If it weren’t for an unlikely meeting between Wisconsin softball head coach Yvette Healey and Maria Van Abel at an all-state banquet back in 2011, Van Abel might never have been a Badger.
Van Abel could have easily been a volleyball star at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, but instead became the player with the second-highest career batting average in Badger softball history.
As a newcomer to the area, Healey casually asked the other coaches from the state who was the best senior at the banquet. Most said it was Van Abel, who had no intention of continuing to play softball beyond high school.