How a student’s dream of having a softball program is coming to fruition at St. Joe’s
Maggie Mangene couldn’t hold in her excitement. She shouted “yes!” twice after hearing the news and broke down into tears.
Boalsburg-based St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy, in its ninth year of existence, will be adding a softball program.
The school’s athletic director, Justin Rodkey, spoke to students Nov. 18 after an assembly to make two announcements. The first announcement was a regular announcement about a clothing order for school gear. The second, was termed a “special announcement.”
It was then that Rodkey announced the introduction of a softball program to the school’s offered sports, and Mangene was overwhelmed with excitement. The high school senior had been an advocate for adding the sport, but that didn’t mean she got to find out early.
“I was told at the same time the school was told,” Mangene said. “I found out during the assembly.”
She said the addition of softball had long been a goal of hers.
“I’ve been playing softball since fourth grade,” Mangene said. “One of my goals when I came to St. Joe’s was to add softball. I love softball and want to go to college to play. Since my freshman year I’ve wanted to wear a St. Joe’s logo on my uniform and play softball for the school. That was so important to me.”
Rodkey made the announcement in November, but he’d been working toward a softball program since he was hired in August. He saw the lack of a softball program as a glaring weakness.
“When I was hired, I was looking at everything we had and what we didn’t have,” Rodkey said. “Softball has always been big in Centre County. It’s a very competitive sport in the region and I wondered why we didn’t have it here. So when I got hired, I had adding a softball program under my wish list and goals on my white board.”
The school’s athletic director said the need for another female sport to create a balance in the sports the schools offered also played a role in the decision. Once Rodkey set the goal, he began the process for adding the sport — which started with gauging the interest of the students and determining the feasibility of adding the program.
In order to determine the level of interest, Rodkey sent out a survey to students. Once he found out it was feasible to field a team, the rest of the process began to take on a snowball effect. Rodkey went before the board of directors and laid out his ideas for a softball program, and they gave him their support. He said the idea started to gain momentum in September, but the board meeting to give final approval didn’t take place until early November, after he put several months of work into perfecting his plan.
The process wasn’t always easy for Rodkey. The school doesn’t have a softball facility, and he had to find somewhere for the team to play. Eventually, he was able to find a location for the team to play at the nearby Hess Field Softball Complex in Harris Township. The school will play its home games there and will begin play this spring with the hope of having a full schedule. There’s a chance St. Joe’s will play a mixed schedule with some junior varsity games and some varsity games, but Rodkey plans to have a full slate of games in 2021.
Rodkey put in months of work to get a softball program, but Mangene had hoped for years to bring softball to the school.
“This means the world to me,” Mangene said. “I can’t express it. I’ve wanted this since freshman year and I’ve tried every year, but there was always something. This year, having the people to do it was really big. Officially being able to have it means the world to me because it shows my hard work has paid off and Dr. Rodkey’s work has paid off. I definitely couldn’t have done this without him. We couldn’t have done this without him.”
Now that the program has a home field and a desired level of interest from students, it must find a coach. Rodkey is in the process of taking applications for both head and assistant coaching positions. Any interested applicants can reach him via email at JRodkey@stjoeacad.org.
