Alyssa Morgan, senior class power Hamilton to historic season

HAMILTON — Driving past the Hamilton High School softball field on any given spring afternoon around 2:30 p.m., you'll see a lonely figure raking away and getting the field ready for the practice ahead.

Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our local coverage

It's not coach Mark Behnke or any other member of the coaching staff. It's Alyssa Morgan, one of five graduating seniors for the Hawkeyes softball program. She had enough credits through AP classes to have graduated in 2021. She opted to hold off a year, taking minimal courses her senior year before heading off to the University of Michigan to major in biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience with the intention to become a pediatric neurosurgeon.

During the school year, she would get out every day at about 10 a.m. because of how many credits she has stocked up already. In fact, the seniors have already walked the stage at graduation, so she could be out doing really anything she wanted to. Instead, she's at the field getting the infield ready so when the 13 other players show up, it's they can lace up their cleats and get practice started. That's how much this program means to her, and the other four members of the class of 2022.

"She just wants to do it because that's what the program and the team needs to get done," Behnke said. "This group, all five of them, in their own way, have been leaders of the program and it's not always with their voice, but more with how they do things."

They each bring something different to the table too. Morgan is an analytical presence, not speaking much but when she does her words carry weight. Tiernan Nykamp brings massive amounts of infectious energy to the field each and every day. Raya VanderZwaag has a constant positivity regardless of circumstances. Megan Williams holds the team together once they leave the field, organizing group activities so the team can make memories off the field. The final member of the group, Hannah Teed, is the most laid back, ice in her veins kind of person, never allowing any situation to get her too high or too low, which spreads to the rest of the team.

Leadership is critical on any sort of team and typically a group is in a good spot if it has two or three solid people to turn to when things get rough. Not only does Hamilton have five of them, but their strengths are all so wildly different off the field. Where one girl might struggle another will thrive. Together their strengths create the most well-rounded leadership groups a coach could ask for.

Morgan knows that if all five seniors had that constantly calculated thought process as she does, the team wouldn't work as well. The diversity of thought and has made this team come together in the dugout and has led to nothing but positive things on the field.

"What one of us lacks, the other can pick up our slack and we work as one cohesive unit Instead of just a bunch of individuals is really important for our team chemistry because it helps bring along the younger players," Morgan said. "We don't look at anybody as a sophomore or junior, like no, you're a part of us, we're all one team."

Leadership only goes so far when you hit the field. Talent is a vital part of the game and the Hawkeyes have plenty of that too, not just from their seniors. Morgan is hitting well over .400 and has 30 RBIs on the season. Nykamp has 15 stolen bases. VanderZwaag has struck out just five times in 125 plate appearances and is mashing .470 through 32 games. Junior Madie Jamrog is arguably the best pitcher in West Michigan, throwing a perfect game and a no-hitter this season, but she also leads the team in virtually every offensive category as well.

The potent mixture of natural talent up and down the roster and ever-present wisdom from the five seniors has helped Hamilton do what many though impossible. The Hawkeyes clinched at least a share of the OK-Blue title. It's the program's first hardware it can hang in the trophy case in 19 years.

"It's very exciting and we all wanted it so bad, so when we clinched a share of the conference we were all super happy," Nykamp said. "We all know we worked hard for it so we were thrilled we could accomplish that, especially with how underestimated Hamilton softball has been recently."

The group has forged its talents in the midst of the unknown. The sophomore season for the current senior class was canceled because of the pandemic. Several of them had never played varsity before last year and were dealing with a new coach in Behnke that very few of them knew.

But the group of five held the entire program together. In a school the size of Hamilton, it's tough to field a team some years. There's only 14 players on the varsity roster in 2022 and there was a very real possibility of the program going belly-up if people got disinterested in softball during the year off or just decided to follow other hobbies they were more passionate about.

The class of 2022 didn't let that happen though. Even at the height of the pandemic, when nobody was allowed to get together to even play catch, they kept each other motivated and laid the foundation for a conference champion team. They did all of that without even really knowing their coach.

"We didn't have the deepest of understandings of what we were trying to do [as a team], but in our individual meetings they all bought into what this could be," Behnke said. "Our five seniors were always around doing something [when they were able to] for softball and they let everybody know that we were going to be stable and we were going to be ok."

That work they did during their sophomore year when there weren't even games to play, defined the culture of the Hawkeye program. It's why they've seen such success in Behnke's limited tenure and it's why they have their eyes set high as they start the district playoffs on Saturday.

It's also why when you take an early afternoon drive down 136th avenue, you might catch a glimpse of a recent Hamilton graduate and a future neurosurgeon selflessly raking the field before the rest of her teammates get out of class.

It's because they love this program and want to leave it in a better place than when they found it.

"The biggest reason [I didn't opt to graduate last year], was just because I wanted that senior season of softball," Morgan said. "I just don't want to have any regrets, I don't want to have the feeling of I should have worked harder for my teammates or I should have gave it my all, because I know when I hang the cleats up it's really going to be over."

—Contact Assistant Sports Editor Will Kennedy at Will.Kennedy@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByWillKennedy and Facebook @Holland Sentinel Sports.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton High School softball thriving behind senior leadership