Breaking Down Friday’s College Softball Head Coaching Hires

Friday was a busy day on the coaching carousel. Four Division 1 head coaching hires were announced, in addition to a 5th that snuck in on Thursday evening.

In a hurry and just want to catch up on the headlines? Here’s the short version: Dedeann Pendelton-Helm is the new head coach at Northern Colorado after spending 17 years on staff at Colorado State. Brittany Miller is the new head coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, which will make the jump up to Division 1 on July 1st. Kristina McSweeney has been hired as the new head coach at South Dakota State. Jenny Rohn is taking over as head coach at Western Michigan, her alma mater. And Jordan Clark is the new head coach at Florida Atlantic.

Pendelton-Helm is a fixture on the softball scene in Colorado, and she’ll simply be donning a new polo on the recruiting trail and calling a new program home. Well-respected and long-tenured, Pendelton-Helm interestingly takes over a job that was vacated four years ago by her now-former fellow staff member at CSU, Shana Easley. An easy, obvious hire for UNC, Pendelton-Helm is a really good get for the Northern Colorado program that has tasted some success in recent memory without being able to sustain it.

Miller was part of the Texas Tech coaching staff the last two years, but after the oddly-timed events of May, found herself on the job hunt. Miller is a solid pitching coach and her most impressive results came during her tenure on staff at Loyola Marymount. She developed some arms well while in Los Angeles, but never had much of a chance to do the same in Lubbock. It’s the first head coaching job of her career, and she’ll be tasked also with guiding the program through the transition to the Division 1 level.

A&M-Commerce has also seen a number of players enter the transfer portal this summer, with several following former interim head coach Gay McNutt to Texas Woman’s University. Miller has some projects in front of her and her work cut out for her, but the potential for the Lions in the Southland and at the D1 level is substantial.

Kristina McSweeney’s hiring at South Dakota State is an interesting one. The Jackrabbits are in position to win immediately, and while the winter cold of South Dakota is a less-than-ideal factor, SDSU should have had a good pool of candidates. McSweeney has no ties to the north or Midwest regions – the parts of the country that have been the breed and butter of the SDSU recruiting base under Krista Wood.

McSweeney has had some success at Arkansas Tech, reaching the D2 NCAA tournament four times, but there will be some questions about the hiring that might be answered only on the field.

On to Rohn, a prodigal daughter returning home, so to speak. A WMU alumnus, Rohn paid her dues in the coaching world, coaching in the south and the northeast before ultimately finding her way back to Kalamazoo. Two stints on staff at Harvard, first as a volunteer assistant and second assistant, then as the top assistant in her most recent stint, Rohn also added head coaching experience during a year at Covenant College, a Division III school in Georgia.

Taking over for a long-tenured coach like Kathy Leitke isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – no matter the level of success, when a coach has led a program for decades, it can be tough to follow behind as the “next act”. Rohn has a Bronco history behind her, though, and has paid her dues en route to a D1 head coaching role.

The announcement that rounded out Friday’s slate of hirings was Jordan Clark heading to Florida Atlantic. The Ohio State hitting coach spent four years with the Buckeyes and previously had a 3-year stint on staff at Arkansas. Clark’s name circulated for some head coaching positions the last two summers, but she remained in Columbus until the Owls proved to be the program able to lure her away.

Clark’s offense buoyed the Ohio State program in the latter portion of the 2022 season, marking a sharp turnaround from a 2021 campaign that saw some struggles in the conference-only year.

Following Friday’s slate of hirings, there are 15 Division 1 head coaching openings remaining.