On Deck with Dobbins: Kimball Cassady, Birmingham-Southern College

This week On Deck we leave the world of athletic scholarships, unlimited budgets, and private charter planes to visit the world of academic scholarships, fundraising to make ends meet, and being happy to have two seats to yourself on the bus, Division III. I sit down with the head coach at Birmingham-Southern College, Kimball Cassady. The former Kimball Pratt played her collegiate ball in the infancy of the SEC at Auburn University from 1998-2001, where she set the school record for assists with 366 over her career, while also serving as Team Captain for the Tigers for two seasons and being a three-time selection for the Conference Academic Honor Roll. At completion of her career she served as assistant coach at BSC from 2002-2004, before taking time away from the collegiate game with a stint at head coach at Clay-Chalkville High School. In 2010 she returned to BSC as head coach and immediately made huge strides including the 2011 SCAC East Region Title. In eight seasons at the helm of the Panthers Cassady has racked up a 233-107-1 record on her way to multiple conference titles and two NCAA Regional appearances. 

Lee Dobbins: Coach Cassady you played in the infancy of the SEC at Auburn and obviously seen the changes not only at that level of play, but all levels of play in the sport in the last 20 years. Having played at that top level of the game, what have you done with that experience to relate to today’s athletes particularly at the Division III level?  

Kimball Cassady: I don’t want to date myself, however my playing career ended a long time ago but to me my playing experience plays a huge role in the way I coach and the way I respond to my student athletes.  Because of my playing experience, I can relate to how they feel when they have early morning workouts, classes all day then practice and study hall to end the day.  It might have been a long time ago, but I still remember how it felt hearing that alarm clock going off or having to wear sweat suits the majority of my college career. I also firmly believe that the best players don’t always make the best coaches.  Trust me, I was not the best player (not even close), but I was a student of the game.  I call it softball sense which I believe helps me explain the game and communicate with my athletes on a different level.  I also learned over my years of coaching, that kids get bored easily.  Used to, I could take millions of ground balls at practice and hit off the tee for hours and love every minute of it, but I’ve learned that you have to be innovative with your practice plans.  Make drills competitive to keep them engaged and focused. As you know, the sport of softball has evolved a lot since I’ve played, so you constantly have to educate yourself and be willing to learn and adapt as the sport changes.  I love going to watch other colleges and universities practice. 

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 at and them making verbal commitments to programs; Legislation has been installed on the NCAA Division I level that has dramatically curved this as of late. Have you seen any trickle-down effect to what’s happening at DI that is affecting DIII? Would you like to see any changes at the DIII level to be more in-line with this? What have you seen as the greatest differences in recruiting today compared to when you came out as an athlete?

Cassady: Things have drastically changed since I’ve been on the recruiting/coaching side of things.  Back in my time, you narrowed your search down and took official visits to the schools in which you had interest.  I find that now kids will commit so early on and not really do their due diligence when it comes to researching the program and the school.  My parents told me years ago when I was being recruited to pick the school first and then the softball program because you want to be happy with the place in which you are getting your education.  Now that I’m a coach, I elaborate on what my parents say by telling all of our recruits to make sure when they are in the recruiting process to make sure they visit the schools they have interest in and make sure you get time with the coaches and players.  It’s so important to understand what type of people you will be surrounding yourself with and are these people I can see myself being with 99% of the time. As far as student athletes verbally committing to us early, it does happen, but unfortunately for us at the D3 level, things can change quickly since we don’t offer athletic scholarships at the D3 level.  If we do get a kid that commits early, we have to do a good job of keeping them engaged.  We want to get them on campus and around our team as much as possible to keep them interested in us and our program.

Dobbins: Division III seems to get a raw deal in recruiting and most seem misinformed with the actual level of play when comparing to the DI, DII, and even NAIA levels. What do you see as the challenges at this level when educating Prospective Student-Athletes on the benefits of DIII and the seemingly greater academic value it offers?

Cassady: Obviously we have to really sell the educational part of our college simply because at the D3 level, it takes priority over anything else. What I typically express to our recruits is that at BSC, you will get the best of both worlds.  You will get one of the best educations around but you will also be a part of a successful softball program.  Going into this job, I had somewhat of a negative connotation that D3 would not be very competitive or that it was like a watered down travel league.  I really thought this would just be a stepping stone for me, but after completing my first year, I was completely sold and now I’m about to start my 9th season.  I have bought into what D3 stands for and what our school stands for so honestly I find it easy to sell to a prospective athlete.  The beauty of playing at the D3 level, you really have the opportunity to be a well-rounded STUDENT athlete.  We have players that are involved in sororities, FCA, student government, etc. 

Dobbins: I recently heard a phrase directly referenced to collegiate softball; “The era of the free agent has begun.” The transfer rates in the last five years has been at an all-time high. What are your thoughts on transfers? Do feel that DIII benefits in these transfers in anyway more than say, DII or NAIA?

Cassady: I’m a little bit on the fence with this one.  To me, so many athletes across the board are transferring when one little thing doesn’t go their way. What happened to the times when you found out you weren’t going to be the starter, that instead of throwing in the towel, you go put in extra work to make yourself better?  I sort of feel like those days are over.  This reason alone is why we are very transparent with every recruit when they come on campus.  We recommend if they are interested in our program that they need to take an overnight visit and definitely need to watch us practice and play to get a feel for how we are as coaches and how we interact with our athletes.  They also need to spend time with our girls to see if it really is a good fit.  Do I like these people or do I not?  We hope this will in turn keep them from transferring from our program.   We don’t typically get many transfers, but when we do, we really have to be a little picky and up front with them.  It’s great because they don’t have to sit out a year or lose eligibility when transferring to D3, but many times it’s harder because of what classes transfer and what classes don’t.  I do know that in my last 3 years of coaching we’ve seen more transfers come to BSC.  Every one of them have ended up being major contributors to our program so I do feel like D3 schools can benefit from this new age of transferring schools. 

Dobbins: Softball (Collegiate Game particularly) has boomed in popularity in the last 10 years and this seems to be based on its visibility on different media outlets (TV, online, Social Media, etc.). How has that dynamic of visibility changed the way the game is played and how you run your program? Are you seeing any benefits of this visibility at the DIII level or for your program in particularly? What would you like to see in this area that could greater expose softball at the DIII level?

Cassady: It’s been great to see over the years how much the sport of softball has grown.  It’s great to be able to follow all your favorite teams on social media and be able to watch softball on TV or online basically from March through June.  I love when we’re on a bus ride back to BSC, and we can turn on the TV and watch a great softball game.  I will be honest with you though, I’m terrible when it comes to social media. I can barely do my own Facebook!  If I had the money I would hire someone to be in charge of Instagram, twitter and Facebook and whatever else they use these days, I would do it.  Social media and the fact that almost all of our games are streamed live has been a great way for our recruits and families to be able to follow us more closely.  I do wish there was a way to get more D3 softball on TV.  At least maybe show the championship of the world series.  I’ve got a feeling that day will come soon.