Rock Valley College Athletics

When you look at the final season record of the 1996 Rock Valley College volleyball team, 22-16 does not jump off the page as anything special. But if it’s all about how you finish, then this team was truly something special. When RVC capped its historic run through the NJCAA tournament by defeating Central Lakes College, 16-14, 15-11, 15-13, on November 16, 1996, it marked the first time a Rock Valley College athletics team had won a national championship. This groundbreaking team and its accomplishments laid the foundation for success that over 20 years later has led to numerous NJCAA national championship banners hanging on the walls of RVC’s gymnasium.

Led by their head coach, the late Heidi Hutchison, an inductee in RVC’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame class in 2013, the Golden Eagles displayed mental and physical toughness on their way to history. Perhaps the most crucial match of the season came on November 9, 1996, when the Golden Eagles squared off in the Region IV Tournament championships against a College DuPage team that had already defeated them in four previous matches that season. Before that final showdown versus DuPage, Coach Hutchison focused practices as much on the mental side of the game as the physical side, often spending up to 40 minutes of practice time concentrating on mental drills. Whatever they did, it worked. RVC knocked off DuPage, advanced to the national tournament, and the rest is history.

Some individual accomplishments included:
 

• Catie Bumber: honorable mention All-Conference, Region IV All-Tournament team selection, NJCAA All-Tournament team selection
   
• Tandy Johnson: first team All-Conference, Region IV All-Tournament team and All-Region selection,  NJCAA All-Tournament team selection, national tournament MVP, NJCAA All-American
   
• Kristi Hart: first team All-Conference, Region IV All-Tournament team selection, NJCAA All-American
   
• Johanna Sauter: honorable mention All-Conference
   
• Rachel Schrader: second team All-Conference, NJCAA All-Tournament team selection, NJCAA All-American
   
• Sheila Zander: NJCAA All-Tournament team selection
   
• Heidi Hutchison: Coach of the Year for N4C and Region IV, and Coach of the Tournament, NJCAA Division III