(Last week Louisiana Tech had a natural disaster on their campus as a destructive tornado swept through the Ruston Campus. While no students or staff were lost, the damage was considerable including the near complete loss of the Softball Facility. Louisiana Tech will rebuild and are doing so with the help of their supporters and the public. Anyone willing to donate to the reconstruction can donate at LouisianaTechGivingDay.org/Athletics)
This week On Deck with Dobbins sits down with the head coach at Louisiana Tech, Mark Montgomery. Montgomery is in his seventh season leading LA Tech and has returned the program to the success of old. Montgomery has led the Lady Techsters to five 30+ win seasons along the way collecting the 2017 Conference USA Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament Appearance. He owns a career collegiate coaching record of 511-480 over his 18-year span as a head coach. Before taking the reins at LA Tech Montgomery had head coaching stops at Georgetown (KY), Centenary, and Northern Colorado.
Lee
Dobbins: Coach Montgomery you took over the program at Louisiana Tech that had
seen a lot of success and was a national power in the 1980’s under Hall of
Fame Coach Bill Galloway, however the program fell off in the 90’s and first
part of the century before your arrival. What have been the keys for you and
your staff building Louisiana Tech back up and making them nationally
competitive again?
Mark Montgomery: The emergence of Conferences like the SEC with their monetary investment into softball presented challenges for all mid-major programs starting in the 90s. To compete against those schools in today’s climate is a challenge. Louisiana Tech is fortunate to be in a geographically talent rich area and to be at a school within a community that takes both athletics and academics and their successes very seriously. That has allowed our coaching staff to really build a foundation for sustained success through recruiting and athletic facility improvements.
Dobbins:
Over the last few years recruiting has been a major topic of conversation
particularly when it comes to the average (young) age that Prospective Student
Athletes are being recruited and making verbal commitments to programs.
Legislation has now been initiated restricting contact/offers to PSAs until the
start of their junior years in high school. Talk a bit about that change in the
recruiting dynamic since that legislation has been adopted. Has it slowed the
process and made balancing recruiting better? Has the legislation been
effective in curving earlier recruiting in any way?
Montgomery: I
think the jury is still out as to how recruiting will be affected long
term. It is great for the student athlete to have more time before
feeling pressure to commit to a college. Nobody who hasn’t played at
least a year or two in high school had any business committing to a college.
Yet it was happening often. That being said it is extremely difficult to
legislate morality and ethics. Lots of coaches said they were against early
recruiting, yet rushed out and committed eighth graders the week before the
legislation was finalized. I think it is going to take a few years to see
how effective the new rule really plays out. Do some schools secretively lay
groundwork so as to commit kids that first week of September, or do kids truly
get to take some visits and make informed decisions as to what will be the best
fit. Regardless, it is better than the old way. I just hope we don’t see
some unintended consequences.
Dobbins:
From a recruiting standpoint Louisiana is saturated with DI programs more
than a lot of states; What have been your keys in recruiting and selling LA
Tech as a destination for talent all over the country? Has
concentrating your recruiting efforts out-of-state been by design, or
just how it has worked out?
Montgomery: We
kind of created a geographical formula for recruiting upon my arrival.
Most of the DI programs in Louisiana are in the southern part of the state.
There is great talent down there but lots of competition for it, not only in
LSU and ULL but many other DI schools. We decided to stay along the I-20
corridor. Get as many kids in North Louisiana as possible but follow that
I-20 interstate through East Texas, (where we have gotten some great kids) all
the way into Dallas Metro Area. There are more people in the Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex than the entire state of Louisiana, and there are only two DI
softball programs. We know lots of schools recruit there, but we wanted to
really work that area hard. We felt that if we could pick up 60-80% of our
recruits in that four-hour stretch of interstate and then use personal
connections with friends and coaching acquaintances, we could really build a
talented roster and maintain that year in and year out.
Dobbins:
I recently heard a phrase directly referenced to collegiate softball;
“The era of the free agent has begun.” This seemingly is referencing
the latest NCAA Transfer Legislation that eliminates the
permission-to-contact process. The transfer rates in the last five years had
seemingly already been at an all-time high. Recently however, it seems the
flood gates have opened directly connected with this legislation.
What are your thoughts on this legislation and its effect on the
collegiate game?
Montgomery: The
idea was to make transfers more transparent. Unfortunately, what has happened
is it has allowed for the ease of transfer for any reason. Sometimes players
need a change through no fault of their own. This was especially true
with all of the early recruiting for those players that got to their new school
and realized it wasn’t the fit that they thought it would be when they were in
the 8th or 9th grade. However now, with
the portal being set up, illegal recruiting is being done behind the scenes
that allows a player to transfer easily, already knowing where they are going
to land. It is a great thing for the kids who are leaving for a new
opportunity and hoping to find a situation that better suits their needs.
However, once again you can’t legislate morals and ethics, and this is where we
may have opened Pandora’s Box. This is going to be problem in all sports, not
just softball. However, in some sports you have to sit and wait a year which at
least has some teeth. However, in softball you can be eligible
immediately. All that being said, we never want a player who doesn’t want
to be here, so we gladly grant all requests for transfers.
Dobbins:
The “Point of Emphasis” the last few years from a rules and
officiating standpoint have been the obstruction rule
(particularly at the catching position) and the enforcement of the players
positioning and movements in the batter’s box and leaving the dimensions
and confines of it (particularly slappers). What are your thoughts on
these two particular points of emphasis the last few years? Are they being
enforced accurately and effectively? If not, what needs to change from an
enforcement standpoint?
Montgomery: Just
like all umpiring, the types of plays you are referencing are very
subjective. All we can do is try to continue to teach, train and develop
the best umpires we can. I really believe that the NFCA and the NCAA are
working hard to make this better. I think the biggest issue we are facing
is the lack in our number of officials. That leads to the lack of
quality. I really wish I knew how to fix that one, but until we have more
umpires in the system I am afraid that we are going to see lots of poor
subjective decisions. I’m at the highest level of softball and I start to think
we have it bad, then I go watch one of my daughter’s high school games.
Seriously, quality officiating and the decline in numbers of officials may
become one of our biggest issues and no one is really talking about it.
