Class of 2025 Hall of Fame Inductees:
Softball's Ellingsworth, Women's Golf youthful trendsetters
A “no-brainer” for the Selection Committee will be sharing center stage with a team of trendsetters when the Rend Lake College Sports Hall of Fame rolls out the red carpet Saturday, May 10 for the 24th Class of inductees. To be more specific, welcome longtime Lady Warrior Softball Coach Dave Ellingsworth and the 1999-2000 Women’s Golf Team.
Dave Ellingsworth
Ellingsworth retired after the 2020 campaign was halted early by Covid. His 945-752 (.557) record in 26-plus campaigns ranks 15th all-time in terms of victories among his National Junior College Athletic Association peers (No. 2 in Illinois), only four of whom did it in fewer seasons. His 1995-96 national qualifiers finished 46-21 after advancing to the NJCAA Fast-Pitch Championships, followed by a record 61-21 campaign.
1999-2000 Women's Golf Team
Perhaps too young to know better, Coach Cindy Corn’s all-freshman contingent claimed a Region XXIV title in the program’s inaugural season and advanced to the NJCAA Championship, where the RLC reps placed sixth overall. It would prove to be the first of 14 National Finals appearances for the Lady Warriors over an 18-season stretch.
Their inclusion grows HOF membership ranks to 61 individuals and 15 teams, in addition to four track and field relay quartets, since charter members were inducted in 2000.
Reservations to join the honored guests are required by May 2 at a cost of $25 per person for the catered event at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Center Private Dining Area on the Ina campus. To do so, contact the Athletic Department at (618) 437-5677, Ext. 1250, or by email to oxford@rlc.edu or wills@rlc.edu.
The RLC Sports Hall of Fame was established to recognize those individuals and/or teams who, through leadership, character and accomplishments, have made exceptional contributions to the honor and prestige of Rend Lake College, as well as Mt. Vernon Community College, in the field of athletics and who have continued to demonstrate the values learned through participation in intercollegiate athletics in their daily lives.
The HOF plaque honoring Ellingsworth attempts to recognize some of his outstanding attributes . . . Role model. Man of character. High moral principles. Integrity. Humble. Loyal. Trustworthy. Likable. Respected. Knowledgeable. Disciplined. Military hero. On-campus Fellowship of Christian Athletes sponsor . . .
All true, but far from all-inclusive. Consider that five-plus years after his official departure from Rend Lake College duties – the minimum required for Hall of Fame consideration – Ellingsworth still returns to campus on a regular basis to serve as a sponsor for the FCA at 80 years of age. He was recipient of the inaugural FCA Scott Tickner Huddle Coach of the Year Award in 2009.
Military hero? No exaggeration there, either. He is a much-decorated war hero, a U.S. Army gunship pilot – call sign, “Firebird 93,” as a member of the 71st Assault Helicopter Company – who flew countless missions into enemy territory from 1966-67 during the Vietnam War. After earning a Purple Heart for being wounded in action, he spent the remainder of his service time as a Flight Instructor and Operations Officer back in the states.
Perhaps not typical, but not all that unusual, either . . . Chopper Pilot Ellingsworth and his crew re-armed and re-fueled 13 times on one unforgettable day.
Other recognition earned – Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in aerial combat, the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross from Vietnam Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and a Vietnam Air Service Medal featuring 21 oak leaf clusters.
“I know exactly what I’m capable of,” Ellingsworth has noted. “And as far as coaching, I can keep things in perspective. If I make a bad decision on the field, I get someone thrown out at the plate. At that particular time in my life, if I made a bad decision, someone somewhere in the world would lose their most precious possession.”
The 1965 Mt. Vernon Community College graduate – he would marry the Spring Formal candidate he escorted, Vicki Chase – returned home to graduate from Southern Illinois University and teach there for six years in the School of Aviation. The Ellingsworths were married when he was in Flight School. In 1977, he chose to accept a teaching position in the RLC Mining and Industrial Technology Department, specializing in Fluid Power, Automated Systems and Robotics classes.
Ellingsworth and wife Vicki
But as his plaque likewise alludes to, being a great guy isn’t enough. He joins the exclusive club in his first year of eligibility thanks to his Hall of Fame coaching credentials, outstanding teams and standout players.
Beloved HOF Coach Jim Waugh asked Ellingsworth to join the program as his Assistant Coach six seasons before he inherited the Head Coaching reins in 1993.
