ICC softball: continuing the storied tradition

EAST PEORIA — When Coach Lorene Ramsey came to Illinois Central College forty years ago, it was the beginning of the ICC softball program. Since then, the sport of softball has changed a lot, but ICC’s heritage of success has continued.

That heritage was revisited with a recent visit from one of ICC’s first softball stars, Tonya Gilles-Koch, a two-time All-American and member of the 1979-80 softball team. National Girls & Womens in Sports Day gave her a chance to revisit her time at ICC and discuss some of the changes the game of softball has experienced.

Tonya remembered choosing to come to ICC despite the fact that no sports scholarships were offered here at that time.

“I received a full scholarship offer from Bradley my senior year, but I chose ICC because of Coach Lorene Ramsey. She is a legend in our sport. … I really looked up to her as a person and a coach,” Tonya said.

As Ramsey said in her 1978 recruitment letter to Tonya, “I feel that I am well qualified to coach pitchers due to the twenty-two years pitching experience that I acquired as a member of the Pekin Lettes. During the summer I work as a pitching coach for the St. Louis Hummers of the Women’s Professional Softball League.”

Besides her focus on pitching, Ramsey was also establishing a solid reputation as a coach and ensuring ICC offered the tough competition needed to help her players develop.

“Last year we defeated the varsity softball teams from Purdue University, Illinois State University, and Eastern Illinois University as well as many top flight small college and junior college teams,” the 1978 letter continued.

Aside from the All-American honors during her two years with ICC, Tonya would also lead the Cougars to two third-place national finishes.

During Tonya’s visit here she spoke with the current ICC softball team about the changes in their sport, both on and off the field, since her time at ICC.

In Tonya’s day, the softball season would start in March and end in April; there was no fall season. After leaving the players to practice on their own for three days a week from September to November, the team would then break for christmas before starting their season.

“We did not get to go to Florida or anywhere warm; we just played around here. St. Louis was the farthest that we ever went when I played on the team,” Tonya said.

Traveling and lodging was very different then. Pitchers and catchers would each be allowed their own bed while in hotels, but the remaining team members would be forced to double up.

“Everyone said, ‘well that’s not fair,’ and it was funny because at one practice [Ramsey] called us over and she said, ‘Softball is 98 percent pitching. The pitchers need a good night’s sleep and so do the catchers,’” Tonya said.

Modern on-the-field changes include the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate increasing from 40 feet to 43 feet, the balls being colored yellow, the bats going from aluminum to titanium and the fence distance from home plate decreasing from 225 to 200-210 feet. All of these things helped remove the pitcher’s dominance and give batters more opportunity.

With the introduction of batting helmets and face masks, safety of the players has also become more of a priority since the days when Tonya played.

Throughout all these changes, ICC’s coaches and players have maintained a strong rate of success. With 17 top 10 finishes and two national championship victories in the school’s history, the team has a developed a reputation as one of the best in the nation. There was a brief time, however, when this reputation seemed to be in jeopardy.

Coach Ramsey would retire from coaching softball in 1998 leaving coach Marty Pump with a strong team that would carry the cougars to nationals the next two years. Those were, however, the only trips the Cougars would make to nationals under coach Pump who would leave after the 2006 season.

Hearing of the opening at ICC and being very familiar with the winning traditions of ICC softball, Coach Heather Doty submitted her resume in hopes of bringing back the ICC softball program.

“When I was at Bradley I pitched against ICC for four years and I got beat for four years. Here we’re a four-year school playing a junior college and we got beat all the time,” Doty said.

‘[ICC] had established a strong winning tradition and I knew that if I got the right mix of girls in here that we would continue that winning tradition and get back to nationals,” Doty said.

Not only ensuring the winning tradition continues, coach Doty is creating her own mark on the history. During her eight years here, Doty has guided her Cougars to nationals four times and top five finishes in each of the last three years.

This year, the Cougars are off to a bad start (nine losses to only one win), and the pressure is there for the team to maintain the winning tradition.

“It’s pressure that we put on ourselves,” Doty said. “Not ever has Sue [Sinclair] or Dr. Erwin or anybody said ‘you must win, you must win.’ It’s one of those unspoken expectations that we put on ourselves that, now that we’ve gone to nationals, that’s always our goal.”