A decade ago the accomplishments of the Hope College women's basketball team were called "The Miracle on Eighth Street" as the Flying Dutch captured the NCAA Division III national championship.
A decade ago the accomplishments of the Hope College women's basketball team were called "The Miracle on Eighth Street" as the Flying Dutch captured the NCAA Division III national championship.
This weekend members of the team will gather in Holland for a ten-year reunion highlighted by a tribute at halftime of a home women's basketball game on the same Holland Civic Center floor where the Dutch dramatically captured the national crown on March 17, 1990.
On Saturday (Feb. 19) the Flying Dutch will host Rochester College of Michigan in their regular season finale. Tipoff will be at 2 p.m.
At halftime members of the 1990 team will be honored. There will also be a post-game reception for fans and the team. On Saturday evening there will be a banquet honoring the 1990 and current team.
Former head coach Sue Wise Beckman will be joined by her assistant coaches Mary Schaap VanFarowe of Holland and Kris Smith of Kalamazoo.
All but one of the 1990 team members is scheduled to return for the reunion. The absentee will be Joy Brumels Zomer who with her husband and children is a teacher at the Haroli Gaspar Reformed University in Budapest, Hungary.
Team members who plan attend include Robin Schout Brands of Zeeland, Stephanie Reimer Vandenbrink of Holland, Holly Vandenberg VanEssen of Chicago, Dina Disney Hackert of Ludington, Anna Marie Postmus School of Baraboo, Wisc., Melinda Maurits of Hamilton, Amy Alverson Hodgson of Fowlerville, Michele Sterk Schoon of Ludington, Lisa Nienhuis Gilmore of Holland, Heidi Carigan Boes of Kalamazoo, Melissa "Missy" Hargreaves Thomas of Rapid City, and Deb Hoffman of Omaha, Neb.