His ’95-96 HOF squad went 12-4 in the Fall Great Rivers Athletic Conference season before posting a record-31 wins that Spring (15-8 / 31-13 / 46-21 overall) en route to the memorable NJCAA appearance in Hutchinson, KS. The team headed by First Team NJCAA All-America Jaymie Cowell, Second-Team All-America Centerfielder Nicole Murray and a wealth of other talent was 24-10 before sweeping past Kaskaskia, Wabash Valley and John A. Logan for Sectional Tournament honors and going 3-1 in the Region XXIV Tourney at perennial power Illinois Central, dropping a 2-1 nail-biter to the hosts in extra innings before claiming a decisive, 9-2, verdict over the host school to advance.
Their HOF credentials were cemented with a 3-2 opening triumph over South Suburban before a 4-2 loss to Lakeland (OH) and an extra-inning, 6-5 setback to 60-10 powerhouse Indian Hills (IA). The unmatched NJCAA qualifiers were voted into the RLC Hall in Fall 2009.
1995-96 Softball Team
Sophomore returnees who helped produce an even-more impressive record the following year included Outfielder/Second Baseman Cowell, the dynamic pitching duo of Angela Robinson and Amanda Perjenski, First Baseman/Catcher Shanna Tolbert, Rightfielder Kelley McCree, Third Baseman Kimmy McNeal and Shortstop Tanya Bird.
Softball protégés who found their way into the RLC Hall prior to Ellingsworth’s retirement and five-year wait would come to within one of filling out a nine-player lineup card. Those awaiting his arrival – Second-Team All-America Leftfielder/Pitcher April Long (1993-95 / Inducted 2001); Cowell (’03); First-Team All-America First Baseman Jennifer Callandrilla (’97-99 / ’07); Robinson (Spring ’09); Third-Team All-America First Baseman Meredith Ramsey (’99-’01 / Fall ’09); Perjenski (’10); Pitcher Jennifer Wren (’97-99 / ’15), and Outfielder Breya Cooper (’15-17 / ’24).
Cowell was named to the NJCAA All-Star Team to play in the 1996 Canada Cup International following her first year and was a Second-Team All-America pick as a sophomore.
Second-Team All-America distinction was merited by Catcher Joni Reid (’91-92).
Ellingsworth’s teams were Region XXIV Tournament runner-up in 2002, ’03 and ’07 and third in six other seasons. He was Great Rivers Athletic Conference “Coach of the Year” after his team posted 15-1 credentials and boasted top honors in ’93-94, his first season in charge, and GRAC “Co-Coach of the Year” in ’99-’00 when his Lady Warriors shared the championship.
Win No. 500 came in 2004-05, his 12th season at the helm; Win No. 600 came in 2006-07; Win No. 700 came in his 17th season, 2009-10; Win No. 800 took a little longer, in 2014-15, and Win No. 900 a little quicker, in 2017-18.
Win #800 for Coach Ellingsworth
Win #900 for Coach Ellingsworth
Ellingsworth and Friends were a school-record 61-21 in 1996-97, 58-25 in ’99-2000 and 54-31 in ’06-07.
His Lady Warriors recorded 17 winning seasons, including 10 in a row to begin his head coaching career. They also had 30 or more victories 18 times and 40 or more in eight of those. But GRAC teams did not compete in the Fall his last 10 years, considerably reducing the number of games played overall after the 2009-10 calendar year.
A dozen of his teams merited Academic All-America, as did 62 individual players. The ’12-13 Lady Warriors posted a composite 3.55 grade-point average to rank No. 2 in the nation among 96 softball squads recognized. All-America distinction was bestowed on Emily Cripps and her 4.0 GPA (Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence, as well as for Superior Academic Achievement by Molly Whaley (3.91 GPA) and Taylor Cheek (3.83 GPA) and Exemplary Academic Achievement for Taylor Cicardi (3.76 GPA) and Cheyenne Morgan (3.76 GPA).
His student-athletes in ’04-05 tied for fourth nationally out of 44 honorees with their 3.40 GPA. Distinguished All-America status that year was awarded to April Gibson and her 4.0 GPA, followed by Holly Cargal (3.72 GPA), Brandi Funburg (3.71 GPA), Brittany Schafer (3.69) and Ashley Schaeffer (3.67).
Including his six seasons as an Assistant coach, Ellingsworth played a part in helping send 79 Lady Warriors on to play at the four-year level.
“I was very, very fortunate. I got to come to work each day and be surrounded by my friends. Your fellow teachers and the entire coaching staff were just your friends. We all supported one another. I’ve been told it is not always like that at a lot of other places. We had great students in our classes and student-athletes, also,” said the man who took one sick day as an instructor in 23 years before retiring from his full-time position in 1999. “There was never a day I didn’t look forward to going to work. I was really blessed.”
