Celebrating Women in Sport and Physical Activity - Profiles
Carol Vande Bunte, '78 - 2018 Honoree
Carol Vande Bunte, ’78
Retired Teacher
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Sometimes second chances are everything.
After graduating from Hudsonville High School in 1974, Carol Vande Bunte followed her older sister, Judy, to Central Michigan University. Vande Bunte tried out for the Chippewa tennis and basketball teams but failed to make either squad.
"Sports were everything to me. I came home that first December and told my family that I wasn't going to go back to CMU," said Vande Bunte, who retired as an elementary teacher in 2011.
Judy encouraged her sister to call Joan Boand, who was Grand Valley's basketball coach at the time. Boand had recruited Vande Bunte. "So, I called J.B. and she gave me a second chance," Vande Bunte said.
After that phone call, Vande Bunte went on to have a stellar basketball and softball career at Grand Valley. Vande Bunte played on eight GLIAC championship teams, and served as Grand Valley's assistant women's basketball coach for 10 years with one season (1989-1990) as interim head coach. She was elected to Grand Valley's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.
After college, she played on numerous ASA women's fast and slow pitch softball teams. Vande Bunte was considered one of the top five softball fast pitch catchers by the U.S. Olympic Committee and was invited to try out for the 1983 Pan-American softball team. She did not make the team but said she was grateful for the opportunity.
Vande Bunte taught first grade at Jamestown Elementary for 33 years, and ensured her students got exercise and an introduction to sports. "I always made sure the girls knew to step off with the opposite foot than the arm they threw with," she said.
She also coached Girls on the Run (GOTR) at Jamestown for 10 years, and girls basketball for Hudsonville Public Schools for five years. Today, Vande Bunte keeps active by running, lifting weights and playing golf. She teaches Sunday School, mentors for Kids Hope, attends Bible study, tutors and coaches GOTR.
Vande Bunte said growing up in a sports-oriented family and an all-boy neighborhood instilled in her a love for games and competition. "My dad encouraged my mother to buy me a basketball, softball, glove and bat instead of dolls and dresses," she said.
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