Rounding Third Softball

This week On Deck with Dobbins sits down with Coach Kelly Ford from California State University Fullerton. Ford is in her seventh season as head coach of the Titans and has lead Cal State Fullerton to four consecutive Big West Conference Championships. Ford has also led CSUF back to the NCAA Tournament in 2016, 2017, and 2018, getting the Titans back to national form. Before coming to Fullerton Ford led JUCO Power Mt San Antonio College. She coached Mt. SAC to four California State Championships (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009) and seven South Coast Conference Championships (2001, 2003-08). Before taking a seat in the Captain’s Chair, Ford spent time as an assistant coach at Fullerton, along with stops at Cal State Northridge and Oklahoma. A Sooner Alum and athlete, Ford graduated from OU in 1992. She also spent two season competing at Central Arizona College winning NJCAA National Championships in both years. 

Lee Dobbins: Coach Ford you and your staff have diligently worked to bring Cal State Fullerton Softball back to the form of old. After some leaner years before your arrival, you have put Cal State Fullerton back on the map in Collegiate Softball with three straight Big West Conference Championships and advancing to the NCAA’s in each of those championship years. What have you done particularly to get Titan Softball back on the national scene?

Kelly Ford:  Fed the expectation that we want to be in the hunt every year for NCAA’s.  Really focused on coaching character and culture vs. chasing W’s.  Most importantly if you create an atmosphere where the athletes can build confidence they can be open to being coached.  If they don’t have any confidence, it doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are you won’t be able to improve them.  Those are a few key principles I have focused on.  One other piece is letting my assistant coaches coach and have input.  I have surrounded myself with a staff that is better than I in certain areas so I can get better.

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 September 1 of their junior year 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? 

Ford: Philosophically, I think it is a good change for all parties.  As it pertains to Cal State Fullerton and my program I see some downsides as we really used to start building the close relationships with the athletes when they came to camp and took advantage of sharing the great things going on at our University.  The conversations have now changed to focusing on skillset and coaching at camps which is actually a good thing.  I don’t think we will know how it really all shakes out until the athletes that have verballed before the new legislation have phased out.  That is when we will really see if the it has equaled the playing field or given it a big slant. 

Dobbins: Being in the middle of biggest concentration of softball talent on the planet in Southern California and middle of Pac-12 Country; what have you seen as both challenges and benefits in recruiting to a school like CSUF that falls very much in-between that Mid-Major and Power 5 level institute?  What have you and your staff done to carve out your recruiting niche to keep the top recruits in Southern California instead of leaving the state or going to the “bigger” institutes? 

Ford: We are so lucky at Cal State Fullerton.  I love our location both on the recruiting side and the competing side of things.  Recruiting wise we are in the hot bed and just like the Power 5’s we go after players that will make us better, are willing to compete day in and day out for their position and bring the team first mentality to the table.  I love being able to drive 30 minutes put a full recruiting day in and be able to go home to my own bed that night.  We go after athletes that excel playing in front of their families.  Most of our players/parents live within two hours of our campus and with approximately 65% of our games at home it is common that our athlete’s families come to every one of them.  Absolutely a selling point for our program.  The Big West Conference is unique in every one of our conference opponents is in the State of California except Hawaii, so traveling to games make it easy for us and our families.  We also rarely miss classes with our travel schedule which the players appreciate.  Competition wise top teams want to play at our place.  They love our beautiful facility, have a great chance of hitting good weather and know they will face an incredible line up of opponents.  We host the largest Division I tournament held on a college campus, The Judi Garman Tourney.  We are able to do this because we have 2 Division I Softball fields on our campus.  Tournament time the softball complex is electric!  You will often find baseball and softball competing at the same time and since our fields are back to back it is an amazing atmosphere on like game days.   

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?

Ford: It is a tough pill to swallow and I think we are all shocked at the ease of putting your name on the portal.  We have to roll with the changes and stay ahead of it.  I go back to fostering your culture and coaching character and having faith that if you provide a positive student-athlete experience they will want to come back.  On the flip side we have had great success with transfers into to Cal State Fullerton and will continue to go after transfers that will fit in character wise and make us better.

