Podcast recording – Connor Vachon – Recording.mp4
 
Alan Babbitt [00:00:06] Welcome to another episode in the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue podcast. My name is Alan Bavin. I’m the Sports Information Director here at Hope College where we believe intercollegiate sport is a powerful vehicle for education and personal development. The mission of Hope Athletics is to promote and provide programs defined by academic success, competitive excellence and transformational experiences. Monthly conversations with members of the Orange and blue family spotlight their experiences with the Hope athletics mission. With me today on the Hope Athletics Orange and Blue podcast is Connor Vachon, a recent Hope College graduate and former cross country and track and field standout. Welcome to the Orange and blue podcast, Connor.
 
Connor Vachon [00:00:48] Thanks for having me, Alan.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:00:50] I certainly know you very well because I’ve been writing about you for four years and 12 seasons, but those listening might not know you as much. So let’s dive in first a little bit about your background and where did you grow up?
 
Connor Vachon [00:01:06] I am from Grand Rapids. I went to Jenison High School, so only about 30 minutes east of here, of Holland.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:01:20] What, tell me about growing up in Jenison and your family and kind of how that shaped you before you came to Hope.
 
Connor Vachon [00:01:28] Yeah, I was fortunate enough to… Have a great place where I felt like I belonged to jennison when i was in elementary school my mom actually taught at rosewood elementary which is where i went so it was nice to kind of have a closer relationship with my mom all throughout my elementary years and you know i got to know a lot of my lifelong friends in middle school high school and elementary which was great and yeah my family is all kind of I’m the youngest, so my sister Gabby actually played volleyball at Hope for four years. I believe she still has the three-set dig record.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:02:13] I think you’re right. I see her every, obviously she’s helping out Coach Schmidt too with coaching now. So she probably still has that record.
 
Connor Vachon [00:02:22] Yeah, which I think is cool. So, you know, she kind of set the example of, hey, let’s go the athletic route in college. My brother went to Notre Dame, extremely brilliant guy. He got a chemical engineering degree. So definitely paved the way they did before me as I went through high school. So I was kind of in their influence a little bit and I wanted to go my own path. So I’m like, I’m definitely not going to Hope or Notre Dame. That didn’t work out once I visited. I really liked Hope. I just didn’t wanna like follow what my sister had done, but I definitely carved my own path here. Got to fight for the Dutch, run for the Dutch while I was doing it, which is great.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:03:12] Obviously with having your mom as a teacher, I had the same thing as I did growing up. How did that shape you? Obviously education is something with your family that was important really from probably the moments once you started reading. How did get incorporated the value of education?
 
Connor Vachon [00:03:33] I think having a teacher as a parent, they really like, my mom definitely focused on educating my siblings and I pretty well. We were all top 10 in our classes. So we kind of had a leg up just because especially her being elementary, she knew like the developmental milestones when you’re studying that for your career, you definitely take those applications and apply it to your children. So, that definitely just helped make school feel a little bit easier, I think. And gave me the confidence to branch out and try a lot of different things. So, along with athletics, I also do theater and get involved in a lot of different student organizations. Not just in college, but also as early as middle school. I was being involved in everything I could because I just liked doing so many different things. I found learning something new and trying to work hard to be above average at it. I found that process very enriching, and I still do. So I guess currently the latest thing, this is a fun fact, I’ve started picking up hacky sacks.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:04:51] OK.
 
Connor Vachon [00:04:52] That’s what I’m doing with my retired athletic life. I’m still running a little bit, but now I’m kind of, I bought my own hacky sack and I’m just kicking it around every day, trying to get really good at it, so.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:05:04] Obviously you have that competitive gene that obviously runs well through your family. When do you first remember that running became something you wanted to be, not only do, but be competitive at?
 
