 Looking back on her four years at Calvin, Michelle
Busscher acknowledges the amount of support she
has received both as a student and as an athlete.
A native of Whitehall, Mich., Busscher recently completed
the double challenge of majoring in nursing
and competing as a four-year member of the women’s
tennis team.
A graduate of Muskegon Western Michigan Christian
High School, Busscher often found herself racing from
nursing clinicals to tennis practice, but doing so was
made easier by a surrounding cast of teammates, coaches
and professors. “It’s challenging to be a nursing major
and an athlete, but I was able to do both because of the
support I received,” said Busscher. “I had a head coach
(Jerry Bergsma) who was always understanding if I
had to miss the first 30 minutes of practice because of a
class. And my professors were also willing to work with
my schedule, particularly if I had to miss a lab or class
because of a tennis match.”
She also was able to lean on a pair of tennis teammates
who were nursing majors: 2010 graduate Rachel
DeGroot and fellow 2011 grad Kaitlin Spoelhof.“I
always had someone I could lean on when the workload
got heavy and having a teammate in Rachel who was a
year ahead of me, I had someone giving me advice on
what to expect,” said Busscher.
The tight team bond within the Calvin women’s
tennis program is something that Busscher will always
treasure and was part of what made her experience at
Calvin a special one. “The bulk of our team came to
Calvin within a year of each other,” said Busscher.“When I was a freshman we had a big sophomore class,
and we really bonded and became a tight group.”
The team put together a stellar three-year run, just
missing MIAA titles in 2008 and 2009, finishing second
both years. In 2010, Calvin broke the trend, posting
an unbeaten 8-0 league record and then capping off
an MIAA tournament-title run with a 6-3 victory over
Hope in the tournament finals. The victory gave Calvin
its first-ever bid to the NCAA III Tournament.
“Coming so close the previous two years made winning
the conference that much sweeter,” said Busscher.“Winning a conference championship with the group
of people on our team was what made it even more
satisfying. We won that championship for each other.”
Busscher played a key role in Calvin’s MIAA-title
run in 2010, compiling a 17-5 record at No. 5 singles,
a position in Calvin’s lineup that she held during her
first three years at Calvin.
As a senior this spring, Busscher was asked to
move up to the No. 3 spot in the Calvin singles lineup.
Busscher was up to the challenge, compiling a 14-5
singles record, including a 7-1 mark in league play.
For her efforts, she was named to the All-MIAA
second team.
“It was a big shift,” said Busscher of moving from
No. 5 to No. 3 singles. “I was happy with the improvements
I made to adjust to a higher level of competition.
It was fun, and I was a little surprised at some of the
wins that I had this spring.”
Calvin head coach Jerry Bergsma was not surprised
with the level of play from Busscher this spring.“Michelle is a very focused competitor, and I knew that
she was capable of moving up in our lineup,” he said.“She is very disciplined both on and off the court, and
her discipline allowed her to improve not only this year
but throughout her career. She was a big part of our
team’s success over the last four years, and she will
certainly be missed.”
A three-time member of the MIAA Academic Honor
Roll, Busscher graduated this past May. She has accepted
a job with St. Mary’s Hospital in downtown Grand Rapids
where she will serve as an operating room nurse. |