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?

Ford: The obstruction is a good rule in theory and I am always for protecting the players.  My only complaint is the subjectivity of the call.  I haven’t seen it called consistently across the board and it is tough for the umpires to make that call with a naked eye.  The speed of our game makes it difficult.  I have heard a lot of talk about how the “slapper” rule has affected our slappers but I have actually seen the players adapt and seem to be a non-issue that may also be because we only have 1 slapper this year.  Ask me next year when we have three. 

With most conferences moving into the postseason tournaments starting tomorrow (minus the PAC-12 and MWC) the world of softball is less than a week away from finding out what 64 teams will start the Road to the WCWS and the biggest prize of all, the National Championship. RTS takes a quick look of who we predict will be in the field of 64 on Sunday.

The 32 Conference Automatics:

American East: UMass-Lowell

American Athletic: Tulsa

Atlantic 10: George Washington

Atlantic Coast: Florida State

Atlantic Sun: Liberty

Big 12: Oklahoma

Big East: DePaul

Big Sky: Weber State

Big South: USC Upstate

Big 10: Michigan

Big West: Cal State Fullerton

Colonial: James Madison

Conference USA: North Texas

Horizon: Illinois Chicago

Ivy: Columbia

Metro Atlantic: Monmouth

Mid-American: Miami (OH)

Mid-Eastern Athletic: Florida A&M

Missouri Valley: Drake

Mountain West: Colorado State

Northeast: LIU-Brooklyn

Ohio Valley: Jacksonville State

Pacific-12: UCLA

Patriot: Boston

Southeastern: Alabama

Southern: Chattanooga

Southland: Nicholls State

Southwestern: Prairie View A&M

Sun Belt: Louisiana

Summit: North Dakota State

West Coast: Loyola Marymount

Western Athletic: Grand Canyon

The 32 At-Large:

Washington

Arizona

Texas

Minnesota

LSU

Florida

Northwestern

Oklahoma State

Tennessee

Kentucky

Ole Miss

Texas Tech

South Carolina

Auburn

Arkansas

Virginia Tech

Georgia

Stanford

Arizona State

North Carolina

Missouri

South Florida

Mississippi State

Boise State

Notre Dame

Louisville

Ohio State

Wisconsin

Houston

Lipscomb

Oregon State

Indiana

Last Four In:

Houston

Lipscomb

Oregon State

Indiana

Southern Illinois

Illinois

Texas A&M

San Jose State

The University at Buffalo has announced that they have named Mike Ruechel head coach of the Bulls removing the interim tag he has coached under this season.

Ruechel is in his second season with Buffalo after serving as an assistant coach last year. Prior to his arrival in the frozen tundra he served two seasons as an assistant coach at Indiana Wesleyan University. Before his collegiate stints he worked as head coach for the Oconto School District in Wisconsin.

Buffalo is 10-32-1 currently on the season and 6-1o-1 in MAC play. 

(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 8^th or 9^th 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.

University of Arkansas-Monticello has named Kyle Lem head coach of the UAM Softball program removing the interim tag that he served under during the 2019 season. Lem was named interim last summer after the passing of former coach Alvy Early. Lem had served on staff as an assistant coach for three seasons before taking the reins of the Blossoms. UAM finished this season 25-27 and 18-26 in the Great American Conference.

The softball program at the United State Military Academy has gone through definite transition the last six months. The fall brought with it the abrupt resignation of head coach Michelle DePolo after 10 seasons; then the naming of longtime Senior Associate Athletic Director with a Travel Ball background Bob Beretta as interim head coach for the 2019 season. The Cadets are currently moving toward the end of the 2019 season and currently sit around .500 at 25-26 overall and 8-7 in the Patriot League. Once Army wraps up their season in the next few weeks (NCAA Postseason not withstanding), where does Army look for their next head coach? That question might have already been answered with the stealth-like hiring of Cheryl Milligan.

