 During an early season game in Arizona, Mallissa “Sass” Van Rooyen started her Calvin softball
career on the wrong foot. Van Rooyen broke
her thumb on a pop fly, hanging on long enough to
make the out. That didn’t stop her from leading off at
bat the following inning with a double over the fence.
Unfortunately, she was out for most of the rest of
the season.
Injury absence aside, Van Rooyen has been a starter
for the Knights since the beginning. As a senior co-captain
of the team, she relates to the team she’s leaving
behind after graduation.
“You’re so used to playing with them,” said Van
Rooyen. “You get new girls every year. It can take a big
toll on you because you become really good friends.” Van Rooyen’s passion for softball started in the backyard
with a blue, wooden bat while her dad pitched.
“I would always play in the backyard with my dad,” said Van Rooyen. “One day Dad said, ‘Do you want to
play in Little League?’ I said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to do
that. That’s scary’!”
All fear aside, Van Rooyen soon joined a Little
League softball team, and eventually moved on to
travel softball. Since Van Rooyen’s high school didn’t
have a softball team, she continued to play travel softball throughout her high school career.
“I had a very small school, so it was normal that
we didn’t have [a team], because not a lot of people
played softball at my school,” said Van Rooyen. “The
travel team was where I got a lot of my experience.
It was great, I loved it.”
Van Rooyen’s college experience has been “an
adventure.” A newlywed, college athlete and a fulltime
student, she said one of the most applicable
skills she’s learned is time management.“I think with any collegiate varsity team you learn
to plan your time well,” said Van Rooyen. “It’s hard.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s good work.”
Van Rooyen lives up to that hard-working standard.
She was a member of the MIAA Academic Honor
Roll last year. She graduated with a business major,
with a small business concentration.
In the future, Van Rooyen sees herself owning her
own floral business. She plans to attend a six-week
program at the Boerma Instituut in the Netherlands
to get her floral diploma when the timing is right.
You wouldn’t catch Van Rooyen making a bouquet
of dandelions in the outfield though. As a junior,
Van Rooyen shined in the outfield with a .966 fielding
percentage, committing only one error in 29 fielding
chances. That same year she batted .379 (second
on the team) with 12 RBIs and two home runs.
Van Rooyen also hit one home run her sophomore
season and two home runs her senior season.
Van Rooyen’s work ethic shows, especially
to her teammates. As co-captain of the team,
Van Rooyen said she is not a vocal leader but
prefers leading by example.
“I work hard, and I’m always working hard,” said Van Rooyen. “I’m not out there to say, ‘Run
fast, do this or do that.’ I just can’t do that.” The softball team had its ups and downs
over that last few years, but that doesn’t taint
Van Rooyen’s experience.
“My experience has been great. Even though we
weren’t up there (in the league standings), yet I really
feel as though when the sophomores and the freshmen
now, when they become the juniors and seniors,
they’re going to be a solid team if they stick with it.
I believe that fully.”
Van Rooyen plans to move back to her hometown
of Beamsville, Ont., with her husband and recent
Calvin graduate Tim Swinkles. |
