Jen, Sasha and Caitlin Meet Again

In the spring of 2002, a senior from St. Croix,
US Virgin Islands, named Sasha Brady and two
sophomores, Jen Ward from New York State and
Caitlin Kimura from Hawaii, found themselves
softball teammates at Haverford College.

Brady was winding up a notable diamond career
at Haverford by hitting .368, speedy Kimura
was stealing 11 bases in 11 attempts, and
hard-throwing hurler Ward was starting to show
the form that would make her one of the Fords'
best pitchers in 2003 and 2004.

If Jen, Caitlin and Sasha ever thought briefly
about fate taking a hand to bring them together
in 2002, we can guarantee you none of them
spent a second then predicting than an even
stranger turn of fate would lead to a softball
reunion in Orange, CA, on March 10, 2008--
with each of them having become a Division III
varsity coach!

But that's just what happened last week when
Haverford with Ward as head coach and Kimura
as assistant outscored Wheaton College, 6-3,
in the Sun West Tournament at Chapman College.

Brady left her sunny island last fall for the
snows of Chicago and a master's degree program
at Wheaton, where she is also assisting in
softball.

Ward took over the Fords as head coach in fall,
2004, only a few months after her graduation.
She's already led the team to a Centennial
Conference championship and an NCAA tournament
berth.

Kimura spent a year back in her native state,
and then returned to Haverford as an assistant
coach. She too is working on a master's degree
at Neumann College) and thinking about a career
in college sports.

The spring break tournament was also a homecoming
for Southern California Fords Lindsey Sullivan '08,
all-time HC career leader in hits, and Dana Irshay
'09, another top Ford batswoman.

We'll leave it to the philosophers to ponder the
meaning of time, space and coincidence and the
mathematicians to calculate the odds of three
teammates from 2002 ending up as coaches of colleges
which played each other in 2008. For our part, we're
just happy to see three such fine Fords still on
the diamond, passing on what they know to today's
students.

--Greg Kannerstein '63