*This is part of a series celebrating 50 years of Dordt Volleyball 

As Dordt University celebrates 50 years of volleyball this season, it is also celebrating the individuals who helped build the program. For Mindy (Boogerd) De Jager, those memories stretch back to the late 1990s, when Dordt volleyball was still writing some of its first significant chapters.

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De Jager, who played at Dordt from 1995 to 1999, begins with the moment that stands above the rest. She was part of the first volleyball team in school history to qualify for the NAIA  National Tournament, a breakthrough that is one of the milestones of her time in a Defender uniform.

"The first memory I have is going as the first team in Dordt's history to ever make it to nationals," De Jager said.

That team, which included Teri Harmelink, Jane Vos, Jana Van Donge Bouma, Kristi Hofland, Joy Veenstra and Kim Van Dyken, helped establish a standard for the program that would continue to grow in the years ahead. The trip to nationals took Dordt to California, and even now it remains a landmark memory from an era when the program was still carving out its identity on a larger stage.

The game looked different then, too.

Volleyball in the mid-1990s still operated under side-out scoring. Substitutions were limited. There was no libero. Middles could block a serve, and if a serve clipped the net, play stopped and possession changed. De Jager has watched the sport evolve over the years, and from her perspective, the changes have been welcome.

"It sped up the play of the game," she said.

Even so, some things have not changed. The sport that shaped so much of her college experience has never really been far away.

Her years at Dordt also helped prepare her for the work she would eventually return to campus to do. At the time De Jager was a student, Dordt did not yet offer a full nursing major, and many students pursuing nursing transferred after two years. De
Jager stayed all four years, then enrolled in an accelerated nursing program at Creighton University as part of its first cohort.

Looking back, she sees those years at Dordt as foundational in more ways than one.

"It helped me with time management, helped me be goal-orientated and focus on what I really did want to do with my career," De Jager said. "It really shaped me in knowing my values and my core beliefs."

Now serving as an instructor in Dordt's nursing program, De Jager brings the perspective of someone who once balanced college life as a student-athlete herself. She understands that many students arrive on campus drawn not only by academics, but by the opportunity to compete, perform and belong.

"It actually makes me realize they're at Dordt for the full experience," De Jager said. "They want to be part of their extracurricular, whether it be sport or music, but it's a lot of times what's driving them to Dordt."

That understanding has shaped the way she teaches. She wants students to succeed in their major, certainly, but also to flourish in the other callings and commitments that matter to them.

"It's really made me want to get to know the students and their passions and help them be able to do both," she said.

De Jager also credits the influence of the coaches she played for at Dordt. Patty Timmermans brought steady communication, clear expectations and the kind of feedback that helped guide a freshman through the transition to college athletics. Tom Van Den Bosch offered a quieter style, paired with a strong technical grasp of the game.

Together, those two approaches left a lasting impression.

"I liked Patty's communication, her constant feedback, but I also liked Tom's quiet leadership," De Jager said. "It's affected me with my teaching style of trying to figure out when do I need to communicate or when do I need to just kind of let the student figure out where they're going wrong."

That blend of instruction, patience and trust has stayed with her, just as Dordt has. Returning to campus as a faculty member carried special meaning, both because of the opportunity to help train Christian nurses and because Dordt had developed a nursing program that allowed students to remain fully involved in campus life while pursuing that calling.

And as she has remained close to the university and the sport, De Jager has also had the chance to watch Dordt volleyball continue to grow. The program's sustained success has brought her both joy and pride, especially knowing she was part of one of its early history-making teams.

"It makes me feel very happy and also excited and also a little bit proud of Dordt and the tradition that they have," she said.

For De Jager, though, the lasting impact of Dordt volleyball is about more than wins, records or even a first trip to nationals. What endures most are the people.

"The relationships are the number one thing I remember taking away," De Jager said. "You spend hours in a gym, but it's the relationships that you have on the van rides and on the court in practice that you remember the most."