For those that don’t go to school athletic pages to check on roster moves or adds during the season, the addition of a three-time National Champion Head Coach to the Black Knight Coaching Staff might have gone unnoticed. Milligan was quietly added as an assistant coach officially after the start of the season (Although it remains a mystery exactly when. She apparently replaced Brittany Robinson on staff that herself was just hired last fall.). While the timing of the addition seems odd, the quality of the addition is anything but. Milligan spent 15 seasons at the helm of Tufts University and in that time won Division III National Championships in three straight years from 2013-2015. The 2015 team went undefeated 51-0 and is the best record of any softball team in NCAA History.

Milligan stepped down last November citing wanting to “Spend more time with her family”, just to pop up less than six months later on the coaching staff at Army. Milligan however is being true to her word, as her husband Jamie Pinzino is the Associate Head Coach with Army Baseball and now work in the same department together. This naturally leads to the thought that Milligan taking the reins of the Army Softball program would be attractive to her as working around your husband each day would definitely lead to more “time” with family.  

While the USMA will most likely open the position for a national search after the conclusion of the season; Could they already have this succession plan in place? Could the timing of DePolo’s departure in October and then the subsequent resignation of Milligan at Tufts the following month be connected? The odd timing of adding Milligan to the coaching staff can’t be denied and could indicate an attempt to get a jump on familiarizing her with the program before taking the reins this summer. Adding her as an assistant first also keeps from further overturning the ship (or tank in this case) with a third head coaching change in a six months. While this could seem a bit farfetched to the naked eye, connecting the dots to put a three-time national championship coach in the Captains (Generals) Chair at West Point doesn’t. 

This week On Deck we sit down with the head coach at Hope International University, Dennis Blas. Since taking over the Royals for the 2016 season, Blas has transformed HIU into one of the top programs in NAIA. In 2019 Blas led HIU to their first Golden State Athletic Conference Championship and a 47-11 record. HIU advanced to the opening round of the NAIA National Championship and its best ranking in school history coming in at No. 6. With the historical season, Blas earned GSAC Coach of the Year honors. Blas has a record of 141-73 through his fourth season skippering the Royals. Before landing in Fullerton Blas served 15 years on the coaching staff at Cypress College. During his time with the Chargers the program won four CCCAA State Championships and 13 Orange Empire Conference Championships. He also had a distinguished career as a coach and administrator at Saint Joseph High School. Blas graduated from California Lutheran University in 1989 and earned his master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University in 2002.

Lee Dobbins: Coach Blas you took over a program at Hope International that has seen unprecedented success since you took charge of the program four years ago. What have been the keys in turning the program from your average NAIA program to a Top 10 type national competitor that we see today?

Dennis Blas: When I accepted the position as Head Softball Coach at HIU, I knew that I needed to change the culture of winning. First, I had to hire strong assistant coaches that believed in my vision and leadership. I then had to begin the recruitment process and focus on talent that would help the team move to the next level in the Golden State Athletic Conference. I came from a very successful program at Cypress College and used this experience and my connections in the softball community to get the name of HIU out to the softball community. My recruitment process included freshmen along with top athletes from local community colleges that could bring experience to my team. I was looking for student-athletes that wanted to work hard on the field and in the classroom. The first year was the hardest since I was hired late in the recruitment season and had to hit the ground running to set the schedule and build a team that first year. Another challenge each year at HIU is securing the best competitive schedule since there are not a lot of NAIA schools on the West Coast. This changed for the team when we started winning more games, and other teams across the country wanted to come play us. It has been truly a pleasure to watch this program grow from the beginning to where it is today. Our Athletic Director and the University Leadership are very supportive of the softball program and continue to make investments in our success. My coaching staff and I have put a lot of hard work in the program from building strength and conditioning programs, setting required study times for the student-athletes, and securing a home playing field. This hard work has paid off, and there is a lot of pride in the HIU softball program today.

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 with NCAA Institutes restricting contact/offers to PSAs until September 1 of their junior years in high school. NAIA is not restricted to any of these recruiting rules and really takes on a “Wild Wild West” mentality in the recruitment of student-athletes. What are your thoughts on the differences? Would you like to see more restrictions for NAIA when it comes to PSA recruitment and contact?

