Members of the 2015 Hauser Jets softball team are front, Abi Kidwell; middle row, from left, manager Leah Joyce, Sidney Giles, Tessa Sims, Hailey Lange, Sarah Anderson, Ali Hoover, Leslie Sims, Paige Miller; and back row: coach Craig Sims, Ellie Trotter, Lauryn Starnes and Kali Schumacher.
Submitted photo
June 13, 2015, is a day 11 Hauser softball players won’t forget for the rest of their lives.
The Jets etched themselves in the school’s history books forever as the second team to ever win a state championship, nine years after the boys basketball team gave the school its first title.
The road to the state championship wasn’t an easy one for Hauser. The Jets got past one of the top teams in the state at Rising Sun in the regional game, then got past another one of the top teams in Borden during the semistate semifinals. They’d run-rule host North Daviess in the semistate final to clinch the first softball state finals berth in school history.
Only Carroll (Flora) stood in the way between the Jets and the Class A championship trophy.
It’s game time
Usually, most baseball and softball players dread of getting out of bed early in the morning for a game, especially during the summer when most students want extra sleep. It was not a less-than-ordinary day for the team.
In what was considered a possible joke at first became very real. Head coach Craig Sims mentioned before the season if they made it to state, the team would arrive at the game in a limo. After winning the semistate title, Sims lived up to his word and the team rode up to Ben Davis in a limo.
“That day, we were all pumped. We definitely brought the energy. A limo is pretty motivating, and it gets you excited,” said Abi Kidwell, who was a junior at the time. “Nobody forgot it. Then, as the season unfolded, and we won regional, we won semistate, and we did it. It was a full-circle moment. Could you imagine losing state and having to come back in the limo? We literally couldn’t lose this.”
As much as it was fun riding in the limo to the game, the team knew that the job wasn’t finished. They had seven more innings left to play.
“I was so excited. I had the utmost confidence in our team that day,” said Leslie (Sims) Jones, also a junior at the time. “I kept saying to myself and all the girls, ‘We did not come this far to only come this far.’ Our minds were set that we were leaving there as state champions before we even arrived.”
Nobody felt more pressure on game day than Tessa Sims, who was the starting pitcher as a freshman. She had pitched in big-game situations prior to the state title game. After Hauser had a 1-0 lead, she surrendered a very rare home run that tied the game at 1-1.
Tessa Sims didn’t let the home run get to her. She finished with 15 strikeouts and a great defense behind her to keep her focused.
“As a freshman pitcher, I definitely felt some pressure because I knew how important my role was in the state title game,” she recalled. “At the same time, I trusted my preparation, my teammates and the coaching staff. I looked at it more as an opportunity than a burden. Great pitching can make the difference in games like that, but I also knew I didn’t have to do it all alone. Our whole team was ready to step up. That mindset helped me stay focused and confident instead of overwhelmed.”
The Jets eventually broke the tie in the top of the sixth inning with two runs and added an insurance run in the top of the seventh to win 4-1 for the first softball state title in school history.
The Hauser softball team celebrates winning the Class A state softball title at the 31st Annual IHSAA Softball State Finals at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Saturday, June 13, 2015. Hauser defeated Carroll (Flora) 4-1 to win the state title.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Ellie Trotter, a senior at the time of the championship, was a three-sport athlete, also playing volleyball and basketball. She found a lot of success on the volleyball court, where she was knocking on the door of a state title run, but never got past the semistate round. In her last time playing softball for Hauser, she finally got the state title that eluded her for four years.
“I have always been a super competitive person and still super competitive by sport. That’s as far as you can go. That’s the top of the pyramid of high school sports,” Trotter said. “It was my senior year, my last sport of high school and my last time ever playing competitively like that because I chose not to play sports in college. That really was my last, organized competitive sports opportunity. We went to the top finally in my last chance. I was excited to be there, but also sad that it was all over. There was a lot of mixed emotions.”
Small town celebration
Not only did the team celebrate the championship, the entire town of Hope was flooded with fans to celebrate with them. There was a caravan of nearly 100 cars on State Road 9, State Road 252 and Interstate 65 to cheer them on driving to the game and to celebrate the moment after the game.
“It was pure celebration,” said Hailey (Lange) Lind, a sophomore at the time of the state title. “We got back into town. I remember what Hope does. There were fire trucks, and the whole town was there. We were in the limo going back through town, so you really felt like a celebrity. I think Hope does that to you. Hope has that effect on people when you’re playing sports at a small town high school. They love to make you feel you are on top of the world.”
