The Valley News will profile a local high school coach each week for the next two months. It’s a chance to better know some of the people guiding the area’s student-athletes. Today, we meet sixth-year Woodstock softball coach Jane Hoisington, a special education teacher at the school.
Growing up grassroots: “I was born in Springfield (Vt.) and grew up in Windsor, the fourth of five girls. My mom used to drive our teams around in the back of her station wagon. I graduated from Windsor High in 1979 and played field hockey, basketball, skiing and softball, but I never played on an actual team until high school. Before that, it was playing with 50 kids in our neighborhood.”
Family: Jane’s older sisters are Jody, Sara and Mary. Her younger sister is Susan. Jane was 3 when the family moved to a neighborhood in the Juniper Hill area and when the girls became old enough, they could bicycle downtown. Their father, Roger Gilman, was an engineer for Miller Construction and their mother, Shirley Gilman, oversaw their home.
Bustling: “Downtown Windsor in the afternoons was so busy in those days that there was sometimes a policeman to direct traffic. Goodyear and (the Cone-Blanchard Machine Company) each had three shifts going and there were a lot of businesses on Main Street. I remember the J.J. Newberry shoe store and there was a movie theater where I saw my first movie, which was ‘Bambi.’”
Civic pride: “When the factories left Windsor, it was a panic at first, but a lot of people were able to reinvent themselves. I think that probably saved the town, along with jobs at the prison and the hospital. There are fewer people there now, but they do a nice job supporting the town and the schools. They provide a lot of activities for people there, including youth sports.”
It all adds up: “I was a tomboy before it was really defined. There were people who didn’t quite know how to take me because I always wanted to be outside and playing ball with boys on a vacant lot. My dad would throw a football with me and hit me (ground balls and fly balls) in a field across the street. I think that’s what kids are missing these days, the number of repetitions in doing sports skills. There used to be a basketball hoop in every driveway.”
Yellowjacket and Panther: “I was a softball catcher in high school and also at Plymouth State. My freshman year there, we only lost one game before the playoffs, when we split a doubleheader at UNH.”
Varied occupations: After earning a physical education degree from Plymouth State in 1983, Hoisington worked for the phone company and in real estate and at Joe’s Equipment in West Lebanon. She moved to the Quechee Club, where she mowed greens and worked in membership and food and beverage services. She married her husband, Emerson, an electrician, in 1989 and they welcomed daughters Margaret and Andrea in 1990 and 1991. Both women live in Boulder, Colo.
No more mowing greens: An interest in child development spurred by her daughters’ divergent personalities led to Hoisington earning a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Vermont. Her children were elementary school students in Brownsville and Jane worked in the same building before Woodstock High hired her as a paraprofessional for two years. She earned another master’s degree, in special education, and began teaching that subject at the same school.
Mentor: “My job is to teach my students to manage themselves despite what may be learning disabilities and emotional control issues. Can they handle insecurities or social issues that prevent them from being successful in the classroom, and can we help them become the best person they can be? Everyone’s different and I learned that with my daughters. The oldest kept everything inside and with the youngest, everything came flying out at you.”
Emergency responder: Hoisington was involved in coaching field hockey and lacrosse in Woodstock and started to volunteer with the high school softball team in 2011. “It wasn’t pretty, so I offered to help,” she said. “The first couple of years was a struggle with participation and commitment. Softball was pretty much a recreation program at that point, so getting athletes to come out took a few years.”
Bringing back the buzz: Taking over as head coach in 2013, Hoisington has made the Wasps respectable with the help of assistant Alyssa Smith, a middle school physical education teacher who played at NCAA Division II Lock Haven (Penn.) University. Woodstock achieved a recent high point when it was 9-6 and reached the Vermont Division II playoffs.
Field of dreams: “We’re in the process of getting a new infield with dugouts because it’s dangerous to watch a game at our field. There’s not enough distance between the infield and the fans and players. I got a whole bunch of parents involved and some money raised. A parent is donating some equipment and labor, because for the girls to respect themselves as athletes, they have to have a place they respect to play on.”
Nonstop action: “I’m getting close to 60 and the bus rides get tiring, but I’m committed (to coaching) for the next two or three years. To maintain balance in my life, I walk and bike and shoeshine on the Ascutney Trails. I’ve done the Vermont 50 mountain bike race the last few years, I do yoga and I play golf.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.