RAVENNA – Since the age of 5 when she began playing T-ball in jean shorts and a T-shirt, Emma Gillard has been a Ravenna Bulldog.
Really, the elder of Mike and Shelley Gillard’s two daughters was born into it.
“Scott (Herremans) and I made an agreement, it was going to be Bulldog first instead of travel (ball). It kind of brought us back to what we wanted to start,” said Mike Gillard, who joins Herremans and Penny Sherman as assistants on head coach Dave Sherman’s Ravenna varsity softball coaching staff.
A recent signee of the Division II Ferris State University softball program as a utility player, Emma Gillard will remain a Bulldog. Her dad, a Ravenna alumnus, played baseball for Ferris State back in the day.
The adage applies to both father and daughter: Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.
First things first: Emma Gillard and her Ravenna squad have some unfinished business. They’re eyeing a deep run through the MHSAA tournament this season with the ultimate goal of hoisting the Division 3 state championship trophy at the end of it.
Now an 18-year-old senior, Gillard has been at the forefront of a group that’s ushered in a new era of Ravenna softball. It’s been years in the making, having blossomed through desire, commitment and hard work.
Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
Last season, the Bulldogs established a school record for wins by going 30-9 with a Greater Muskegon Athletic Association Tier 1 title and district championship. They advanced to the regional finals and lost a 1-0 heartbreaker on their field to Grandville Calvin Christian.
During Gillard’s sophomore season in 2021, Ravenna finished 25-5.
The mission is crystal clear this season. Gillard & Co. are not shying from the pressure or the bull’s-eye.
“Our goal this year is to definitely make a run for state and win a state title. That’s definitely a goal of ours. I think we can do it,” Gillard said. “I think we’ve put a lot of work in this (offseason) to achieve that goal.”
On a personal level, Gillard stated she wants to become an all-state athlete and be a “really great leader by example” for her team. If all goes well this season, Gillard could be in the discussion for the former. She’s there already when it comes to the latter.
According to Sherman, nobody works harder than Gillard. The fruits of her labor have played out on the field.
Last season, the lanky, 5-foot-10 right-handed ace went 18-4 in the pitcher’s circle with a 1.92 ERA. She struck out 146 and walked 39 in 116 1/3 innings. At or near the top of the Bulldogs’ lineup, the left-handed hitter batted .426 with six doubles, 13 triples, two home runs, 65 runs scored, 28 RBIs, 36 stolen bases and 25 walks. When not pitching, Gillard typically played shortstop and sported a .929 fielding percentage.
Gillard is off to a strong start in 2023 as well. In a season-opening sweep of visiting Sparta on March 28 (14-0 and 15-0 victories), she earned the Game 1 pitching win by allowing just one hit with four strikeouts and one walk in three innings of work on the sunny but chilly day. In Game 2, she went 3-for-3 at the plate with a home run.
“Someone will have to tell me what she can’t do,” Sherman said. “I mean, she throws the ball overhand close to 60 mph, she throws the ball underhand close to 60 mph, hits the ball for power, finds the gaps. If we need her to bunt, she can bunt first-base line (and) third-base line, runs well.
“Somebody’s going to have to tell me what she can’t do and then they’re going to have to prove it to me because we’ve seen (her do it all).”
People can see for themselves on Wednesday (April 12), when the Bulldogs host Holton in a key West Michigan Conference Rivers Division doubleheader. The first of those two contests will be livestreamed for free on the CatchMark SportsNet YouTube channel as part of the Game of the Week spring sports series.
Ferris State head softball coach Jake Schumann, who saw Gillard as an opposing coach for rival Oakridge during the 2021 season, is a believer in her abilities and work ethic. Not only is Gillard a three-sport athlete – first-team All-WMC Rivers Division in basketball and all-region in softball – she fashions a 4.0 GPA. She’s served as president of her class, sentinel for the FFA and secretary of National Honor Society.
“Emma brings an upside that I have not seen in years in that she is truly a triple threat with being able to pitch, play the middle and swing the bat,” Schumann said in a signing-day story on the ferrisstatebulldogs.com athletics website. “Her true ability to be a utility player at a high level will enable us to plug her in the lineup anywhere.”
Gillard made quite the impression in her first varsity softball season as a sophomore. She batted a team-best .565 with 11 doubles, four triples, three homers, 50 runs scored, 47 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. As a pitcher, she went 20-5 with a 1.88 ERA and had 178 strikeouts with 32 walks in 145 1/3 innings. Defensively, she sported a .940 fielding percentage.
Sister Addison Gillard, who is two years younger but two inches taller, joined Emma Gillard on Ravenna’s varsity softball team last spring and she made an immediate impact. They’re the best of friends, but the siblings also keep each other in check.
“She brings out the best in me. I mean, we are so competitive,” Emma Gillard said. “Like, I’ll come home and be like, ‘Dude, I beat you at practice. I don’t know what to tell you.’ And then some days she’ll come home and be like, ‘You sucked at basketball today. I don’t know what was happening.’ And I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’”
Said Addison Gillard: “I admire her work ethic the most. I think that she has an amazing work ethic and she challenges herself more than anybody else. I appreciate her work ethic – it makes me want to work even harder when she’s working as hard as she does.”
In addition to all of the offseason work – thousands of swings in the batting cage, hundreds of pitches thrown and other honing of skills – Emma Gillard has come up through the Michigan Sabercats travel program. She’s sacrificed several weekends each summer, on top of practices, to push herself against high-level competition.
It’s all paying off. Mike Gillard can feel the momentum with Ravenna’s softball program, but he doesn’t want anybody to think things are going to be handed to the Bulldogs. With players such as Emma Gillard, Kara Postema and Emma Herremans leading the way, he does not believe it will be an issue.
“This group of girls inspires her,” Mike Gillard said about his daughter, Emma. “This is her love, so she’s been waiting all year for it.”
Can the Bulldogs make more history? Can they become the first Muskegon County high school softball team to win a state title?
Emma Gillard is determined to give it her best effort.
“I think just having the community by me and going full-out, that inspires me the most to work hard and take everything I’ve got since this is my last ride,” she said. “ … If I don’t achieve the (state-title) goal, I’m obviously going to be a little upset, but I think just how much my team and I have worked, that’s all we ask for. If it happens, it happens; but if it doesn’t, I know we’ve put everything into it.”
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