Rounding Third Softball

After 19 seasons and 354 wins, Leslie King has announced her retirement as head coach at Penn. King went 175-148-1 in the Ivy League winning four straight South Division titles from 2012-15. In 2013 the Quakers advanced to the program’s first NCAA Regional after wining the Ivy outright. Associate head coach Danielle Gonzales will serve as the program’s interim head coach this season.

East Mississippi Community College Head Coach Whitney Hawkins has departed the program to rejoin the coaching staff at DI North Alabama. She led the program at EMCC for the 2022 season. Hawkins trades one set of Lions for another where she achieved great success in her first tour from 2014-2016. UNA went 130-41 during that time winning the DII National Championship in 2016 as she directed the Lions pitching staff.

Ashley Obrest has joined the coaching staff at Northern Kentucky. The former Boston College Head Coach had been serving on the staff across town at Boston U the past three seasons. She will be responsible for the catching and infield corps for the Norse. Obrest collected 200 wins in her eight seasons leading BC. She also had stints on staff with programs at Colgate and Concordia.

Amherst College Head Coach Jessica Johnson has announced her retirement. Johnson coached the Mammoths for nine seasons amassing a 160-70 record while also making three NCAA Postseason appearances, including a fifth-place World Series finish in 2015.

The timing of the retirement has been called into question publicly including by some of Johnson’s former colleagues within Amherst’s Conference. Hall of Fame and Williams College Coach Kris Herman took to Social Media after the institutes official announcement. Herman has indicated there was some sort of institutional investigation which resulted in Johnson’s retirement and not a resignation. Herman said coaches within the NESCAC had made inquires, yet no information had been made available about the “mysterious” move.

RTS reached out to Amherst for official comment and details of any sort of investigation, and was only referenced to the official institutional press release.

RTS has learned that co-head coaches Adam and Annalyn Burch have departed LSU Alexandria. The Burch coaching duo spent five seasons leading the Generals amassing a 109-81 overall record and making one NAIA Postseason appearance.

Journeyman Coach Jake Schumann has been appointed the new head coach at DII Ferris State. He replaces Kristin Janes who resigned in September. Schumann has multiple head coaching stops rebuilding programs at Carl Albert State, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M Kingsville and Florida International. He also served on staffs at Iowa and Ole Miss. Ferris State finished the 2022 season 19-32 and 9-17 in conference play.

RTS is saddened to report that Kansas City coaching icon Galen Struve has died. He passed on December 16 at the age of 75. Struve led programs at William Jewell College, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Avila University, and Rockhurst University all located in the Metro KC area. He was also one of the top clinicians in the area having taught and coached hundreds of pitchers through their careers in the circle.

Less than nine months after indicating they would add sports to their institutional offerings, Holy Patriot University has announced it is scrapping athletics. The announcement came after an outcry of complaints from student-athletes and parents on HPU not delivering on promises such as proper training and practice facilities, and lack of suitable competition sites. The pop-up/non-accredited institution in Beaumont, Texas that operates out of an old church had already started their 2022-23 sports season, hiring coaches and recruiting student-athletes last summer. Softball was to launch this spring. Having no affiliation with any collegiate sports organizations (NCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, or USCAA), the team’s games would have been counted as exhibitions against affiliated institutes. University President David Angeron cited “three-quarters of HPU students as being late and delinquent on tuition payments” as to the move to axe sports. Holy Patriot is not allowed to offer Federal Financial Aid due to their status of being non-accredited.

Former New Zealand Men’s National Team member Karl Gollan has been named head coach at Augustana College in Illinois. Gollan takes charge after being elevated from an assistant coach role with the DIII program. The former four-time All-World selection replaces Lori Duncan who stepped down due to family and health concerns, but has agreed to stay on as a part-time assistant coach.

East Tennessee State has named Cheryl Milligan interim head coach. Milligan was named to the position after spending the past three seasons as head coach at Army. Her biggest coaching success came at Tufts University where she won three straight DIII National Championships between 2013-2015. In 18 years as a head coach Milligan has compiled a 540-208 record. She replaces Belinda Hendrix who was dismissed as ETSU’s head coach in November.