Over the last few years, Jenny Rohn has donned red and worn blue, but brown and gold is a color scheme with which she is particularly familiar.
A Western Michigan alum, Rohn spent four years in Bronco colors from 2012-15. Earlier this summer, she returned to her alma mater as the program’s new head coach.
Rohn, a 2015 WMU graduate entering her seventh season of coaching collegiately, isn’t shy in stating what her goals for the program are: “My expectation is to win the MAC and that will be the expectation every year that I am the head coach at Western Michigan,” she said.
“Obviously there are other smaller goals and expectations I have for the program, like building a great sustainable team culture; building an alumni board and base; facilities updates and upgrades; and fundraising efforts. But the overall goal every year will be to win the MAC and compete in the NCAA tournament.”
To get to that point, Rohn must engineer a bit of a rebuilding effort within the program she once called home. Since the MAC eliminated divisions in softball, the Broncos have finished no higher than 8th in the conference standings. The program earned an overall .500 record just twice since 2012.
Following the retirement of longtime head coach Kathy Leitke – the longest-tenured and winningest head coach in program history – the Broncos kept it in the family in hiring Rohn. With her alma mater calling, it might seem like Rohn’s decision was easy, but the opposite is actually true.
“To be honest with you, it was not an easy yes,” Rohn said of her decision. “It was a very hard decision for me. Harvard softball, where I was an assistant on and off for five years, felt like my coaching home to me. Jenny Allard has built a dynasty there and I was lucky enough to be a small part of the program. I built relationships with student athletes, parents, and alumni that I will have for a lifetime.
“But obviously, Michigan is my true home, where my parents and some family still reside and I felt almost like an obligation to go back home. Western Michigan gave me so much in my education and in the opportunity to play Division 1 athletics and having the opportunity to give back was a huge factor. [Athletic director] Dan Bartholomae had a lot to do with my decision to come back to WMU as well. The leadership that he brings and the direction he is taking the department is exciting. He is committed to softball at Western Michigan and supporting women’s sports and I think that is all any head coach wants.
“Overall, WMU softball has a special place in my heart and I cannot wait to see what we can build in the next few years.”
In the midst of that split Harvard tenure that she mentioned, Rohn spent one year as the head coach at Division III Covenant College. That she had run her own program, even for a short period of time, gave Rohn some advance knowledge of her own methods and style before she stepped into the same role at WMU.
“I feel like some of the qualities [that] I bring as a head coach include being direct and having great communication,” Rohn noted. “I feel it is very important that the student-athletes feel seen and heard, and communication is the root to this. I also have a clear vision and direction for the program. I want to be able to compete for a championship year after year, and that is the level of intensity and energy that I bring every single day.”
Coaching at her alma mater, the school where she spent her own playing career, brings with it both pride and pressure, two very different spectrums of thoughts and emotions.
“There definitely is added pressure with me taking over at my alma mater,” Rohn said. “I have to remind myself that pressure is a privilege and that the added pressure is something I bring upon myself because I care so much for the program and student athletes in It, past, present and future. Some days I have to take a step back and remember my why and understand that the pressure is simply an opportunity to do something amazing. I enjoy the pressure; in fact, I welcome It.”
“I also feel a whole lot of pride, coaching at my alma mater; I want to leave the program better than I found it,” Rohn added.
Rohn played the alumni card herself when the time came to begin filling out her coaching staff. Fellow WMU alum, former teammate, and then-Dayton assistant coach Marlee Wilson was the first to join Rohn in heading back home to Kalamazoo. The two spent two years as teammates at WMU and “I knew when I took the job who I wanted to hire as my right-hand woman,” Rohn said.
The coaching staff was filled out with Morgan VanderBor and Reily Galloway – “the pitching gurus” as Rohn puts it – both fellow Bronco alums who excelled in the circle during their respective playing careers.
“Some qualities that I look for in people [who] I surround myself with are trust, respect, loyalty, work ethic, and being an overall good person,” Rohn said. “I could not do what I do without an amazing staff like I have behind me.”
Goals are set and an expectation is there from day one, even as rebuilding begins. Perhaps Rohn herself summed it up the best as she talked about the decision to return to Kalamazoo: “One of the reasons why I came back [was] because I see there is so much opportunity for this program to grow and flourish.”
