Chippewas on pace for program low
Margo Jonker coached 1,555 games thus far in her 30-year career at the top of the softball program.
Of those games, few were harder to bear than the last 35, in which the Chippewas posted a 9-26 record, including 1-12 in the Mid-American Conference.
"It is extremely frustrating and it is very difficult," Jonker said. "It is hard to see us not play to our full potential."
CMU's last losing season came in 2006, the only time in the program's 31-year history that has happened. This year's team is on pace for the worst record in the school's history.
"It is a bad year and everyone acknowledges the fact that teams have bad years," Jonker said. "People are still very excited about the program because we have a strong history."
The strong history Jonker spoke of was one that saw the Chippewas earn an overall record of 981-554-5 before this season. The team also has 11 MAC Championships and has won eight conference tournament titles.
Coming into this year, Jonker said her team would be a great hitting team, but inconsistency has kept the bats quiet.
"I thought we were going to be a pretty good hitting team and we are not," Jonker said. "Our biggest thing is that we haven't been able to put all parts of the game together at the same time. Some days our pitching is good but our hitting struggles and other days our offense is good and our pitching or defense doesn't come through. We just haven't been able to get it all together."
One of the most important roles of a coach is to maintain a positive outlook and attitude, Jonker said.
"I think they are very frustrated and they don't understand because we never expected this to happen," she said. "I am trying very hard to keep some semblance of order and trying to maintain perspective. We need to turn this program back around and think positive. When you are winning, it is a whole different atmosphere and environment."
While Jonker tries to keep the team positive, the players turned to each other to ride out the tough season.
"We have all come together and relied on each other to get through it," said junior outfielder Christina Novak. "We are all in this together and we need to stick with each other to be a team."
Novak, in her third season with the team, has been around long enough to taste some of the past success. In her first year, CMU went 27-20 and last year it finished 25-20.
"It is frustrating because we have the talent, that's not the issue," she said. "It is frustrating to go from winning every game to losing every game. It is just one of those things that sometimes you don't have an answer to."
Novak said some of the toughest feelings to bear are those that come while walking off the field after a loss this year.
"It is kind of like a feeling of 'it happened again - you have got to be kidding me,'" she said. "You just sit there and say we need to do this and that for next week."
Despite a season that has yet to crack double-digit wins, freshman infielder Molly Coldren thinks giving up on the season is not an option.
"It is discouraging sometimes because we know we are better than we are playing, but we can't win them all," Coldren said. "I would never throw in the towel. I could never do that because I just don't have it in me to do that."
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