Lake Michigan College celebrates 50 years of women’s athletics

February 5, 2025 is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and Lake Michigan College has decided to use this day to put the spotlight on the 50 years of women’s athletics that have taken place at the school. The day will bring wider attention to the impressive achievements of women and girls in sports, while also promoting a greater equity in sports as a whole.

Currently, Lake Michigan College offers five women’s sports teams: volleyball, softball, soccer, cross country, and basketball. In all, these teams support the athletic activities of 70 female student athletes. The Red Hawks play in the Michigan Community Athletic Association (or MCCAA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (or NJCAA) leagues.

The Lake Michigan College women's athletic program started back during the 1974-1975 athletic season. Back at that time, gender equality in athletics, and beyond, were only just emerging, including Title IX. Title IX allowed for women to have equal access to education activities and programs such as athletics at the college level. 

The athletics program started under the leadership of Coach Liz Miller, who coached three sports. Basketball and volleyball were the first two sports to be offered, with softball brought in as a club sport. It later was elevated to the intercollegiate level during the 1976-1977 season.

Then, in 1978, Coach Miller was elevated to athletic director at Lake Michigan College. While in that position she kept coaching volleyball and softball. She was also the first female athletic director at the school as well as being the first female athletic director in the state of Michigan in either women’s or men’s sports.

The Red Hawks program did well under Miller’s leadership. She led the softball team to 10 different showcases in the NJCAA National Tournament throughout the 80s, and led the volleyball team to two appearances in the national tournament as well. 

Thanks in large part to the foundation laid by Miller, the Red Hawks have seen a tradition of achievement within the realm of women’s athletics that persists into the present. A short highlight reel of accomplishments includes: The track team standout Sheila Atcher becoming national long jump champion in 1981; the women’s basketball team advancing to the national tournament 11 times in the past 50 years; the softball team winning the NJCAA national championship in 1993; the softball team making 16 national tournament appearances in the last 50 years, with its most recent being last year; Women’s soccer joining the list of available sports in 2021; two other women have served as athletic director at Lake Michigan College in addition to Miller, two time All American and former three sport athlete for the Red Hawks, Kathy Leitke, from 1991 until 2000, and former softball coach Mel Grau who started in 2017 and still holds the position today; women’s cross country becoming available in 2022; and Olivial Ippel capturing the individual NJCAA Division II women’s cross country national championship the year after.

In an article posted on Lake Michigan College’s website, Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Life, Mel Grau was quoted about the program, saying, “With all the options young women have in sports today, it’s difficult to imagine a time when those didn’t exist. The trailblazers who worked to close the opportunity gap between men and women in athletics deserve our gratitude. It’s because of them that so many student-athletes are benefiting today.”

Katie Scheuer, who is the current Red Hawks softball coach and a former student athlete of Lake Michigan College herself, noted that women’s athletics at the college are not only measured in stats, saying, “From day one, I stress how important the degree is here. School comes first.” 

The idea that the degree comes first has been the philosophy at Lake Michigan College athletics regardless of gender since the outset of their being offered. Since 1985, when Karla Huebner was named the school’s first women’s NJCAA Academic All-American, many more female athletes have followed in her footsteps. In the past five seasons 47 female athletes have been named Academic All Americans, nine for their second time.

The NJCAA also makes the effort to recognize Academic All American Teams by looking at which groups have a collective team GPA of 3.0 or more. Lake Michigan College women’s soccer, volleyball, and softball have all earned that recognition three times in the past six seasons, with women’s basketball earning it twice in that same span of time.

Along with Lake Michigan College celebrating 50 years of women’s athletics, the NJCAA is doing the same for its own women’s division. The NJCAA became the first intercollegiate organization to set up a women’s division back in 1975, and now holds 30 national invitationals and championships.

More information about Lake Michigan College can be found at the school’s website.