After a short pause, he added, “Of course, some days were better than others.”
Ellingsworth told a news outlet at the time of his departure, “Most people want to leave work to go see their friends. I got to come to work to see mine.”
Rend Lake College’s annual status as one of the top-ranked community colleges in the nation was one of his best recruiting tools over the years, Ellingsworth indicated.
“And I got to compete with and associate with some of the best coaches in the country,” said one of those winningest-coaches slated to be recognized at the inaugural NJCAA Coaches Legacy Awards Banquet June 17 in Charlotte, NC.
When he submitted his resignation, he told WROY/WRUL Radio it was a much different world than when he started teaching/coaching, “But the game has pretty well remained the same.”
Ellingsworth’s coaching level began with numerous youth league programs for both his son, Steven, and daughter, Alicia, who would continue her career as a Lady Warrior first baseman from 1990-92, only to have an extended career at University of North Alabama cut short by injury.
His treasured wife, Vicki, served as a beloved, unofficial “Assistant Coach” and part-time mother for his players for those many seasons.
“I just knew it was time,” Ellingsworth admitted after his resignation was accepted with “deep regret” by President Terry Wilkerson and the RLC Board of Trustees. “There are not too many people my age still doing this. But it has been a great career as both an educator and a coach.”
“Dave Ellingsworth has been a friend, colleague and mentor to me over my 28-year career at Rend Lake College. The institution will miss him, and I personally will miss him as he retires from his position as Head Softball Coach,” Athletic Director Tim Wills told Carmi radio station WROY/WRUL.
“His coaching record speaks for itself, but the impact he has had on the young people and the coaches with whom he has worked are his greatest contributions. I want to thank him for his many years of dedicated service to our Athletic Department and for his great friendship.”
A few more descriptive words which could easily have made Ellingsworth’s HOF plaque . . . Fatherly figure. Understanding. Good family man. Experienced. Thoughtful. All-around good guy.
1999-2000 Region XXIV Champion Women's Golf Team
Elizabeth “Liz” Kasey (Panama City Beach, FL) earned Second-Team All-America status with her ninth-place finish in Shawnee, OK, thanks to her four-day total of 88-81-89-80–338 over the Shawnee Country Club layout. Season-long pacesetter Bobbie Jo Bivens (Petersburg / Porta High School) tied for 36th individually at 92-94-88-91–365. Both have been here before. Kasey, affectionately known by her teammates as “Tigger,” was inducted into the RLC Hall of Fame as an individual in 2008. Bivens, aka “Piglet,” was the Lady Warrior medalist in eight of 12 tournaments and runner-up in three during the combined Fall ’99-Spring ’00 campaign, joined her in the Hall in 2014.
|
Liz Casey |
Bobbie Jo Bivens |
Bivens is believed to still be the lone Region XXIV Tournament medalist ever to claim that distinction two consecutive seasons.
Ironically, the former teammates were reunited in ’14, when the 2004-05 squad became the first and only other (to date) Lady Warrior team to be voted into the Hall of Fame thanks to its best-ever fourth-place showing in the NJCAA Finals. Kasey was serving as an Assistant Coach under Corn with that contingent.
The Hall of Fame newbies earned their way to the Nationals with a steady 352-351–703 showing to capture Region XXIV honors in the fall over runner-up John A. Logan at 346-365–711 at The Rail Golf Course in Springfield. Bivens claimed the first of her two Region medalist honors by overcoming a rough start with her 91-79–170 tally and a two-shot advantage.
Kasey, Nonie Ehlke (Highland) and Candice “Roo” Vogt (Salem) checked in fourth through sixth, respectively, at 85-89–174, 89-90–179 and 87-93–180.
In Oklahoma in the spring, Vogt duplicated Bivens’ 365 total to tie for 36th-place with rounds of 95-92-86-92. Megan Mosel (Carbondale) was 52nd overall – her last three rounds contributing to the team’s four-player tally – at 110-100-98-92–400; Ehlke’s first-round score counting as she finished 56th overall at 104-102-102-103–411.
Perennial Texas powerhouses Midland and McLennan dominated. Defending champ McLennan took Round One, but Midland Community College made a mockery of the field after that en route to its first of three consecutive Championship titles. The champs boasted the top three individuals behind two-time champion Pam Mackay, Linzi Morton and Krystal Mehaffey for team composites of 336-313-307-305–1,261 to win by 72 strokes.
Much of RLC’s competition leading up to the NJCAA Nationals was against four-year competition.
