Marty Kelley ’71 and Lynn Williams ’60 were honored for their athletic and lifetime accomplishments during Homecoming 2009 by being named recipients of the Ruth Gunden Champion of Character Award and the Roman Gingerich Champion of Character Award. For the fourth year, the Maple Leaf Athletic Club has selected a female and a male alumni athlete who exemplify the college’s core values in their lives, work and community service. Gunden and Gingerich were pioneers in GC athletic history.

Marty Hess Kelley ’71 — Ruth Gunden Champion of Character Award

Marty Hess Kelley ’71

While at Goshen College, Marty Kelley competed in field hockey and majored in physical education. She joined the faculty of Goshen College as director of student activities in 1982 and held a number of other positions at Goshen, including director of human resources and director of admissions. “Marty would tackle any job if she could serve the college in some way,” said Ken Pletcher ’70, Goshen College development officer and former athletic director. As a GC athlete, Kelley also “bled purple and loved the Maple Leafs.”

After her time at Goshen, Kelley worked for the Fair Housing Council of Central New York and now serves as an education adviser for adult students at the University of Maine. Kelley serves on a committee that works toward ending hunger in the state of Maine and has led workshops on nutrition through the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Project. In 2005, Kelley founded Voices for Peace, an interreligious, all-inclusive group of singers committed to peace, social justice, love and joy. Kelley and her husband, Mark (GC faculty ’83-01),live in Orono, Maine, and have two adult children who are also Goshen College alumni. They attend Hammond Street Congregational Church where Kelley serves on the outreach committee and organizes free monthly lunches.

Lynn Williams ’60 — Roman Gingerich Champion of Character Award

Lynn Williams ’60

Lynn Williams was a part of the beginning of intercollegiate athletics at Goshen College and competed in basketball and baseball. He graduated with a degree in health, physical education and recreation (HPER) and biology. Williams received a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 1977.

Throughout a 30-year career as a teacher and coach with the Denver (Colo.) Public Schools, Williams taught junior high and high school biology and physical education, along with coaching tennis, basketball and football. Known to many simply as “Coach,” he taught his students the values of respect, responsibility, integrity and sportsmanship. Williams’ daughter, Dana Williams-Hosman ’94, said, “By believing in his athletes and demanding they respect and believe in themselves, [he] has helped many individuals lift themselves out of poverty and into college and careers.”

Now retired, Williams continues to be an active member of First Mennonite Church in Denver and to serve on numerous boards of directors and state athletic organizations. Williams lives in Lakewood, Colo., with his wife Margaret Miller Williams ’60. Dana is his daughter from his marriage to Anne Detweiler ’60, who passed away in 1988.

–By Julie Weirich and Judy Weaver ’81

Men’s Basketball
15-16 (overall), 5-11 (MCC)
Junior Errick McCollum II (Canton, Ohio) was named First-Team All MCC and an honorable mention NAIA All American after finishing the season just shy of 2,000 career points (1,994).
Women’s Basketball
7-24 (overall), 2-14 (MCC)
Sophomore Cassie Greives (Rochester, Ind.) set a new single-season record with 289 rebounds.
Softball
11-30 (overall), 4-12 (MCC)
After a one-year hiatus, compiled double-digit wins for first time since 2003. Senior Amy Clem (Logansport, Ind.) set a new single-season program record for home runs with 11.
Baseball
11-45 (overall), 2-22 (MCC)
Men’s Golf
Finished ninth at the MCC Championships.
Women’s Track and Field
Finished third at the MCC Championships with three individual conference championships. The Leafs later placed 14th out of nearly 300 at the NAIA National Championships in St. Louis. Senior Abri Houser (Newton, Kan.), senior Tessa Horst (Dalton, Ohio) and junior Tina Peters (Yellow Springs, Ohio) were named All Americans.
Men’s Track and Field
Finished seventh at the MCC Championships. Sophomore Jon Miller (Syracuse, Ind.) won the individual conference title in the 400-meter hurdles.

Notes: The Goshen College Athletic Department received a program-record 50 Daktronics-NAIA All American Scholar-Athlete awards during the 2008-09 academic year. The Maple Leafs also led the MCC with 54 Academic All Conference selections.

The Sports Information Office was recognized with seven national publication awards at the NAIA-Sports Information Directors Association Convention in San Antonio. Among the awards, www.GoLeafs.net, was honored as the third best official athletic Web site in the country. The Maple Leafs also received top 10 finishes in three media guide categories as well as two feature writing contests.

