Bio

Having played and coached at Cowley College, Sandy (Erickson) Wiemers is a Tiger through and through. The former softball All-American will return to the Arkansas City campus to be enshrined in the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame.

“I am humbled and feel honored to be surrounded by such amazing former hall of famers,” Wiemers said. “I'm extremely grateful for all the support from my coaches, teammates, parents, family and of course, my Tiger family. I will always be an ambassador for Cowley and will always bleed orange.”

Erickson had an interesting path to Cowley College as Lady Tiger head softball coach Ed Hargrove heard about Erickson through Cowley College Board of Trustee member, Albert Bacastow, Jr. At the time, Bacastow was the postmaster in Winfield and had learned of Erickson while visiting with her father, Doug, at a conference for employees of the U.S. Postal Service. Bacastow told Hargrove Wiemers sounded like a pretty good pitcher and was only being recruited by Dodge City. So, Hargrove called Wiemers to set up a visit. The only problem was Wiemers could only make it down to campus on a Saturday when not much is going on at the school, plus she was sick on the day she made the trip to the school.

“When she left our visit I thought there was no way she was going to come here, but it was not too long after that I got a call saying she was coming to Cowley,” Hargrove said. “I consider Sandy to be one of the luckiest players I ever ended up with.”

Although Hargrove wasn’t so sure if Wiemers would wind up at Cowley, the righthander knew Cowley was the school for her after her visit to the campus.

“As soon as we got in the car, I told my mom I knew I wanted to go there,” Wiemers said. “From the campus to coach Ed, I just knew it was the right fit for me. I had always respected the Cowley softball program and was excited to be a part of the winning tradition. It didn't hurt that my high school mascot was also a Tiger.”

As a youngster, Wiemers picked up pitching tips from her uncle, Roger Erickson, who gave pitching lessons and clinics throughout the state. However, as a junior at Clay Center High School she was growing frustrated with softball after facing only three batters as a member of the varsity team her entire junior season. Thanks to her parent’s encouragement, Wiemers stuck with it and things turned around during her senior year. Along with signing with Cowley, she became the ace pitcher on her high school team, which went 26-0 and won the Class 4A State Championship. Her senior year at Clay Center, she batted .347 and was 13-0 as a pitcher, with an earned run average of 0.89 and 90 strike outs. She led the North Central Kansas League in wins (13), winning percentage (1.000, 13-0), strikeouts (90 in 79 innings), shutouts (5), and ERA (0.89). She was named first team all-league and the league's Most Valuable Player.

“By the time I came to Cowley, I was still very raw but had a lot of hunger to work hard and get better which I was able to do,” Wiemers said.

Her hard work at Cowley paid off as she helped the Lady Tigers go 41-11 and capture the Jayhawk East title in her first year at the school. In her sophomore year during the 1999 season, Wiemers helped Cowley go 43-12 and capture another conference title.

“She was the ideal athlete to have in your program,” Hargrove said. “She had a great attitude and carried that with her onto the mound. If a call didn’t go her way she just got back on the rubber and threw another pitch.”

She credits Hargrove with helping her reach her full potential as she went 46-10 on the mound during her two years at the school.

“Coach Ed proves that you can treat your players with respect, and still have a nationally competitive softball program with a winning tradition,” Wiemers said.

She also credits her former catcher, Jill (Hutchinson) Luis with challenging her to give her all. “I usually loved the pitching workouts, but on days I wasn't "feeling it" and wanted to give up Jill would tell me to "suck it up" and keep working,” Wiemers said. “She would also do extra running or drills with me, and let me beat her up with my work-in-progress drop ball.”

Wiemers went on to become one of the top pitchers to ever wear a Cowley uniform and was an All-American in the 1999 season. She continues to hold the school-record for consecutive shutouts pitched in a season (9) and most consecutive scoreless innings pitched (64).

“She holds a couple of records that I don’t think will ever be broken, plus what she did in helping us get to nationals as a coach was invaluable,” Hargrove said. “In my mind I knew she was going to be in the (Tiger) Hall of Fame, it was just a matter of how soon.”

After Cowley, Wiemers went on to pitch at Washburn University. Following her graduation from Washburn, Hargrove happened to be in search of an assistant coach after then assistant Mandy Gaylor left for the head coaching job at Butler Community College,

“Sandy was the only phone call I made, she bleeds orange probably more than any player I have ever had,” Hargrove said.

Erickson served as an assistant softball coach at Cowley in 2002 and 2003 and helped the Lady Tigers win 96 games in two seasons, and place sixth at the national tournament in 2003.

“Even when I continued coaching after Cowley, I still used everything Coach Ed taught me and still called to ask his advice,” Wiemers said. “From recruiting a player to molding a person, he has it all down. Cowley is lucky to have coach Ed and I'm proud to say he was my coach.”

Wiemers briefly served as a graduate assistant softball coach at Emporia State University after leaving Cowley, but left that position to take a full-time job as the manager of Emporia Fitness. She worked there for 3 1/2 years. In 2007, she and her husband, Jon, moved to West Virginia and Wiemers took over as a graduate assistant softball coach/assistant Sports Information Director at Concord University for six months.

The couple then moved from West Virginia to Coffeyville in 2008, where she began working for the next five months as the program supervisor at the Coffeyville Recreation Commission. After that, Wiemers accepted her current job as the assistant director of the Student Success Center at Coffeyville Community College, which role she has served for the last two and a half years.

Wiemers has fond memories of her time at Cowley and is looking forward to returning to the school for her Hall of Fame induction.

“The friendships I made there will undoubtedly last a lifetime,” Wiemers said. “I've always felt like Cowley was my second home because of my Tiger family. My first college roommate at Cowley, Suzanne (Kerr) Unruh, is still my best friend. I still call coach Ed now and again to find out how the team looks this year, or call coach Tom (Saia) to give him a hard time. The people at Cowley make it the remarkable place that it is, and it makes me proud to be apart of the Tiger family.”