Heather Beintema - Feature Article - Rocket-Fire 28!
As Featured in the Rider History Department Newsletter
'The Annalist'
“You rocket-fire 28!” Attend any Rider’s women’s softball contest and chances are great that you will hear these words repeated many times during the course of the game. For those who don’t know, “28” is the uniform number of Heather Beintema, Rider’s star pitcher, and the words being shouted are by her #1 fan and father, Dan Beintema. These days the sight of a father cheering for and encouraging his daughter during a game is not unusual. What is highly unusual, however, is that Dan Beintema lives in San Diego, California and attends more than half of Heather’s fifty or more contests during the Spring softball season.
In a recent interview, Dan, who directs a nature center in San Diego Bay, laughed that in order to see his daughter pitch he had come close to perfecting the art of combining frequent flyer miles, red-eye flights, discount rent-a-car and inexpensive motels. But once he became friends with the parents of Heather’s teammates they have graciously opened their homes for him to stay. One unique way to earn airline miles, Dan chuckled, is using a credit card to pay Heather’s sister’s tuition at Arizona State University.
Having Dan, Heather’s former coach, attend as many games as possible was part of the plan that the Beintema family made when Heather decided to enroll at Rider as a history major in the Fall of 2002. At the time Heather was also seriously considering Central College, a small Iowa school where her grandfather had matriculated. But a visit to Rider during her senior year made the difference. “I absolutely loved Rider,” Heather revealed. “I liked the fact that it was a smaller school and I loved the softball team.” The deal was cemented when Heather earned a partial athletic scholarship as well as an academic Dean’s Scholarship.
Now in her senior year, Heather has distinguished herself on and off the softball diamond. As the ace of the pitching staff for the past three years Heather has accumulated a catalogue of statistics, records and awards that clearly rank her as the greatest pitcher in Rider history. She has a no-hitter, 2 one-hitters and owns the Rider career strikeout record at 540 with one more season to add to the totals (the old record was 414 set by fellow Californian, Jennifer Dahl, recently inducted into the Rider Sports Hall of Fame). Last year she led the team in starts, wins, earned run average, complete games, innings pitched and strike-outs for the third year in a row. In 2003 she was named the Middle Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rookie of the Year, First-Team all-MAAC and the MACC tournament Most Valuable Player, leading Rider to the MAAC Title and the NCAA Tournament. According to Trish Carroll, Rider’s softball coach, Heather is “well-respected and liked by her teammates and coaches largely due to her recognition that it’s a team game and no one is bigger than their team.” Trish also praised Heather’s dedication and hard work on the field and in the classroom.
Academically, Heather has made her mark. She is carrying a 3.22 grade point average while pursuing a demanding History/Secondary Education curriculum. She even found time to undertake a valuable internship at the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton. Commenting on her classroom experience, Heather notes:
“Being a history major has been challenging, but a fun experience at the same time. The entire department is very open and welcoming and almost everyone knows everyone else. It is really nice to see friendly, smiling faces around.”
As with other Rider student-athletes who must work hard at juggling practice, workouts, games, and classes and exams (no easy programs for athletes to hide in) Heather struggles to fit it all in: “At times, I wonder what it would be like to be a normal student and not have the added stress, but overall, I think that my busy schedule keeps me focused. Because I don’t have a lot of free time, I don’t have time to procrastinate—it’s just not an option. Sometimes I have to study by the small light of the team bus. Other times I am trying to balance my lap-top as I labor to finish a paper on the way home from a game. But the hectic life of a student-athlete keeps me on track and helps me maintain my priorities.”
As of this writing, Heather’s post-graduation plans remain flexible. She’s considering a return to California to become certified as a teacher there. After that she might spend some time in Iowa or even return to the East Coast for which she has developed a fondness. Her long-term goal is to teach high school history and coach softball. There is even an outside chance that she could return to Rider as a graduate assistant and part-time softball coach. For Rider and the History Department to have the presence of this energetic and friendly young woman for a fifth year would be, to borrow a common student response, “awesome.” Before all this happens, however, there is still time to see Heather on the diamond one last time during the Spring semester. And, of course, hear the by now familiar refrain, “You rocket-fire 28!”
