KALKASKA - The Kalkaska softball team will take the field this spring with a new head coach for the first time in decades. While it’ll be a new face leading the Blazers, it’s a familiar last name.
Mike Ponstein is taking over as head coach after his father, Rik Ponstein, retired at the end of the 2022 season. Rik Ponstein had been the head coach at Kalkaska for 36 seasons.
“When we had the retirement ceremony for him, to see the girls come back that have played 30 and 40 years ago that he had made an impact on, it was pretty significant to see that many girls come back,” said Mike Ponstein.
There has been no one more dedicated to Kalkaska softball than Rik Ponstein. So when he decided to step down, it was tough for the whole program.
“I’m pretty sure I cried to my mom and I begged him to stay,” recalled Kalkaska senior Jaycee Mitchell.
But there’s one phrase Rik Ponstein instilled in his players every day that has stuck with him as much as it has with them.
“We always would say at the end of every practice and every game that ‘we love this game!’ That’s to remind us that if you don’t love it, then why are you doing it?” said Rik Ponstein. “And to remember, it is just a game.”
As it turns out, that saying still rings true after retirement.
Rik Ponstein still loves this game so he’s still around at Kalkaska softball, now serving as an assistant coach under his son.
“I figured that he would still be around,” said Kalkaska senior Michelle Michelin. “I didn’t think that he’d just completely go away.”
“To have him still here and to be around, softball kind of gets in your blood and you just can’t quit,” said Mike Ponstein. “So to have him here and still be a part of the program and helping out seeing things that he’s seeing after 40 years has been a big help.”
Rik Ponstein has full confidence in Mike to lead the program and to show off his own coaching skill set that separates him from his father.
“He’s more patient than me,” Rik Ponstein said with a laugh.
After 36 years, Rik Ponstein is ready to step aside, but not to fully step away.
“My freshman year I wasn’t so sure on playing but he made me love the sport again and I’m so excited that he is the assistant coach on varsity,” said Mitchell.
“One of the things when you coach, there’s always that one or two players that you want to say ‘ah I can’t wait to come back next year and coach them.’ There are several on this team,” said Rik Ponstein. “They kind of gave me that look at the end of the season [last year to say] ‘you’re going to be around, aren’t you?’ And I said ‘yeah, I’ll be around.’”
He’ll still be around because at the end of the day, he still loves this game.