A Success Story About A Former Local Three-Sport Athlete
February 7, 2018 at 4:53 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
There are a lot of people in higher positions, with more pull and influence, than me who are championing the cause of getting kids back onto more than one roster each school year.
Call me the flag-bearer, though.
I want to tell you the story of a young former athlete – a former Warsaw Lady Tiger who was a really good three-sport athlete and went on to have a very special college career in one of those sports.
Rebekah Reichard played basketball, volleyball and softball at Warsaw, and when she graduated in 2005 she left a void for three different teams and the school as a whole.
She was a great athlete and a great kid.
She worked very hard at her skills in the different sports she played. She was dedicated to her crafts.
Reichard was a solid rebounder and tenacious defender who also scored 697 points on teams that won 60 games over her three varsity girls basketball seasons and played for the 2004 Class 4A state championship at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
She was a really good first baseman on really good Lady Tiger softball teams as a freshman and sophomore, and regularly batted in the No. 3 or No. 4 spot in the lineup.
But Reichard’s best sport was volleyball.
She was a fearsome outside hitter. They set her the ball a lot, and she delivered a lot with thunderous drives that were heard from outside the gym. At 5-foot-10, she hit the ball with power and accuracy that was virtually unstoppable.
She went on to play volleyball at Indiana Wesleyan University, where she set records for kills in a game, a season and a career. She was a three-time NAIA All-American and was conference Player of the Year twice.
In her four years at IWU, the Wildcats went 112-49 with two regular season conference titles, four conference tournament championships and the school’s first ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament.
Saturday, IWU inducted her into its Hall of Honor.
Reichard’s story is one worth telling, if for no other reason because she was a really nice kid who exemplified grace and class and who was a winner in every way. She is a person of the highest order. She is someone who anyone would want to be around.
Reichard was recently promoted to associate athletic trainer at Valparaiso University. She is the kind of person who you want handling the health and well-being of your college student-athlete.
Reichard has always been destined to be successful, and not because her family is rich or powerful in earthly terms.
But she does have a few traits that young athletes could follow on their own path to success.
She was an outstanding student. She worked as hard in the classroom as she did on the diamond or the court.
She is extremely organized. She is a good person. She was a great teammate on all her teams, and she is a smiling face to every athlete who walks into the training room at VU.
Reichard was not afraid to allow herself to be in a position to fail, but then set out to do everything in her power to never fail.
See that?
Fear of failure. It grips a lot of athletes and their parents to the point that it holds them back from reaching their maximum potential.
The fear is two-fold: “My best sport is (insert best sport here), and if I don’t focus on it 24/7/365 others will get better at that sport while I am doing something else and I won’t get a Division I scholarship” or “I don’t want to ruin my scholarship chances by getting hurt playing my second or third best sport.”
Let me take the second one first.
Managing risk is a parent’s job and one of the hardest things to do. I am trying to do it now and I am struggling with it.
What my faith tells me is that what is going to happen is going to happen. Yes, a star player in one sport could suffer a major injury playing another sport. But they could also be in a car accident, or be injured during a weight training session, or in a sports-related fitness class at school.
Reichard reminded me as we talked this week that research is beginning to support a widespread concern that specializing in one sport at an early age might be connected to an increased risk of injury.
Now back to the first fear.
College coaches are expressing publicly more and more that they prefer to recruit players for their teams who play more than one sport. They like a well-rounded athlete who has a well-rounded life, in sports and out of sports. They want kids who are not afraid.
Oh, by the way, of the more than 100 players involved in the Super Bowl Sunday, 96 percent of them played multiple sports in high school.
Ask Reichard, or Kyle Mangas, how overrated the whole “Division I thing” is.
Reichard wasn’t afraid, and now her name is immortalized at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Something to think about.
There are a lot of people in higher positions, with more pull and influence, than me who are championing the cause of getting kids back onto more than one roster each school year.
Call me the flag-bearer, though.
I want to tell you the story of a young former athlete – a former Warsaw Lady Tiger who was a really good three-sport athlete and went on to have a very special college career in one of those sports.
Rebekah Reichard played basketball, volleyball and softball at Warsaw, and when she graduated in 2005 she left a void for three different teams and the school as a whole.
She was a great athlete and a great kid.
She worked very hard at her skills in the different sports she played. She was dedicated to her crafts.
Reichard was a solid rebounder and tenacious defender who also scored 697 points on teams that won 60 games over her three varsity girls basketball seasons and played for the 2004 Class 4A state championship at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
She was a really good first baseman on really good Lady Tiger softball teams as a freshman and sophomore, and regularly batted in the No. 3 or No. 4 spot in the lineup.
But Reichard’s best sport was volleyball.
She was a fearsome outside hitter. They set her the ball a lot, and she delivered a lot with thunderous drives that were heard from outside the gym. At 5-foot-10, she hit the ball with power and accuracy that was virtually unstoppable.
She went on to play volleyball at Indiana Wesleyan University, where she set records for kills in a game, a season and a career. She was a three-time NAIA All-American and was conference Player of the Year twice.
In her four years at IWU, the Wildcats went 112-49 with two regular season conference titles, four conference tournament championships and the school’s first ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament.
Saturday, IWU inducted her into its Hall of Honor.
Reichard’s story is one worth telling, if for no other reason because she was a really nice kid who exemplified grace and class and who was a winner in every way. She is a person of the highest order. She is someone who anyone would want to be around.
Reichard was recently promoted to associate athletic trainer at Valparaiso University. She is the kind of person who you want handling the health and well-being of your college student-athlete.
Reichard has always been destined to be successful, and not because her family is rich or powerful in earthly terms.
But she does have a few traits that young athletes could follow on their own path to success.
She was an outstanding student. She worked as hard in the classroom as she did on the diamond or the court.
She is extremely organized. She is a good person. She was a great teammate on all her teams, and she is a smiling face to every athlete who walks into the training room at VU.
Reichard was not afraid to allow herself to be in a position to fail, but then set out to do everything in her power to never fail.
See that?
Fear of failure. It grips a lot of athletes and their parents to the point that it holds them back from reaching their maximum potential.
The fear is two-fold: “My best sport is (insert best sport here), and if I don’t focus on it 24/7/365 others will get better at that sport while I am doing something else and I won’t get a Division I scholarship” or “I don’t want to ruin my scholarship chances by getting hurt playing my second or third best sport.”
Let me take the second one first.
Managing risk is a parent’s job and one of the hardest things to do. I am trying to do it now and I am struggling with it.
What my faith tells me is that what is going to happen is going to happen. Yes, a star player in one sport could suffer a major injury playing another sport. But they could also be in a car accident, or be injured during a weight training session, or in a sports-related fitness class at school.
Reichard reminded me as we talked this week that research is beginning to support a widespread concern that specializing in one sport at an early age might be connected to an increased risk of injury.
Now back to the first fear.
College coaches are expressing publicly more and more that they prefer to recruit players for their teams who play more than one sport. They like a well-rounded athlete who has a well-rounded life, in sports and out of sports. They want kids who are not afraid.
Oh, by the way, of the more than 100 players involved in the Super Bowl Sunday, 96 percent of them played multiple sports in high school.
Ask Reichard, or Kyle Mangas, how overrated the whole “Division I thing” is.
Reichard wasn’t afraid, and now her name is immortalized at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Something to think about.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092