Connor Vachon [00:05:19] Yeah, this goes back to fourth grade, really. I was, I was playing football and I played football from third grade until high school. I stopped right before my freshman year, but they had this thing called mileage club at recess. And you could get little foot tokens if you ran a certain amount of laps around a big field at recess and I was like foot tokens. That’s awesome. I’m going to get all of them. So Me and my buddies just started running and just running at recess instead of playing, which is kind of wild to think about it, but you know, getting those little token economy motivations, a little external motivation to discover the intrinsic motivation I had. Cause that’s when I found out I was pretty good. You know, we do the mile running gym and I would usually, well, I’d come in first in my class every time and I was like, Oh, this is cool. Yes, sir. Good at running, but didn’t know if I wanted to really pursue it until, I do, I did like track because we also, at Genesis and the elementaries, they have this big like champions race where once a year like have you have you heard of this
 
Alan Babbitt [00:06:35] Yes, I remember it well.
 
Connor Vachon [00:06:38] So you qualify, your elementary school runs a qualifier for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. And if you’re top 15 or top 30, there’s some qualifying number. Then you can run at the big race called Champion of Champions, where you race all the other elementary schools. And that was like, that was a big deal. So it was just a fun little mile race. So then I knew I wanted to do track, but I was figuring I would do football and track. And then my 8th grade year, I got injured at football, just like a little hairline fracture in my wrist. So I don’t think it was season ending, but I was definitely out for a few weeks. And I could go to the practices and watch, but I figured, all right, well, I’ll just run cross-country meets and go to football practices to stay in shape. And I ended up doing quite well just walking up, which is really. What kind of pulled me. Once I realized I was a lot better at running than I was at football, that was where I was like, okay, I should really consider doing this. And then I discerned a lot and prayed over it and talked about it with my family and yeah, went out for cross-country. Stopped wrestling after freshman year and then just fully committed to running sophomore year up. That was kind of that slow progress.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:08:06] How much was deciding where you wanted to go to school, continuing that running career? Was that a big factor, a small factor, or how did you, as you were discerning where you want to go college, whether or not you wanted to be a college student athlete?
 
Connor Vachon [00:08:24] I definitely wanted to after my success of my junior year cross-country season. I had a crazy, I finished way better at the state meet than I was ranked. And then I, that’s when I really was like, okay, I’m definitely good. Not just for my high school, but I’m good for, you know, just athletes like the cool thing about running is you can just see how good you are. Like you literally just get lined up against other people and it’s your times. So it’s a pretty objective tracker of your progress. Not very, it’s really not subjective at all, which also can make it pretty brutal. But I got a lot of objective evidence that I could do pretty well in college. And I was, I was figuring out, do I want to go D1? I was getting talked, I was being recruited by some D1 schools like Purdue. I remember sending me a letter. Unfortunately, junior year track season didn’t happen, which I think hurt a lot of my D1 prospects because then I didn’t get to capitalize on the fitness that I had. Yeah. But I was planning on going to, I verbally committed to go to central Michigan, actually, because that’s where my, that’s what my mom went. And I was like, Oh, that’d be a great opportunity. And they have a good education program. And then they actually ended up cutting their men’s track. Which I thought was a pretty good sign that I should just go to a small school.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:09:54] That’s a good one right there. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
 
Connor Vachon [00:09:57] Yeah, I was like, Oh, I want to do the big school thing. And then, but I was still on the fence. And then I was, like, okay, I’ll do the small school. So then I only ended up really applying to. Hope Hillsdale and Cornerstone and checked all those out and I liked Hope. That’s where, that’s how I landed at Hope. Even though I specifically stated at the beginning of my college search that I was not going to go to Hope.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:10:26] What did you find about Hope for you that ended up deciding, yep, this is where I want to commit the next chapter in my life/
 
Connor Vachon [00:10:37] When I was scouting colleges, I was paying attention to three, four things. I was pay attention to the coach and the team because all of them were athletic visits for me. The campus and also how much I could get involved with other things because I didn’t want to only run. I wanted to do other things. And then of course, food. Food was actually the top of my priority list.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:11:04] That’s true. That’s a reasonable one for sure.
 