The celebrations don’t just occur at the state levels. The town also celebrates with team parades through downtown Hope after a team wins a sectional, regional or semistate championship.
Winning the state title meant a lot for the team, and they were all excited for their hard work paying off, but it also cemented their status for generations to come.
“In a small town, a win like that means everything. It wasn’t just our team celebrating, it felt like the whole community won with us, and that made it even more special,” Tessa Sims said. “For me, it was a dream come true, and for our team, it was special knowing we added to school history and made our mark for Hauser and our softball program.”
Kidwell remembered when she was a kid back in 2006 when the boys basketball team won the first state title in school history, and the town of Hope celebrating afterward.
“The majority of the team grew up in Hope. We remember the boys winning state back in 2006. We remember the excitement that was there,” Kidwell said. “Any time we win sectional, you find this love for small town sports, and to be the one riding around town and seeing the little kids wave at you, it was a full circle moment.”
The day after the state didn’t feel real to some, and for some, the celebration with their fellow students was paused the day after winning state title until the first day of school in August.
“A lot of it was adrenaline just because you’re so excited. Coming home, I remember everyone was honking, and we were waving outside the limo, and just holding that state championship trophy in the main gym was incredible. It’s something you’ll always remember and think about,” said Ali Hoover, a sophomore at the time of the championship. “I remember waking up the next day, and it was like a pinch-me moment, it is actually real. We did that. We’re back home just thinking we were in a limo yesterday and playing in the state championship.”
Nothing lasts forever
The saying, “All good things must come to an end,” rang true for the team, as well. Eventually, it was time to hang up the cleats and bats for most of them after high school.
Leslie Sims Jones continued her softball career at Indiana State and still owns many career and single-season records at the Terre Haute campus. Tessa Sims also played for the Sycamores, and Lange Lind played softball at Evangel.
While they never made it back to the big stage again, they still have the memories to cherish for the rest of their lives.
“It was a privilege to play for Hauser softball, and the opportunity impacted my life in more ways than I can explain,” Sims Jones said. “The program instilled life lessons that I have and will continue to carry with me for the rest of my life. I will forever be in debt to the school, coaching staff and program.”
Following their time on the diamond, the team has had a lot of success off the field.
Kidwell, for example, was honored with a DAISY award last year from Riley for caring and compassion of patients.
“It was a great honor,” Kidwell said. “I didn’t know 10 years ago I would end up where I’m at now with the job that I have now and living where I live. It’s crazy how many friendships you’ve developed over the years.”
Hoover got her human resources degree at Indiana University. She lives in Cincinnati and works at Kroger Headquarters. She is engaged to Kyle McGaha, who she met at college, and the couple will be getting married next spring.
“I’ve been back to Hauser a couple times, and the times that I’ve gone back, getting to see our banners up in the gymnasium and our picture on the wall, it’s been great to show my family that haven’t gotten a chance to see that and my now fiance,” Hoover said. “It’s where I’m from. It’s where I played. This is the team I was on and things that we accomplished together. It’s been great to share new memories with people now in my life that were not in my life during high school, so that has been really exciting to share. It’s exciting and it’s a moment that I’ll never forget, even 10 years later, knowing that we accomplished that was incredible.”
Trotter works at Hauser Jr./Sr. High School as an eighth-grade history teacher and is an assistant coach for the varsity volleyball team. Most of her students and players know about her success because they were just staring out in elementary school when she played.
“One of the biggest things post-state championship that I’ve been able to feel is the magnitude of going back to school as a teacher, and the kids know me for sports,” Trotter said. “Being able to talk to kids about sports and the softball girls and tell them what we did and being known for that with the kids, they remember it because they were real little when it happened, and they looked up to us and seeing that happen. Being a part of that and talking to them about it, that’s the one thing where it actually comes back around and thought about more than just sports. You don’t really think about it at the time, but it really was just bigger than a state championship. It was little girls watching us do that and are now at that age where it is their time to do the same thing and live up to the program we were part of.”
After her collegiate career, Sims Jones has been involved with high school softball as assistant coach at Columbus North the past two seasons. She got married in 2022 to her husband Dante Jones, who played football for the Sycamores.
Tessa Sims lives in the Hope area and handles marketing and merchandise for her fiance Hudson O’Neal’s racing team. The couple are getting married later this year.
Lind works as an insurance broker in Kansas City, has been married for a year and welcomed her first child earlier this year.
A lot of the success off the field came from the lessons they learned playing softball.
“I think it has impacted how we are as human beings now,” Lind said. “If you look at us, we’re out here doing good things. That’s got a lot to say how we’re living our lives now.”
