Everyone at NDA knows the teachers, faculty and staff members, but not many know much about the sports coaches, especially Steve Broekman, NDA’s softball coach.

Broekman first began playing baseball when he was three years old as he played Little League until he was 13 years old, West Side Babe Ruth until he was 15 years old and high school baseball at Green Bay West High School from freshman through senior year.

“Funny enough, I also played American Legion Baseball for West/Notre Dame combined team called the Green Bay Royals during the summers of high school. I never thought I would end up at Notre Dame,” said Broekman.

To this day, he still holds some impressive records including: in Little League he had 13 strikeouts in five innings, in West Side Babe Ruth he holds a record of 18 triples in 27 games and at Green Bay West he holds the record of 46 steals After high school, Colorado State University offered Broekman a partial football scholarship , but not wanting to travel for school and still wanting to play baseball, he ended up at Mount Senario College in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and played both football and baseball.

When he wasn’t playing football or baseball, he was playing fastpitch softball.

He later tried out for the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers, but unfortunately did not make any of the teams.

“After I tried out for the MLB teams, I knew I still wanted to play some sort of ball so I tried out for a couple of softball teams and ended up playing on the 1998 Olympic qualifying team in Oklahoma City,” said BroekmHe continued to play on numerous travelling softball teams throughout the years and played for a total of 20 years before he began coaching and is currently in his fourth year of coaching the Tritons.

“I love the ups and downs of the sport and that you have to stay level in order to succeed, just like life. It can have a lot of humbling moments. Everyone has specific responsibilities and when we all do our jobs right the results are fulfilling, when all the hard work you put in pays off,” said Broekman.

As a coach, he loves that he can teach others about the game but also how it relates to life.

“If I can get what I coach to be used in someone’s life, then I did my job. I love to teach the things I learned over the years and be able to apply that and continue to be a part of a game that has been such a big and important aspect in my life,” said Broekman.

In the future, he hopes to still be coaching the Tritons and continuing to share his love of the game and life stories with the girls.