Blas: The only difference I see between the two is contacting the players. I have made it a point not to recruit players too early. I think development is not always there when they are younger and young ladies all mature at different times. So many great players get passed up by Division I & II schools because they had such early commits they did not have room for them. I do not think we need to change the restrictions for the NAIA schools. I feel everybody does a good job of not recruiting too early in the process. When you talk with the players they all tell you they want to go Div. I, so most of the time you just need to keep following them and show interest until they make a final decision.

Dobbins: NAIA Teams seem to get a raw deal in how they are perceived nationally compared to NCAA programs; when in fact many NAIA teams are as good if not better than many programs at the NCAA DI and DII levels. What have been the keys to convince recruits in picking an NAIA program like HIU particularly in the softball rich area like Southern California?  

Blas: I think that being in the hotbed of the softball world in Southern California, you must show future recruits that you take an interest in them as people. Most players like to stay home so their parents can see them play. By going to an NAIA school you are going to finish many time in four years, and during that time will be able to have teacher/student interaction by having small class sizes you get to have a great softball experience. I tell all of our future athletes that I am going to treat them just like my kids. I think that gives some peace to the parents knowing that their daughter is going to be taken care of when they come to HIU.

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. Although this legislation doesn’t encompass NAIA; How has it affected how you recruit? Has this legislation for NCAA programs been an advantage to those in NAIA?

Blas: I think it has been very good. I am always on the lookout for players that are coming back to Southern California and want to continue their softball career and earn a degree. I think people do not always realize that when they go to these big-time schools, there are huge expectations besides them just attending class. Those programs do so much all travel and put so much time into the program just form an operational aspect. The larger size programs are not for everyone and sometimes coming home and going to a small private school is what fits them best. There is a school out there for everyone, and sometimes it just takes a little time for the student-athletes to find their place in a program. Since we have done well nationally the last couple of years the recruits that are coming home know that if they transfer to HIU, they are going to get an excellent softball experience and a solid education.

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?

Blas: I feel the most significant problem has been the obstruction rule for the catchers because nobody calls it consistently. The defense is at a complete disadvantage especially if the throw takes them up the line and they have to make a play on the throw. The batters stepping out of the box has been called so much this year that I feel it has put the officials in a tight spot. We are asking them to get better at calling balls and strikes as well as watching the hitters to make sure their toe is not outside the batter’s box especially in the late innings when the lines have been lost. I just feel with these two rules we need to get more consistency. The slappers have been doing it that way forever, and now in 2018 and 2019 we decide to change it. I am not a fan of those two rule changes that have taken place.

Coach Ralph Raymond didn’t just coach icons, he was an icon in the midst of icons. Coaching such names as Lisa Fernandez, Dot Richardson, Michelle Smith, and a list of Softball Royalty too long to list; He not only guided players, but helped shape the sport into what we see today. Raymond passed away today just days shy of his 95th birthday at his home in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Raymond coached Team USA to two Gold Medals in the first Games that softball was offered as part of the Olympic Program in 1996 in Atlanta, and then again in 2000 at the Sydney Games. He also won five ISF World Championships and captured Gold three times in the Pan American Games leading the Red, White, and Blue. He compiled an international record of 332-9 coaching Team USA.

While guiding the US National Program he also coached the legendary Raybestos Brakettes to 18 Women’s National Championships while compiling a 1,192-162 record.

Softball’s Godfather has reached a milestone, and he did it faster than anyone ever.

University of Arizona Head Coach Mike Candrea scored his 1,600th career victory over the weekend with a 9-1 win over Stanford. Candrea reached the wins plateau faster than any coach in any sport in NCAA Division I History. He is one of only two softball coaches to reach 1,600 victories.

Candrea is an eight time National Championship Coach and also lead the U.S. Olympic Team to a Gold and Silver Medals in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

Candrea is in his 34th season as coach of the Wildcats and shows no signs of slowing down. UA currently sits at 38-7 overall on the seasons. The No. 7 ranked Wildcats also sit undefeated atop the PAC-12 with a 15-0 record.