Connor Vachon [00:11:08] I mean, I’m such a foodie, even still. And I was like, if I’m gonna be running 60 or 70 miles a week, I have to eat a lot of food. And if that food is abysmal, then that is not gonna be great. So I really liked Hope’s food. And I ended up being the Phelps MC my senior year, kind of just like running some like trivia nights and karaoke nights at it, which is really fun. To Phelps, the campus as well. I really like Hope’s campus, how walkable it is. And originally I actually came on a theater scholarship. I was gonna do theater as well, but then I realized it’s not very practical. I realized pretty quickly it was not very practical to do that as well as run, kind of a pick and choose. So I decided to just run because I can still be in theater. The rest of my life, but I can’t be a collegiate level athlete.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:12:08] Before I get to some of the things you experienced competitively during your career, I hope I have to ask, what’s your favorite Phelps item then? Oh, I like that. If you can choose, and I’d probably like choosing children, I understand, but what would you say, especially for someone coming in, you gotta have this.
 
Connor Vachon [00:12:25] Chicken enchiladas, bang, right there. So unbelievably good. And this year they had this salmon wrapped in a croissant which they had not done earlier. And sometimes they have really good fruit too. It’s like, that’s such a treat when they have like really fresh fruit. They always have fresh fruit, but when you get like the strawberries and the blueberries and the blackberries, that stuff is my jam. So good.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:12:52] It’s good to know. I did not have, I know what you’re saying on checking enchiladas, I’ve not had the salmon croissant. I will be in a lookout for that this upcoming year then. And I’m sure others will be as well. As well.
 
Connor Vachon [00:13:06] It’s fantastic. It’s a life changer for real. What’s your favorite Phelps item?
 
Alan Babbitt [00:13:10] Um, they have, uh, I always butcher the name, but it’s, uh, uh it’s a, a chicken one too. Why am I drawn? I’m drawn a complete blank on it, but I’m, I’ve gone now where actually it’s it’s the bar, whenever they have the shawarma chicken bar with the bowl and stuff. I, it’s just, that’s just so good with the different options there. And they rotate it obviously with euros and other type of stuff, but give me a chicken shawarma and I’ll be in a pretty good place.
 
Connor Vachon [00:13:43] Yeah, Phelps has good chicken. They do like chicken. There’s a lot of chicken there. Well, they have some really good steak, really good steaks.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:13:51] It is, there are some coworkers that it’s some good steak or if it’s a good burger night, they are all for it without a doubt. What you’ve been a part watching from me from as far as I get, as far in my role, you’ve seen that you’ve a part of the cross country and track and field programs really start to, I think build up in a kind of culminated this year, the senior year for cross country will start their first trip as a team to nationals. Since 1991, a pretty special feat. What did that cross-country season mean to you, amid some of the other successes that you’ve had individually?
 
Connor Vachon [00:14:33] Yeah, my career is pretty interesting as I look back on it, because in the first half, it was largely focused on individual success. I’d say I have more individual success from my earlier years, but then I started pouring into leadership roles and the team a lot more in my latter years, and then being able to see that be very fruitful this year was great. My biggest concern this year was more about just being a good leader because I mean we had a really fast freshman class and This team has been building in talent And size since my freshman year when our freshman class was half the team. There’s eight of us and then only five or only three of us originally remain because Jonathan and Lucas who are also seniors this year. They actually didn’t run fall of their freshman year, so they’re coming back for a fifth year.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:15:37] OK.
 
Connor Vachon [00:15:38] They’re doing one extra season. So there’s only three of us from the very original like incoming class of 2021 that we’re running this year. But now next year, you’ve already got like eight seniors and I mean, the freshman class is huge and we’ve got an incoming class of I think about 15, which was the size of the team when I joined. So it’s crazy to see how it’s growing in size, but also. We’re running so much better. And unfortunately, we didn’t get to run a conference championship this year by one point. That was a heartbreak loss. But I mean, that was, we were our best out there and we got them at nationals too. So that was that was good on the bigger stage, you
 
Alan Babbitt [00:16:32] Yeah, what have you learned about leadership, especially these last two years, and something that you will take with you into your next chapter?
 
