Twenty-Five Years Later: Jessica Bashor Gelder Recounts an Incredible Hawkeye Season
PHOTO: Courtesy of Hawkeye Athletics
Jessica Bashor Gelder was part of some exceptional Iowa softball teams coached by Gayle Blevins.
This spring marked the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Iowa women’s softball season. That year, the Hawkeyes, under Hall of Fame coach Gayle Blevins, were crowned Big Ten Conference champions—with Blevins being named Big Ten Coach of the Year.
Catcher Jessica Bashor Gelder (03BBA) was one of the many memorable student-athletes on the team. The 2000 Big Ten Freshman of the Year grew up in a baseball family in rural Riverside County in Southern California, where she played softball from a young age. She admits she had one advantage most kids didn’t.
“My dad was a baseball player, and we grew up on two acres in the mountains,” says Gelder. “We had a softball field that my dad built, and it had a full infield with a real home plate, a pitcher’s mound, and bases all the right length.”
The legendary 2000 championship season
After a recruiting visit from Blevins and a visit to Iowa City, Gelder knew she wanted to play for Iowa. Her first season for the Hawkeyes saw Gelder collect a .383 batting average as she helped Iowa to a Big Ten Conference regular season title.
“I was very fortunate to have a very good season, and I hit very well,” Gelder says. “I was also surrounded by an amazing team. I was so lucky to catch for senior pitcher Kelly Zeilstra Florkowski (00BA) who went on to play for the Canadian National Team. To have that relationship and experience is one I will never forget and will always cherish.”
She also fondly recalls playing for Coach Blevins, the iconic Iowa Athletics Hall of Famer and all-time winningest coach in Hawkeye softball program history.
“To be around Coach Blevins, you learned all the time,” Gelder says. “She was very organized, and I remember her pulling out her practice plan and looking at the next thing then the next thing. I was fortunate to play for someone who was so knowledgeable, and not just from a softball standpoint, but from a life standpoint.”
The World Series, the Olympics, and beyond
Gelder and her Hawkeye teammates went on to win two more Big Ten championships in 2001 and 2003 and also competed in the 2001 Women’s College World Series. But the California native wasn’t ready to hang up her catcher’s mitt after graduation.
“I had always dreamed of playing in the Olympics, literally, since I was old enough to watch them on TV,” says Gelder. “I would watch figure skating or gymnastics, and I would say ‘I’m going to be in the Olympics someday.’ Then I would watch baseball, and I would think, ‘That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to be a girl playing baseball’ because softball wasn’t in the Olympics at that time.”
Softball was added to the Summer Olympics in 1996, and a fortuitous family connection gave Gelder a rare opportunity to become an Olympian. As Greece was preparing to host the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, she learned that her grandparents being Greek made Gelder eligible to try out for the national softball team.
“It was a two-year process, and my sister Lindsey and I both wanted to play, so we submitted all our documentation and became Greek citizens,” Gelder says. “We both played for the Greek national team from 2003 through 2007, including the 2004 Summer Olympics. It was very exciting and a wonderful opportunity.”
Today, Gelder owns Shine Events, a wedding planning company in Phoenix, Arizona. She loves working with couples, bringing their wedding dreams to life. She also keeps up with some of her Hawkeye softball teammates.
“I just talked on the phone with my teammate Lori Leon (02BA), and Katie Boney (03BA) lives just down the street here from me. Kylie Murray (06BA) and Ali Manly (07BA) also live close by,” Gelder says. “Several of us text and call, and with social media, we all see each other’s kids and what’s going on and who’s at what tournaments or events, so that part is really fun.”