Visit www.goleafs.net to find in-depth game reports, player stats and insider comments about the Goshen College Maple Leafs.

Senior cross country runner Sam Chege, a nursing major from Nairobi Kenya, holds shoes donated by the Shoes for Kenya Program

When associated with athletics, the word “community” most often suggests the idea of creating a close-knit group of teammates on and off the court or field of play.

For the GC Athletic Department’s 200-plus student-athletes, the 2008-09 school year was a lesson in a more complete definition of community through the department’s new project: “Leaf Relief.”

Formed around the school’s mascot – the Maple Leaf – and the college’s core value of servant leadership, Leaf Relief is now an annual relief effort to help those in need. With a motto of “Leaf Belief is to give Relief,” the program’s three main goals are raising awareness for worthy causes, taking part in community service projects and raising funds for humanitarian efforts.

“We wanted to show how our student-athletes embrace the college’s motto of ‘Culture for Service,’” explained Women’s Basketball Coach Steve Wiktorowski, who initiated the program.

“It has enlarged our athletic community with everyone working together for a single cause, even though it has been done in different and unique ways.”

The traditional understandings of community in athletics of building a team – while equally important – have often become merely the backdrop for the program. Maple Leaf student- athletes have been active in the local community through projects such as free basketball clinics for elementary school children, providing safety patrols for popular trick-or-treat locations on Halloween, a Toys for Tots Drive and a Family Fun Fest which brought over 100 kids onto campus for a day of free games and crafts.

It has been the more nontraditional ideas or understandings of community service, however, which have set the program apart, such as a pre- season men’s basketball team trip to a maximum- security prison in Michigan for a scrimmage.

While not every project has been that dramatic in scope, each has taught lessons of community and sacrifice outside the typical boundaries of a team. Dozens of student-athletes joined with the entire campus community in March to help distribute food to 5,000 local families for an Elkhart County Feed the Children event.

The Maple Leafs Student-Athlete Advisory Board selected LaCasa, Inc. – a local organization that assists with the social and economic welfare of individuals, families and neighborhoods – as the program beneficiary of the year’s Leaf Relief fundraising events, which raised about $2,500.

The understanding of community has also gone well beyond the borders of this country with the sponsorship of a World Vision child in Rwanda and the Shoes for Kenya program. Developed by senior cross-country runner Sam Chege, a nursing major from Nairobi, the Shoes for Kenya program gathered more than 100 pairs of used tennis shoes to be shipped to his home country, where most runners train barefoot because they cannot afford the luxury of the footwear.

“It is very important to us that our student- athletes are both leaders and servants in our campus community, the Goshen community and across the world,” said Athletic Director Tim Demant. “Our athletes have proven that they will step up and exceed our expectations both on and off the field of play.”

–By Josh Gleason, sports information director

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that John Ingold ’59 has been one of the biggest supporters of Goshen College athletics throughout his life.
     As a student, Ingold competed on the college’s first soccer and track and field teams. He was also a captain of the 1958-59 basketball team.
     After graduation Ingold completed a doctorate in physical education at the University of Illinois. He began teaching physical education and coaching at Goshen in 1964. During his time, he coached 74 athletic teams and all seven men’s sports at least once.
     Since retiring as a professor of physical education and coach at Goshen College, Ingold has been at games or meets of any one of Goshen’s 14 athletic teams keeping scores or times, and driving athletes to away games. In the past three years Ingold has logged more than 2,000 hours of driving Goshen College athletes.
     “It’s always been his willingness to volunteer that sets him apart,” said Ken Pletcher ’70, former athletic director and current major gifts officer. “John is a very humble person who cares a lot about our athletes.”
Ingold lives in Goshen with his wife Margaret Miller Ingold ’59. The couple has five children: Jay Ingold ’84, Jane Ingold Stichter ’84, Judy Ramirez Ingold ’90, Sue Ingold (deceased) and Joe Ingold ’02.

