Head softball coach Joe Abraham had his eye on the Hillsdale job for several years when the position finally opened up.
“I was ready,” he said.
Director of Athletics Don Brubacher said Hillsdale was looking for a coach with organizational skills, the ability to teach the game, the ability to recruit, and, most importantly, an appreciation for the mission of the college.
Abraham began working for Hillsdale on July 1, 2011.
“I love coaching softball, especially at the college level,” Abraham said.
Abraham played baseball and softball for over 18 years. He’s coached softball for 16 years, which includes three years coaching American teams at the International Cup tournament in the Netherlands.
“Oh, that hardly counts,” Abraham said. “If there’s any time you don’t have to do much coaching, it’s with an all-star team. I just told them, ‘Play hard, have fun, and I’ll have a steal signal.’”
At the tournament, several teams of American high school all-stars play adult women’s teams from across Western Europe. One such all-star in the competition — though not on Abraham’s team — was Hillsdale College assistant softball coach Erin Porter.
“Having him here has been really great. I’ve learned a ton from him being a younger coach,” Porter said.
In 1996, Abraham began assistant coaching a middle school basketball team. After one game, a coach of the opposing team asked Abraham if he was interested in coaching softball.
“I was always more of a baseball-softball guy, so I said ‘yeah,’”Abraham said. “Next thing you know, I was coaching Worthington Youth Booster.”
He went on to coach high school and travel softball teams.
The summer after, he coached a 16-and-under travel team called Worthington Heat, Abraham got requests from some younger girls to start a second team. The group eventually expanded to 12 teams across Ohio, known as the Buckeye Heat, Abraham said.
“It just kind of happened,” Abraham said. “Tons of the girls are playing in college now.”
Abraham coached completely unpaid from that first position in 1996 to 2008, all the time working as a lawyer in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Prior to law, Abraham was a city government reporter and a sports editor at the Chillicothe Gazette in southern Ohio.
“Reporting was fun, but I didn’t want to bounce around the country from position to position. So I went into practice with my dad and brother,” Abraham said. “Criminal, divorce, juvenile. I was in the courtroom arguing with people most days.”
But by 2008, Abraham said he was so busy with softball that his friends began to ask ‘why don’t you just do that for a living?’
“So I did.” he said. “It’s what I love to do.”
Senior softball player Jennifer Berlet said Abraham was a great fit for the program.
“He’s very knowledgeable and brings a lot of experience,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a better coach my senior season.”
Abraham heavily emphasizes the strategy involved in the game, Porter said.
“He’s very much for the aggressive side of the game,” Berlet said. “It’s making us be a little bit more risky than in the past, but it should be beneficial.”
Abraham has even brought new drills and activities to the team, which makes practices more exciting, Berlet said .
“There’s a lot of encouragement, a lot of of teaching, and a lot of excitement going on this season,” Brubacher said .
The team has been practicing since Jan. 18, mostly indoors and at night, “which is a nightmare,” Abraham said .
“Needless to say, we’re excited to get outside and get started,” he said.