As her sister, I’ve gotten to see her grow as a person, athlete, and student. Ana shows dedication and determination in everything she does and lets her love of running shine through her classes and research.

Ana Tucker: Heleyna has developed a lot over the years, and her perspective on running has grown throughout her experience at Hope. Heleyna is a natural leader. She shows a lot of love for the sport and compassion for her teammates. She sets strong goals for herself and is not afraid to pursue them with everything she’s got. Heleyna definitely inspires me to value every opportunity I get to run!

3. Who inspired each of you to take up competitive running? Did you start at the same time?

Heleyna Tucker: I started to compete in figure skating when I was about eight years old. When I was 12 years old, I started to run more and became fully committed to the sport. Ana started to run a few years before me, so I would say she inspired me to lace up my shoes and join my middle school’s track team nine years ago.

Ana Tucker: I was inspired to take up competitive running when I was in the fifth grade. I started out in a couple programs called Girls on the Run and Fleet Feet. I really enjoyed being in the family-like atmosphere of the track/cross country team. Heleyna started running a few years after me, but her motivation and encouragement inspired me to continue running as the years went on.

4. What do you plan to do with your Hope College education?

Heleyna Tucker: As a current mathematics major, I plan to graduate and look toward earning a masters degree. As far as jobs go, there are many to choose from. I hope to use my mathematical background to collaborate and help others with whatever job I choose.

Ana Tucker: I plan to become a physical therapist. I would love to help others live life to their fullest by helping them overcome injury. I am not sure which specialty I would like to go in, but I look forward to exploring the career further in PT-school.