At one point in her life, Kalani Stowe didn’t think she would end up as a pitcher for any college team. Yet, with the support of her mentors, determination, and a love of softball, Kalani ended up throwing strikes for Grand Rapids Community College as one of the most outstanding pitchers to ever take the mound in GRCC history.
In her first year at GRCC, Kalani racked up an astounding list of accolades: All-Region, All-MCCAA, First Team All-Conference, All-Freshman Team, Academic All-Conference, MCCAA Northern Conference Pitcher of the Week, Conference Player and Freshman of the Year.
She played in 41 games, starting in all 41. Stowe garnered an 18-1 pitching record, 1.02 ERA (1st in MCCAA, 3rd in nation), seven shutouts (1st in MCCAA), two no-hitters, 10.84 strikeouts/game (1st in MCCAA, top-10 nationally), .142 batting average against (1st in MCCAA, top-10 nationally), 159 strikeouts (3rd in MCCAA).
At the plate, Stowe batted .441 with 12 doubles, four triples, two home runs, and 51 stolen bases (2nd in MCCAA), scoring 58 runs (3rd in MCCAA). Pitching, and she struck out 10+ batters in nine games, including a span of five-straight games. Stowe had an eight-game hitting streak from 4/1 to 4/12, batting .500 during that span. She had a season high of four hits vs. Delta College on 4/26.
Kalani helped the Raiders to a 39-6 record, a conference championship, and a runner-up finish in regionals.
As a GRCC sophomore, Kalani grew up as a multi-sport athlete, eventually settling into softball as her main sport. For her, it was a place to build friendships.
“I kind of just tried everything, and then softball was the one I stuck with the most,” Kalani said.
“I just loved the environment that I was in, on all of my teams, and just the friendships that I could build throughout the years.”
Once she found her sport, Kalani dedicated her time to studying softball. She was practicing constantly and continually looking for opportunities to grow her skills. Her father, Matt Stowe, recalled her interest in softball even when she was young.
“She also spent a couple of summers at a young age watching college softball on YouTube because it wasn’t on ESPN back then. …Just learning the game, she had such a desire to gain knowledge of the game that she would just study softball,” Matt said. “Just to learn more about strategies and different play opportunities, and at one point she had aspirations to be an Olympic softball player, which is probably the pinnacle of softball.”
Softball became Kalani’s passion, but little did she know of the challenges that lay ahead. The summer of her junior year, Kalani experienced an injury that would drastically alter her course.
“…I had a muscle spasm on my hip, which is really weird. It’s not like a usual injury. I didn’t know if I was going to ever be able to pitch again, because it happened when I was pitching. I was on my landing leg, it was like a really bad mound that I was pitching on, and my leg spasmed up, and I fell to the ground in the middle of the pitch. I had to get carried off the field,” Kalani said.
“The recovery was really rocky, I did physical therapy and then had to see a chiropractor. The chiropractor eventually helped the most of anything, but the movement of it, I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to fully pitch again, because when I came back (to pitch), then it wasn’t tensing up on my hip anymore, I started hitting my elbow to my hip on the other side. It was kind of just problem after problem after that.”
At that time, Kalani believed she wouldn’t even be able to play again, let alone pitch for a college team.
“After that injury happened, I kind of stopped reaching out to college coaches, and because I wanted to go to a four-year college and…play softball at a bigger college, but I thought that I wasn’t even able to play again, I stopped reaching out to coaches,” Stowe said.
Throughout this time, Kalani, with the help of Wyoming High School Varsity Assistant and Pitching Coach Kristen Kooienga, started to rework her form as a pitcher.
“There were a few times during the off-season when we were working through what her body would let her do. I would say well if you can’t jump and pitch, I guess we will have to just step and pitch, and we will play better defense behind you,” Kooienga wrote in a text message to “The Collegiate.”
“Even when Kalani couldn’t do full pitching, she was still putting in the work at lessons. There were days where we only worked on spinning the ball and arm circles. I think it helped Kalani mentally to have somewhere to go and work on whatever she could that day. The barn was a safe place to vent and work out her frustrations and fears. Kalani’s junior/senior year, she worked through another injury as well. She was hitting her hip with her elbow, causing a lot of pain and bruising.
Kooienga continued, “This injury, she pushed through and pitched through the pain until we finally figured out how to fully correct it. In the back of her head, even after both injuries healed, there were a lot of ‘what if’ it happens again. So we had to work through those thoughts and how to move beyond them. There was a time where Kalani didn’t want to play in college due to injuries (and) the fear of them returning or not getting better.”
Kalani credits her progress in softball to Kooeinga and other coaches whose mentorship and guidance helped her through some of the toughest moments.
“(With) the help of my pitching coach and the coaches that I had in high school. They saw the greatness and potential in me, and so they pushed me through it. There were so many times I was (with) my pitching coach, and I just wanted to give up, and she encouraged me every single time, and got me back out there. She knew that she didn’t want to see wasted potential in me,” Kalani said.
Cindy Stowe, Kalani’s stepmother, offered insight as a parent watching the recovery process.
“She’s had a few injuries, and you know your first thought is, is she going to be able to continue? Is she going to lose her aggressiveness? Is she going to lose her confidence? And I feel like every time she has an issue, she comes back a better and stronger athlete,” Cindy said.