This week On Deck we sit down with the head coach of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, Kelley Green. Coach Green is in her 10^th season in-charge at CCU and has lead the transition of the program from the Big South Conference to the Sun Belt Conference. The Chants have consistently dialed up winning seasons during Green’s time leading the program. The 2012 season has proven to be the Chants most successful season under Kelley as the program collected 44 wins on the season while winning the Big South Conference Tournament Championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to leading Coastal Carolina, Green spent 10 seasons as head coach at Lock Haven University. While at LHU she led the Eagles to two Division II National Championships in in 2006 and 2009 while posting a 346-134 record. Before landing at Lock Haven she served as an assistant coach at Penn State. Green a standout All-Big 10 and All-American athlete at Northwestern University also competed professionally for the Virginia Roadsters.  

Lee Dobbins: Coach Green you took over the program at Coastal Carolina after the retirement of Coach Jess Dannelly after he lead the program for 22 season stretch; Along with that transition you have gone through a lot of expansion and growth in the CCU Athletic Department, including transition from the smaller Big South Conference to a Group of Five Conference in the Sun Belt. In your 10 years at Coastal how has this growth and expansion helped you transition the program into what we see today?

Kelley Green: Our transition from the Big South to the Sun Belt has been exciting. We certainly enjoyed our time in the Big South and experienced so much success over the years. Moving to the Sun Belt certainly has had its challenges early on, but we see those as opportunities. We now feel we are building a program to get to Oklahoma City and that’s exciting. Our President has backed this move 100% and provided us with the resources necessary to reach new heights. We have had upgrades to our facilities, increased budgets and overwhelming support. All the programs here at Coastal have benefited tremendously. The growth on both the academic and athletic side is impressive and Conway is a great place to be. This allows us to target a new level of recruit as we move forward. We feel like we are building something very special here and it’s fantastic to be part of it.

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? 

Green: The new recruiting rule is such a mindful move for our sport. I’m not sure that we have seen the affects yet in our program because we had recruiting classes committed for a while before the rule, but we expect it to be a very positive change. We now have more time to track athletes and see them develop. It benefits the prospect even more though. A ninth or 10^th grader no longer has to stress about making a college decision. They can just play, work on their skills and develop on and off the field. They will now be making their decisions at a higher level of maturity.

Dobbins: Being in the hotbed area that encompasses “SEC/ACC Country”, what have you seen as both challenges and benefits in recruiting to a school like Coastal that falls very much in-between that Mid-Major and Power 5 level institute?  What have you and your staff done to carve out your recruiting niche to get top-recruits to pick the Chanticleers? 

Green: It certainly is tough to recruit against Power 5 and other top mid-major programs. Coastal offers such a unique experience though so we use that to our advantage. We may be considered a mid-major, but when you are on campus, you get a big-time feel. We have so much pride on campus. We have teal and Chanticleers everywhere! Our facilities are top notch and there are certainly not many universities that can boast being so close to the beach. You just can’t go wrong with palm trees in the outfield. The entire campus is so beautiful. The people are the best part about Coastal though. From our President to all our support staff, people truly care about each other. Once we get a recruit on campus, they feel this right away.

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?

Green: It’s disappointing to see the transfer rates so high. I struggle with formulating an opinion on this because I believe everyone should be able to make choices to make their life better, but I also feel like there is a lack of commitment now. I see both sides of it. Each transfer has their own reason and individual story though, so I try not to judge. Transfer rates were already increasing before the new rule, but now it will skyrocket. That’s the reality of it, so we will be prepared to adjust as necessary.

Dobbins: Collegiate Softball 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 has changed the way the game is played and how you run your program? What is the next progression of promotion of the game/advancement would you like to see as a head coach?

Green: Access to more media has only improved our game. I learn so much from watching what others are doing. My phone is filled with hitting GIFs! Scouting an opponent is so easy now as I usually just have to turn on ESPN to find games. We definitely go into a game more prepared than ever. Of course, so do our opponents! The media growth in our game will only continue to make our sport better too. With all the access kids have now, they will grow up watching the best hitters and pitchers and look to emulate. This will lead to an even greater skill set over a wider population of athletes. I hope the see the increased coverage leads to more opportunities professionally in our sport. I would also expect to see replay emerge in the next few years throughout all divisions and conferences.