1,000 ways to win: Margo Jonker goes for career wins milestone
Before winning 11 Mid-American Conference Championships and before the softball stadium was named after her, Margo Jonker had a plan.
Jonker, now in her 30th year as CMU’s softball coach with 999 wins on her résumé, had other ideas before starting her tenure. She was going to be a nurse.
But plans changed after Jonker could not get into nursing classes.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all,” she said. “I enjoyed all academics, but I didn’t enjoy one area over the other. I ended up majoring in physical education and minoring in psychology.”
After some coaching and substitute coaching, Jonker found a graduate assistant position available at Central Michigan.
“When I was in my last year at Grand Valley coaching, Central started its program,” she said. “They had Linda Pagett and Lynn Putnam on the team as well as others, and I thought they were good. And then I started looking for graduate assistant-ships, and this is the one I took.”
With Central in its second year of existence and playing in the Associate for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, Jonker took over the head coaching position.
And now, in 2010, she will go for her 1,000th win when her team takes on Michigan State at 4 p.m. Thursday at Margo Jonker Stadium.
PROGRESS
The Chippewas showed the type of program Jonker was building in her third year (1982).
Jonker said she knew the team was going to the AIAW National Championships — but the team was losing to Bowling Green in the MAC Tournament.
“I knew the administration was all about winning it by going through the MAC Championship because that is how the men did it,” she said. “So I knew that if we didn’t win the conference tournament, there would be all kinds of questions back home. And with two outs in the seventh, we pinch-hit three or four people. Everyone got a hit, and we won the game.”
Central eventually took fourth place at the AIAW National Championships.
Five years later, Central put together another season for the record books, going 11-1 in the MAC en route to the Mideast Regional.
The Chippewas took on Northwestern in Mount Pleasant. The Wildcats had Lisa Ishikawa, named the 1985 Sportswoman of the Year by the American Softball Association and later was named Northwestern’s Athlete of the Decade from 1981-1991, in the circle.
After winning the first game 2-0, CMU took the next two games, 5-4 and 7-0.
Jonker said one foul ball changed what her team believed about its opponent.
“Lori Swanson, who was a fifth-year player who predominately played volleyball, but played summer ball and softball, hit a foul ball against (Ishikawa),” Jonker said. “...The whole team believed if she could hit it that far, they all could.”
CMU went on to win the Mideast Regional.
‘90S
In the ’90s, CMU won four more MAC Championships and, beginning in 1994, either took first or second in its division for 15 consecutive years.
And in 2000, Jonker got the opportunity to work as an assistant coach on the 2000 U.S. National Softball team at the Sydney Olympics.
“You get to be around the best softball players in the world on a day-to-day basis and you get to see how they think, train and play,” she said. “And having the general public be in awe of the team you’re with and just being treated like queens. And when you’re on the field, (you’re) being asked for autographs. It is those types of things that you just don’t get on a day-to-day basis, so that was awesome.”
With continued success into the new millennium, Jonker officially put her name on Central Michigan softball. On April 19, 2008, the CMU Softball Complex was renamed Margo Jonker Stadium.
This past Sunday, 30 years since starting at Central Michigan, Jonker disagreed with an umpire’s call.
Jonker raced out of the dugout and over to the umpire to fight for her player. It is clear why Jonker has not left the game.
“Passionate, dedicated, any word that falls along that line,” assistant coach Sami Baugh said. “In order to coach this long, you have to have passion for the game. Otherwise, you aren’t going to stick with it.”