Matt explained that the best thing they could do during this time is be emotionally available for Kalani, as she navigates where to go from there.
“Mainly just making sure she had a space to deal with it emotionally, but also continue to… push forward and overcome whatever adversity those injuries were bringing her emotionally and mentally, and physically, too,” Matt said.
Kalani notes that her parents have always been there for her, “My parents have always been my number one supporters, coming to every game and everything. They just want what’s best for me, and they can see that I was a lot happier in softball.”
Overcoming those obstacles, Kalani continued to play softball, though she wasn’t looking to continue on to college. Until GRCC softball Head Coach, Chuck White entered the picture.
“The summer of my senior year of high school, the summer after my injury happened, I hadn’t been in contact with Coach White at all. Then he was actually looking at another pitcher on my travel team, and he asked if I could, because I was catching at the time…I was still not fully recovered from my injury. This pitcher asked me to come catch for her so she could throw a couple of pitches for him to see,” Kalani said.
Coach White was initially not looking at Kalani as a recruit, let alone a pitcher for GRCC.
“…Actually was looking at a pitcher on her team that was asking me how to throw a certain pitch, and Kalani jumped right up and volunteered to catch for her while she did it. So she took time out of her own break to go help a teammate,” White said. “I recruited her as a catcher, I didn’t even know she pitched.”
Kalani’s hard work ethic was unmistakable, noted by both college and high school coaches.
“She pushed everyone on the team to be their best. She wanted to be the pitcher no one wanted to face and then also to help the team with her speed and versatility on the field,” Kooeinga said.
Her pleasant, friendly, and hardworking attitude fit right in with GRCC’s softball team.
“Very personable kid, works hard in practice, smiles during practice, jokes around. She has a good personality,” Coach White said. “She has helped carry on the culture that we try to build.”
Kalani now plans to continue her education and softball career at Davenport University and earn a degree in sports management. Kalani credits this to her continuous hard work and her mindset.
“I always kept the mindset of you’re never at your best. You can always get better. All of these awards last year, I want to keep adding on to them. I can take even more of my accomplishments to Davenport with me. I feel like it’s just about work ethic,” Kalani said.
Coach White acknowledges Kalani’s grit and dedication to accomplish anything.
“Kalani will go as far as Kalani wants to go, she’s capable of doing whatever she wants and if she decides to do that, she will do it,” White said. “I’m excited for all the girls… any time they are getting what they worked for, and she definitely put in the work for that.”
As she takes everything that she has learned from these experiences to teach others, Kalani volunteers to give lessons to younger softball players for catching and hitting, but mainly pitching lessons. She also reinvests in the same softball program that she played in for 10 years, as she umpires for the Little League at Pinery Park.
“…I give lessons to younger girls, too. I always preach to them, “You’re never at your best, you can always do better,” and just always wanting to improve a skill keeps me focused on certain things I’m doing, too,” Kalani said.
Overcoming all she did was impactful, even for those who supported her through it all.
“I can’t wait to catch some of their games, to see Kalani go from a tiny little fourth grader to now playing DII softball is nothing short of amazing,” Kooienga said.
“There was a moment that she didn’t know if she wanted to play college softball, and then she signed for a season and fell in love with the program, her teammates, her coaches, and decided to stay a full two years. Then she started talking about continuing to go on, it was extremely exciting,” Cindy said. “She’s a leader…whether she’s out on the field or in the dugout, or helping with the youth, she is about making sure that the program grows in the right along with her and that’s huge.”
GRCC softball teammate, freshman Kellsie Dieterle, has known Kalani since middle school, but they became close as she played softball during her freshman year of high school. Dieterle noted that Kalani’s leadership skills were reflective from their early days.
“She’s always been a leader and someone I can look up to. There’s never a moment where she isn’t cheering her teammates on,” Dieterle wrote in a text message to The Collegiate. “Personally, having her as my teammate has given me so much more confidence just by how positive and uplifting she is.”
What started out as a love for the sport quickly grew into a friendship, as Dieterle now plays on the same college team as her friend. Kalani and Kellsie serve as a pitcher and catcher duo for GRCC. Kellsie recalls how Kalani always made her feel welcome.
“I was always super shy, especially with the upperclassmen on the team, but Kalani was the first one to interact with me and get me out of my shell a little,” Dieterle wrote. “She would invite me to do things outside of softball, like get food, go to the gym, or even just pick me up for practice, so that’s definitely what brought us closer together.”
Softball has impacted Kalani in more ways than one, from the friendships that she has built with her teammates to the constant learning from her coaches.
“It really helped me build a character for myself, and just my teammates and being in that environment with all of them kind of really prepared me for certain situations in the future. Being able to be so close with so many people throughout the years, because I’ve been on so many teams, travel teams, school teams, club teams, little league, I’m still friends with people that I’ve been teammates with since little league.” Kalani said.
As Kalani prepares to leave GRCC for the Davenport Panthers, she gives the Raiders one piece of advice that has kept her motivated.
“My biggest advice is what I said before: ‘You’re never at your best. You can always get better,’ and that’s what kept me going. That’s what kept me on a good path to become a college athlete.”
