Post Classifieds
Buffalo State loses coaching icon
By Brandon Schlager
On April 7, 2012
Buffalo State College lost one of its most outstanding personalities when longtime
softball coach Sandra Hollander passed away Monday following a six-year fight with
colorectal cancer.
"This is incredibly sad news for our athletics family," athletic director Jerry Boyes
said in a statement. "For the past 27 years, Sandy has coached, taken care of and
nurtured countless student-athletes. She demanded excellence from her student-
athletes. She persevered and provided great life lessons to her players and to all
of us in the athletics department. This is a terrible loss and Sandy will be deeply
missed by us all."
Hollander, 52, was inducted into the Western New York Softball Hall of Fame in
2005 as one of the all-time winningest coaches in Division III softball history. She
won 562 games over her 24 years as head coach of the Bengals while guiding the
program to three SUNYAC titles and eight trips to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Hollander leaves behind her 10-year-old son, Alex, and thousands of lives touched
by her selflessness during her time as trainer, coach and administrator.
"She's had as much of an impact on Buffalo State students as anyone's ever had,"
said Jeff Ventura, assistant athletic director. "For 27 years, she was a softball coach,
the head athletic trainer; she literally affected the experience of thousands of
student-athletes."
After her original cancer diagnosis in 2006, Hollander fought through rigorous
chemotherapy treatment to lead the Bengals to a 30-12 overall record and, after
learning the cancer had spread to her lungs in 2007, guided the team to a 27-11
season and their sixth-consecutive SUNYAC playoff berth. The Bengals returned to
the SUNYAC championship game in 2008 and, in 2009, Hollander and the Bengals
won a program-record 34 games.
Hollander missed her first game since the diagnosis in 2006 this past weekend after
she was hospitalized with pneumonia and other complications before passing away
on Monday.
"She always seemed to find a way back," senior captain Kyrstin Lekki said in
disbelief. "She'd always gotten through everything else ok. Everyone was assuming
she'd be back. I never saw her defeated."
The shock of Hollander's death could be felt across the college's campus Tuesday
as disbelief filled the heads of everyone who knew Hollander, especially among the
current players and coaches she left behind.
"Beyond her son, the next important thing in her life was the kids," Ventura
said. "She felt she was doing them a disservice to show any kind of weakness at any
point."
Hollander's impact went beyond Buffalo State. Her knowledge and fiery passion for
the game extended throughout the entire softball community.
It's what caught the eye of Lekki, her twin sister, Kaylee, and junior Lindsay Goff,
each a part of Hollander's 2008 recruiting class. Like so many others before them,
they were drawn to play softball at Buffalo State simply because Hollander stood in
the coach's box down the third-base line.
"She was the reason I came here," the three said in unison.
"She completely formed the program," Kaylee Lekki said. "Everything we have today
is because of her."
"She came to my tournaments, evident she had just gone through chemo, with a
bandana around her head and a huge jug of water," Goff said. "She came even though
she was sick just to watch me play. I said 'I want to play for her.'"
Hollander totaled 17 20-win seasons and four 30-win campaigns, mentoring some
of Buffalo State's most successful athletes throughout her tenure. She was named
SUNYAC Coach of the Year four times (1990, 1996, 2008 and 2009) and the New
York State and Regional Coach of the Year in 1992 and 1993 by the Softball Coaches
Association.
Assistant coach Marie Curran, who has worked under Hollander since 2010, will
assume the team's head coaching duties until a search can be conducted for a
replacement.
Replacing an icon, however, won't be easy.
"She wasn't just a coach," Kyrstin Lekki said. "She was more than a coach. She taught
you so much more than just how to play softball."
"The only word to say it is that she's irreplaceable," Goff added. "You just can't
replace her."
Despite the loss, the Bengals have decided to carry on with their regularly scheduled
games this week.
Hollander wouldn't have had it any other way.
"We gotta keep playing," Kaylee Lekki said. "If we stopped, she'd be mad that we
weren't playing. She'd be standing here right now telling us we have to keep playing.
"She kind of, in a weird way, prepared us for this," Goff said. "Every season she
was always saying there would be obstacles, but you have to stick together to get
through and keep moving. That's exactly what we have to do, exactly what she said."
The Bengals will keep moving like their coach requested as they travel to RIT
tonight to take the field for the first time without Hollander in nearly a quarter
century.
Her players, though, know Hollander will still be standing down the third-base line,
keeping the umpires on their toes, just as she always did. After all, it's not like her to
miss a game.
"She'll be there," Kaylee Lekki said without hesitation. "She'll be at the game
tomorrow. She'll be on the bus and in the coach's box.
"This is her home."
Brandon Schlager can be reached at schlager.record@live.com
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