Connor Vachon [00:16:42] It’s really about how well you can listen. I think a lot of people, when they think leadership, it’s a privilege, it’s status, where you’re calling all the shots. And to an extent, people do look to you for guidance. But I think it’s about really understanding and serving those who elected you to lead them. So I was trying to do a lot to benefit others. And some of that includes training really hard so I can help on the actual course. But definitely just getting to be somebody that every guy on the team is comfortable going up to and helping with whatever conflicts or advice people are dealing with and just trying to be on everybody’s court. Like I’m somebody who I want everybody to feel like I’ve got their back. Because I do.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:17:47] Because you guys in track and field and those who run cross country and track and field face, you know, the longest season of anybody. I mean, you’re starting as school starts and then, you know, you finish as school ends. I think swimmers and divers might be second, uh, in terms of length of seasons when you commit to that much. What have you learned about athletically that you’ve tried to help others realize how to manage everything? Cause not only do you have class. You got practice, you got competitions, cross country, you’re building toward the end of the season to be at a peak, similarly in track and field. What have you learned about how to manage that? Cause it’s not easy to compete in three seasons, you know, in an academic year.
 
Connor Vachon [00:18:31] Oh yeah, that is definitely a very taxing thing mentally and physically when you think about our offseason being two weeks from the end of November into the beginning of December and then two weeks, from the beginning or the end May if you keep going until June. So you get, there’s about a month of the year we’re actually not training because that summer season, summer training is what makes your fall good or not. It’s all about listening to your body and not pushing too much too fast. So I’ll and with running especially that’s one of like the hardest things on your body because you’re just pounding and pounding so it’s very injury prone. So you have to supplement you have to realize how much stress your body can take that’s helpful and also mentally you’ve got to be able to chill out and sometimes that means just taking a cross-training day or just taking a day off here or there. That you need. Like I usually ran six days a week. I usually wouldn’t run on Sundays. And then if for some reason I was really sick or starting to hurt, I would just do a short bike ride. But a lot of it’s consistency and slowly building up your body’s endurance to stress without getting too excited and training too hard. Because it’s really easy to train too hard when your body feels good. That’s the thing. What a lot of the young guys struggle with. Like I got Achilles tendonitis. I guess, I don’t know if it was tendonitis, but I had a big Achilles problem my freshman year and I guess I was only out two weeks, but.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:20:16] I felt like an eternity, I’m sure.
 
Connor Vachon [00:20:18] Oh, yeah, I remember just it feels like it was my whole first semester. It feels like the whole semester. But I ended up finishing well at conference, so it clearly wasn’t the whole season. The bike is everybody’s least favorite thing, but sometimes it’s what you need because there’s no pounding on the bike. It’s very running specific, but just pretty much rolling through the punches and not getting too excited and overtraining.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:20:49] And then on top of that, you also have classes in the academic rigor at Hope. Tell us about what you studied and how you learned how to manage that part of college life as well in addition to the competitive part and the social part.
 
Connor Vachon [00:21:04] Yeah, absolutely. So I was math, education, and computer science. I double majored. But the thing about the math education major is you have to get a full math major within that. So pretty large double major. That’s not easy. You really need to be willing to sacrifice a lot of typical college social hangouts or you know sometimes if you get invited to go on a trip you’re probably traveling for cross-country and it’s really just eat, sleep, run, school for most of it but still you’ll have time for other things, but you have to be really smart. Like going on your phone is not really an option for multiple hours on the day. What a lot like I think a lot of people think it’s impossible. But if you think about how much time the average person wastes, if you just don’t waste that time, you do have a lot more capabilities to kind of stretch yourself. It definitely was hard, but basically the traveling, I remember, was the hardest part. Missing class often enough, but you just have to, I would always tell people, you just communicate with your professors and your coach and everybody wants you to succeed. So an open line of communication will get you an extension or allow you to take an exam in a hotel lobby with your coach proctoring you. Definitely being collaborative with others and getting people to take notes for you and working together on assignments is a great way especially on really hard stuff that you were out of lecture for it’s just helpful to kind of meet up with your classmates and don’t try to do anything on your everything on your own because then you’re likely to fail. Really leaning where you need to.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:23:05] You know, on top of that, I was looking up, you were an RA at Hope, you’ve been a tour guide, a tutor, Nye Kirk member, you went on a seed trip. When you think about some of those activities, where are some of the ones, I’m sure there’s like a ton of memories, but some of ones that jump out to you that were really impactful for you.
 