Coach Cindy Bodmer, née Corn
In Fall 1999, Corn & Co. finished runner-up to the hosts in the 12-team University of Southern Indiana Invitational, with a 353 tally six behind the victorious hosts at Evansville’s Helfrich Golf Club. Bivens was fifth with her 85; Kasey was tied for seventh at 87 and Vogt tied for ninth at 88.
That was followed by eighth at the 18-team Illinois Wesleyan Invite, with Kasey earning All-Tourney honors in 18th and Bivens in 19th.
A one-stroke victory over Logan, 702-703, in the four-team RLC Mary M. O’Neal Classic – named for Corn’s mother – was thanks to the 1-2 showing by Bivens (158) and Vogt (173) and a fifth from Kasey (178). The Rend Lakers followed that up with a ninth in the 10-team University of Evansville Invitational (12. Bivens) and a second-place showing by the Bivens-Vogt pairing in the five-team Logan Match Cup behind Missouri reps from Truman State University.
At the conclusion of the Fall campaign, Bivens was invited to play in The Rail Shootout with Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) representatives.
Spring 2000 found the Lady Warriors eighth in the 13-team Jackson (MS) State University Invite (14-t. Ehlke); third in the 15-team Bellarmine Tourney in Louisville, KY thanks in large part to the 82 by runner-up Bivens (tied), and seventh in the Murray (KY) State Invite (21. Bivens).
Getting back closer to home, RLC captured the five-team McKendree College Tourney by 35 strokes over second-place Lindenwood (MO). Bivens was second with her two-day total of 164, followed by Vogt and Kasey tied at 166 (fourth) and Ehlke sixth (tied) at 170. That was followed by a runner-up showing, one shot behind Truman State, in the six-team Logan Invite with Kasey and Bivens finishing 1-2 at 163 and 167, respectively.
As sophomores, with the addition of nontraditional student Roberta Sentel (Benton), who would finish 22nd and 24th in her two NJCAA Finals appearances, the “veterans” repeated as Region XXIV champs, lowered their composite championship scoring by 37 strokes and yet had to settle for a seventh-in-the-nation showing. Kasey was 30th overall at 356, Eller 32nd at 360 and Bivens 35th at 361. Vogt and Mosel did not figure in the scoring.
When all was said and done here, three members of the close-knit group remained intact. Kasey, Bivens and Mosel continued their golf careers together at Arkansas Tech University.
“They are all just so excited for the chance to get back together. Several have kids who are very involved in different activities, but because it falls on Mother’s Day weekend they are all planning on being here,” their coach said. “They were just a great group of girls.
“Looking back, it probably was the closest group I ever had. I am still in contact with all of them. We are on group chats, but they are so excited for the chance to get back together as a group.”
In reflection, Cindy Bodmer, née Corn, added, “Kids today rely on technology so much. Everything is so ‘mechanical,’ they can’t even swing their clubs without technology being involved. We just got out back then and played. They were all just competitors; you can’t teach that.
“And they hated to lose. Megan and Bobbie Jo were so competitive. Nobody, though, was more competitive than Bobbie Jo Bivens. I always had to calm her down; she just got so fired up. But I had that same temperament. She was a spitfire, just so competitive. You just can’t teach that.”
Kasey will be coming the farthest to attend, with perhaps the most unique story to tell.
She is an LPGA Class A Teaching Professional in Panama City Beach (FL) in addition to working for Gulf Coast State College as the Sports Information Specialist.
At age 24, she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. In 2018, an unknown, altruistic donor in Phoenix, AZ, was found to be a match – her gift of life – after a friend who had initially offered to donate a kidney was found not to be a match by the Mayo Clinic.
A few weeks of practice after not having played any golf for about three years, Kasey proudly represented Team Florida last July in the 2024 Transplant Games of America and played a role in winning the Gold Medal for Golf in Birmingham, AL.
Welcome back “home” to Coach Bodmer, née Corn, and Assistant Coach Krys Carlock, the wife of highly regarded and respected RLC Vice-President Bob Carlock, who served in that capacity from 1992-2013, following stints heading the RLC Foundation and other Business/Finance-related positions beginning in 1986.
As for the rest of you – Kasey; Bobbie Jo Decker, née Bivens; Nonie Murdick, née Ehlke; Stephanie Driggers, née Eller; Megan Dunker, née Mosel; Julie Trogolo, née Presley, and Candice “Roo” Feldmann, née Vogt – enjoy the evening reunited. But, remember, behave yourself . . . the proud spouses and young ’uns are watching.
— 30 —