While at Goshen College, Trinda Hirschey Bishop ’69 competed in field hockey and majored in physical education and health. Since her playing days, she has continued involvement with Goshen College and her community in Colorado.
Bishop received a master’s degree from the University of Colorado and taught physical education in Littleton (Colo.) public schools.
     She has served on Goshen College’s alumni board for five years and is a member of the Maple Leaf Athletic Club and helped start the Gunden/Bishop Athletic Scholarship. At her church, First Mennonite of Denver, she helped organize and establish an endowment fund to provide financial support for students to attend Mennonite colleges. As a teacher, in 2000, Bishop won the Denver Metro Board of Directors Award for commitment to the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope for Heart program, by motivating her students to raise more than $50,000 in seven years of participation. She is currently involved in a Reading for Peace program with the Conflict Center in Denver.
     “She’s one of the most active participants and supporters of Goshen College, because she’s willing to step forward,” said Ken Pletcher ’70, former athletic director and current major gifts officer. “She’s a classic example of a servant leader.”
     Bishop lives in Greenwood Village, Colo., with her husband Tom Bishop ’69. The couple has two children: Zachary Bishop ’97 and Griffen Bishop O’Shaughnessy ’00.

In its third year, the Dr. Ruth Gunden and the Dr. Roman Gingerich Champion of Character Awards presented by the Maple Leafs Athletic Club honor a male and female alumni athlete who exemplify the college’s core values in their lives, work and community service. Gunden and Gingerich were pioneers in Goshen College’s athletic history.

The Goshen College men’s soccer program celebrated its 50th anniversary season with a pre-game reception on Oct. 4, during Homecoming Weekend. (more…)

Men’s Cross Country
Finished seventh at the Mid-Central College Conference Championships. Ben Bouwman (Jr., Woodridge, Ill.) became the program’s first individual to compete in Nationals since 2004.

Women’s Cross Country
Finished seventh at the MCC Championships. Laura Harnish (Sr., Flanagan, Ill.) competed as an individual in the Nationals for the third-consecutive year.

Golf
Won the Goshen College Invitational with a season-low 316 team score. Will compete in the MCC Championships in the spring.

Men’s Soccer
9-8-2 (overall), 5-2-1 (MCC)
Made it to its fifth straight MCC Tournament Semifinal.

Women’s Soccer
4-11-1 (overall), 0-7-1 (MCC)

Men’s Tennis
7-5 (overall), 3-4 (MCC)
Finished tied for third place at the MCC Championship, their highest finish since 1996.

Women’s Tennis
3-9 (overall), 0-8 (MCC)
Finished tied for eighth at the MCC Championships.

Volleyball
20-13 (overall), 4-4 (MCC)
Won 20 matches for the first time since 2003. Reached the MCC Tournament Semifinals for just the second time in program history.

Scholar-Athletes
The Goshen College Athletic Department received 27 Daktronics-NAIA All American Scholar Athlete Awards this fall alone. The total does not include tennis – awarded in the spring – and is the most in program history for a single season.

Visit www.goleafs.net to find in-depth game reports, player stats and insider comments about the Goshen College Maple Leafs.

Much like any other season-opening scrimmage, the Goshen College men’s basketball team loaded a bus wearing sparkling new warm-up uniforms and shoes evident of a fresh new season. Players studied, listened to music and rested while their stomachs churned in anticipation for their first contest of the season.
That is where the typical scrimmage preparations ended for the Maple Leafs on Oct. 14, since the men’s basketball team was not playing a similarly matched opponent from another university. Instead, they were traveling to play inmates at the Ionia (Mich.) Maximum Correctional Facility.
The facility in Ionia holds about 680 inmates, including about 250 Level 2 offenders – less serious offenses like drug charges – and the remaining inmates classified as Level 5, representing the most dangerous criminals in the state of Michigan. The Level 5 inmates are closed off from nearly all personal contact, but the Level 2 prisoners receive rewards, like basketball, for good behavior.
After an abbreviated warm up, players took to the court for a simple game of basketball. Like most other contests, fans and players disagreed with officials – also inmates in this case – time-outs were called, shots were made, players were heckled by fans and one team came out ahead – Goshen easily won the game 100-53 against the aptly named I-Max (for maximum security) varsity team.
At times, Goshen College players and staff almost forgot that the game was even taking place in a prison. They were forced back to reality when they looked around and saw guards standing with weapons and the crowd full of men, young and old, wearing the bright orange and blue with printed prisoner numbers on them.
But for those instances, fans and players – on both sides – could momentarily forget about the circumstances and focus on camaraderie and a simple game, even if just for a night.
In post-game handshakes, inmate team members’ words were that of: “God bless you,” “Thanks for coming” and “Thanks for picking our spirits up.”
“It is going to be all that they (inmates) talk about for the next month,” said Goshen assistant coach Tim Williams. The same could likely be said for the Maple Leaf basketball players, as it became an experience everyone would not soon forget.

– By Josh Gleason