Connor Vachon [00:23:25] Oh, impactful.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:23:29] Remember
 
Connor Vachon [00:23:30] bowl or whatever kind of. It’s hard. I’m going to give a cheap answer, but then I’m gonna tell a fun story. So the really, my favorite part about doing a lot of different things is meeting a lot different people and working on close teams with others is a great way to foster like just lifelong relationships. So I’ve had the extraordinary opportunity to meet and get close with a lot people at hope and hope people are the best. So I’ve definitely got a ton of people that I can go to for any reason and just being able to grow in a lot of different ways and be challenged by a lot of different people has made me better. And I like to think that I’ve helped make positive impacts on the people that I have come across with. Now, a fun story, if you get to know enough people you get ask for some favors. So. One, yeah, I don’t know if this is like, I guess we’ll see. This is a really cool opportunity I’ve had. So our RA squad of Phelps Hall, which is the best one because the dining hall is in there too. So it was very tactical where it wanted to live. Chicken and gelato is right downstairs.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:24:51] Hard to beat.
 
Connor Vachon [00:24:52] The end of the year and we were kind of going around and one of the guys on my team knows campus safety pretty well and they let us go in the bell tower of the chapel like all up top. Oh wow. Which was sweet. So completely campus safety approved.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:25:13] That’s what everybody gets to do.
 
Connor Vachon [00:25:15] No, yeah, definitely the funny thing is I got to do that twice. Cause one time during RA training, they were doing like, you build an egg drop off of the bell tower. And one time I got, I ran some egg projects up there, some of the contraptions and I got go up there. So got to that twice, both through residential life, which was fantastic. So that, that view from up top of the chapel is insane. You can see so far, and it’s a lot of trees, it’s lot more trees than you think. But yeah, that was really fun. And of course, Nykerk, we won it my freshman year, which was the only time I actually did it. But that was fun being able to do like a theater-ish thing from high school.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:26:10] You’ve also have a heart for youth. I see you were involved with the Zealand Wildlife Program. You’ve been on a seed mission trip. I know with those where you work with a lot of children, your career going into education, I’m sure some of that is your mom and your family, but what is it about working with youth and helping them grow is something that is feels like a calling for you.
 
Connor Vachon [00:26:37] One thing for sure is one of my high school teachers, Mrs. White, she made a really big lasting impact on me and who I am as a person along with a lot of other people. But that was honestly one of the biggest reasons I went into education. It was more than my mom being a teacher because I wasn’t actually sure. But I knew, I know I figured it out junior year of high school. My philosophy going forward is if I can impact at least one person the way that I’ve been impacted, then I think that will be worth it. And I also really like working with people with education. You’re faced with a lot of dynamic situations because you get a new group of students for secondary every hour and then also a new grade each year. So there’s a lot of dynamic moving parts. Which for me just will keep me from burning out and keeping it different. But I just love working with kids because they’re so honest and they really, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a very key developmental part of life. And there’s a lot of good work and good influence that can be made at that stage of life, and kids are really fun. I have a lot extra energy, so I can match their energy most of the time. Like I just met up with one of my young life kids last night and we just played hacky sack for like over an hour and a half, which was really great. He was the one who was like, all right, you ready to be done? And I said, yeah, yeah. You’re done.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:28:22] What’s next? Are you searching for jobs or what’s kind of next for you, Connor?
 
