Written by Doug Goodnough
She was there at the very beginning. When Hillsdale College formed its first women’s basketball team during the 1978-79 season, Mary Kaminski, ’82, was one of 16 on the roster.
“I didn’t really realize [it was the first year],” said Kaminski, who came to Hillsdale from the Big Island of Hawaii. “I came from a culture where girls had every opportunity. We just did everything.”
Athletically, Kaminski did almost everything at Hillsdale. The four-sport standout was also a member of the volleyball, track and field, and softball teams during her time with the Chargers. Named Hillsdale’s Outstanding Female Athlete in 1982, she earned NAIA Academic All-American honors in volleyball and was inducted into Hillsdale’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.
Kaminski enrolled at Hillsdale despite never visiting campus. With her parents originally from the Midwest, she was looking at colleges there.
“I wrote to a lot of Midwest schools,” she said. “I was working. I did a gap year before I knew it was a thing just because I didn’t want to start college not really knowing what I’m doing. And some young man who graduated from Hillsdale got a job at Punahou High School on Oahu. I was looking at college catalogs, and he said, ‘What’s going on?’ So, the next time he came in, he brought me brochures for Hillsdale. I sent in the information, and Hillsdale kept writing back to me and sending more information. So I enrolled, and it ended up being a good deal.”
She remembers those first Chargers basketball teams that were led by student coach Jim Dutton, ’80.
“He somehow convinced [Hillsdale Athletic Director] Jack McAvoy to start this women’s basketball team,” Kaminski said. “We were all just eager to play. We didn’t look at him as a student coach. We all respected him and enjoyed playing for him.”
The Chargers didn’t win a game in year one; however, the roster was deep and improving. Year two had Hillsdale finishing 6-8, and in year three, the Chargers became a varsity sport, sporting a 9-6 mark and earning an invitation to postseason play.
“The Athletic Department didn’t have the budget to allow it,” Kaminski said of playing in the postseason. “That was kind of heartbreaking.”
However, she said McAvoy remained very supportive of the program. In her senior season, Hillsdale became a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference under new head coach Phyllis Cupp. Kaminski was named the team’s Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
“We had a lot of very good players on our team, and I was not one of them,” said Kaminski, a lanky forward. “I was OK.”
Despite playing four sports, she worked part time in the dining hall and was an RA. She also spent weekends earning extra cash at nearby Sammy’s Pizzeria.
“Jack McAvoy took care of all the athletes, but I was paying for college myself,” Kaminski said. “My college fund was exhausted in one year, so I was going to transfer back to Hawaii. I talked with the registrar’s office to get my information sent back, and apparently word got up to Coach McAvoy. He called me into his office. He found some scholarship money for me, and then I got some jobs. He told me other ways I could try to generate some money to help out.”
After graduating with her degree in health and physical education, she returned to campus to assist Coach Cupp with the women’s volleyball team, which had a 33-win season and finished fifth in the nation in the fall of 1982.
“I was an assistant to help get through that year and for me to train for the national team tryouts,” she said of trying for a spot on the U.S. national volleyball team. “It was sort of a win-win for both of us.”
When she did not make the national team, Kaminski thought her days on the court were over. She moved to Texas and was preparing to enter graduate school at Colorado State University when she received a call from McAvoy.
“I’m two weeks away from moving from Texas to Colorado, and he said, ‘There’s a job up there,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Nope, I’m done with sports.’”
McAvoy persuaded her to make the trip to Houghton, Michigan, where she became an assistant volleyball coach at Michigan Technological University. After one year as an assistant, Kaminski took over the program and eventually built it into a national powerhouse.
“It took a while because the philosophy of the program at the time wasn’t really striving to do anything,” Kaminski said. “They just wanted to have a program in case some young lady who wants to be an engineer also wants to play volleyball or basketball. I was certainly striving for more for the program because I thought that’s what you do. If you’re keeping score, it matters.”
In 1994, Kaminski led the Huskies to a 30-3 record, sharing the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with eventual national champion Northern Michigan, which beat the Huskies in the regional championship. She was named the AVCA NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year and finished with more than 300 collegiate coaching wins.
Inducted into Tech’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, she still lives in Houghton.
“We’ve got it pretty good,” she said of living in the Upper Peninsula. “You just learn to embrace it.”
Kaminski is in her third year as an educator at Houghton Elementary School. This year, she is a paraprofessional working with first graders. She is also active in environmental issues, trying to help prevent what has occurred in her home state of Hawaii.
“I don’t want the same thing to happen in the U.P.,” she said. “My love and respect of nature have been lifelong.”
Still active in pickleball and assisting with several local community efforts like the Verna Mize Triathlon and Bridgefest, she said she stays in contact with her alma mater, especially the current coaches of her former athletic programs.
“I keep recommending [Hillsdale] to kids who I feel would enjoy it there,” she said. “[Hillsdale] means a lot to me. It worked out wonderfully.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in November 2026
