'We saved the program': How Bellingham softball skipping a varsity season saved it

BELLINGHAM - Jacobi Houston joined Bellingham's varsity program as an eighth grader in 2022. She pitched and played shortstop, but more importantly, the middle schooler learned.

The Blackhawks fielded seven seniors on that roster. Ryanne Haynes, now at Providence, watched over Houston in particular.

"She was a mentor to me," Houston, now a sophomore, said. "The whole field behind me was a senior who was more experienced."

Those seven seniors graduated from a 12-player varsity roster, as they tend to, leaving a gaping hole. Blackhawks athletic director Michael Connor wondered how the program would field a varsity team in 2023 as he put together the schedule a year in advance. They only had one senior with no juniors or sophomores.

"I didn't want to demoralize the program by going potentially 0-20," Connor said. "Kids don't want to return to a team that they don't think they have a chance to win at.'"

"The best interest of the program"

So Bellingham chose to field only a JV program last spring. The roster featured 22 players, which included senior Hannah Silva and 21 freshmen or middle schoolers.

"It’s done on a very rare situation, but you do it because it’s in the best interest of the program," Silva said.

Courtney Parker was the junior varsity coach at the time. The Bellingham Class of 2009 alumn that later played at Merrimack couldn't wrap her head around the decision at first. How can a program that won a state title in 2014 not pull together a varsity roster not even a decade later?

"One-hundred percent heartbreaking. In 2003 these fields were filled with kids," Parker said. "It was very disheartening to hear not only were we losing kids to other schools, but we're losing specific athletes within the softball program. I felt this responsibility to sustain the interest."

It didn't make sense to some of the incoming freshmen who'd already played varsity like current sophomore Hayley Higgins. They didn't know what a JV-only season would look like.

"For me it felt like a step back," Higgins said. "I was already on varsity."

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Connor understood the risk. Bellingham currently has more girls playing lacrosse than softball. A lack of a varsity team could tip that balance even further. He considered the route some schools have followed dropping JV instead of varsity.

"It was a risk going JV and not varsity instead of varsity and not JV," Connor said.

"Only the name JV"

But Bellingham had the makeup of a JV program anyway. Other than Silva, the roster was young and lacked the strength or experience to contend with juniors and seniors in the TVL, where the Blackhawks are already one of the two smallest schools in the league.

"Bellingham is a baseball/softball type of town given the number of fields and the history the program has. It's not something you brush away," Connor said.

He knew he needed to convince Silva before anyone. She accepted her role as a leader and the joy of playing.

"She was a great sport about it and completely understood kind of the position that the the entire program was in, right and was totally on board, which was a huge, huge thing," Parker said. "I can't imagine being a senior and being told, 'Hey, you don't you don't have a senior season.'"

Bellingham approached 2023 as much like a varsity season as it could. The Blackhawks honored Silva on senior night for their last home game. She played every game, but in order to maximize playing time for the rest of the roster, they divided the 21 underclassmen into three, seven-player groups. Every game one of those groups of seven wouldn't play and knew it. Each player ultimately appeared in 2/3 of the games.

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"By scheduling more than 20 games, it kept everyone engaged," Connor said.

The players hit the field they realized the game remained the same. Many of them grew up playing together in youth programs and on club teams.

"It was the same girls we played with for years," Houston said. "It was only the name JV."

Back in black

With that foundation in place, Bellingham returned to varsity status in 2024. Since she knew the players so well from her three years as the JV coach and working with them in the offseason before she joined the Blackhawks program, Parker took over as the varsity coach this spring.

"We're in it together. There's going to be growing pains," Parker said. "We're going to experience them together. We're really just focusing on fundamentals and mechanics and just building up slowly."

Houston and her teammates connect with Parker and the way she approaches the game. Seeing someone come form where they are from and achieve the success she has makes for rapt attention.

"I love the way she sees the game. I've been with a lot of coaches because of my club team, and she sees the game so differently," Houston said. "She sees the game to explain it to you. Sometimes we don't understand what coaches are saying, and she gives us a way to understand."

The Blackhawks are 1-3 this season, defeating Dover-Sherborn on April 5 for their first varsity victory since May of 2022.

"It’s bumpy right now," Houston said. "We’ve been working our butts off. I think we’ll get there. I see a lot of progress with everyone."

The results, though, are less important than continuing to build. Parker emphasizes her team's energy and how that affects teammates. The Blackhawks want to become a family and a team that prioritizes the group's success before the individual.

"I don't care really about being this winning program. I want to impact people I want to impact these kids in an effective and in a positive way," Parker said. "It's about being a family and being good teammates and hopefully teaching young women to be great people in the world one day."

Maybe the Blackhawks will make the playoffs this season. Perhaps not. But whatever they invest now will grow for the next few seasons. They have one senior that returned to the program after years away and no juniors. The core of sophomores will be together for two more full seasons if they stick with it.

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"It was really important to focus on teaching everyone before winning," sophomore Ashley Kamin said. "I don’t think we would be in the same position we are now without our building year."

There are 24 players in the program now, which fields 12 on varsity and 12 on a junior varsity squad.

"I think we saved the program," Connors said.

Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @kylegrbwsk. 

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Bellingham softball returns to varsity play after year of just JV