Connor Vachon [00:28:27] Yeah, the thing with the double major is I still have to student teach, so I just need to finish up student teaching this fall. I’m not taking any other classes, so it’s just going to be student teach, and then 2036 we will begin the job search in education likely. Backup plan in case that’s tough to find a job in, which I don’t think it will be, but I can also get a software engineering type job as well because I have a full computer science and math degree too. So I’ve got a little bit of wiggle room with the career, but ideally I’m going to be assistant coaching at Jettison in the fall, and then I’ll be student teaching at Zealand East and leading Young Life. So, I’ll do a lot. Of things that I want to be involved with as a teacher. So it’s going to be a busy but very fulfilling semester for me.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:29:26] Certainly and it sounds like if it wasn’t it would you would be I don’t time doesn’t sound like something you want anyway So that’ll be a lot of yeah a lot a lot fun. And I lastly as we wrap up here and I appreciate you Sharing your story here. It’s been great to listen. Um, you know We’re gonna be some freshmen coming in this fall that we’re like you were four years ago Obviously circumstances a little different. Thankfully. We’re not a necessarily a pandemic that we are coming out of or in the middle of, but still they’re coming to college and they’re maybe competing and trying to figure things out. What advice, you’ve had some nuggets kind of throughout here, but particularly when it comes to hope and maximizing their hope experience, which I feel like you have done, what advice for you to, would you give to them to help them get the most out of their time at hope and be prepared for the post-college chapter in their life?
 
Connor Vachon [00:30:25] A big mistake a lot of people in college in general make is not doing enough and not trying enough things. A big thing at Hope is that people will do too much. So it’s a good try a lot different things, but then only commit to doing a few. I don’t, I mean, my sophomore year was crazy. There was that semester. That like fall semester I had one hour free time a day and I would just watch an episode of Breaking Bad that was like my little bit of time to myself it was it was between three and four that was my time so leave enough time for yourself but also try a lot of different things right at the beginning just like go to a bunch of first meetings or clubs or hang out with this group of people see if you jive with them and then be very after saying yes to trying a lot be very selective in what you commit to so you can excel and healthily pursue a lot because I definitely think especially in my earlier years I committed to a little bit too much but that’s how you can maximize that hope experience because hope has a lot of personal aspects to the college it being a smaller institution so that I got really obsessed with how personal everything was and just wanted to do all of it. But you can’t treat yourself like a robot because then you’re not going to have enough time for to pour into yourself or pour into your faith or pour in to your friends or your family. Wherever you want to build those relationships, you need some spare time as well to do that.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:32:10] Well, thank you so much, Connor. I don’t think I’ll be able to look at chicken enchilada at Phelps, the same now. We’ll think of you, and maybe we’ll figure out someday a way for maybe robot delivery to wherever you are. But no, in all seriousness, it’s been a joy to chat with you and it’s fun to cover you and watch your teams rise as well. So thanks for joining us today, and enjoy the rest of your summer and a busy fall.
 
Connor Vachon [00:32:37] Can I actually add something real quick?
 
Alan Babbitt [00:32:39] Absolutely.
 
Connor Vachon [00:32:40] This is a dining hall tip that I’ve been holding out for a long time, but I think I can finally pass the secret down. If you wanna make your own Chick-fil-A sauce, three pumps of barbecue, two pumps of ketchup, two pumps maya, one pump of mustard, and then a little bit of honey, and you have a perfect Chick-Fil-A Sauce.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:33:04] Bam, this is what he’s done. He’s helping us all, and he’s gone with his teammates. And now everyone listening, they’ll know what to do with homemade Chick-fil-A sauce. I’m going to have to give that a try. I will write that recipe down.
 
Connor Vachon [00:33:19] Alright, thanks so much for having me on, Ellen.
 
Alan Babbitt [00:33:20] I appreciate. Thanks, Connor.