When the Extra Elite 100 Club Team Rankings are launched in the next few months, it’s a pretty good bet that Terry Clemmer’s Oklahoma Athletics 2024 Madden/Clemmer team will be somewhere high in the rankings after the first-year 16U team finished in the Elite 8 of the Alliance Fastpitch Nationals held in Indianapolis earlier this year.
Coach Clemmer has produced winning teams and winning players, with more than 30 of his softball athletes either having gone on to play at the collegiate level or currently being committed.
The Cahoma, Texas native has been the head coach for both of his daughters’ team throughout their careers as Lindzi is currently a senior at Lubbock Christian College and Mia players for her father on their A’s travel ball team.
“There is not a coach out there that has as much passion for the game and for coaching like Coach Terry Clemmer,” says one national softball scout. “He cares for and loves each player like they’re his own daughters. Terry coaches hard, but loves even harder. He always says ‘If I’m not hard on you, then you should worry!’ but he will always pick you back up after being hard on you.”
Toby Chism, who works at National Scouting Report (NSR) and is also Oklahoma-based, has gotten to know Clemmer well and raves about what he has seen on and off the softball fields of competition.
“Terry cares about so much more than softball,” Chism begins. “He cares about their character, academics and life in general. He does grade checks and even likes to know when each family makes it home after team practices or games. Terry is the first to know when girls go on visits and get offers and he wants every single girl to succeed in softball, in the classroom and in life. He is their biggest cheerleader and is the one who’s the loudest and celebrating the hardest after every home run, hit, score, passed test, straight A’s, etc. Coach Terry absolutely loves being these girls’ coach and wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Along with his dedication and passion to the game and those that play for him, Clemmer is also famous for another reason: his energizing quotes he frequently uses between the lines to motivate his young athletes.
Here are just a few of them:
- “Loose and tension free!” (meaning be relaxed in batter box during hitting)
- “Have fun!” (said on a daily basis on and off the field as he wants his players to enjoy the game.
- Be GREAT!” (a note he sends to his daughters and wife every single morning; Mia, in fact, is getting this put on her new custom glove!)
- “Be a 5 percenter!” (Coach Clemmer explains: “95 percent of people are at home doing nothing so be that elite 5 percenter and get better!”
- “We are Softball Players!” (emphasizing that every one on the roster is a team player not a position player).
There’s a great story regarding the last quote, too: one time when the Athletics were a first year 14U squad attending a team camp at Oklahoma University, they came off the field and were greeted by Sooner Head Coach Patty Gasso.
The story is picked up at that point by one of the A’s coaches:
“Patty was talking to the team and asked one of the girls what position she played. The girl went to answer, but Coach Terry stopped her. He asked the player: ‘What do we say?’ and she responded: ‘We are Softball Players!’ It’s funny: only Terry would interrupt six-time National Champion Coach Patty Gasso to make sure his young player said the right thing!”
With the help of the A’s coaching staff, Coach Clemmer and his assistant coaches already have multiple collegiate commitments for the 2024 class and a very promising 2025 & 2026 class which are already making some noise in the college world.
Adds Chism:
“This should tell you something… the A’s program has some incredible athletes and amazing coaches and they’re definitely doing something right!”
Coach Clemmer has established an impressive resume in coaching following his own playing career in baseball that saw him being named All-State, Big Country Player of the Year and District Player of the Year in his prep days out of Sweetwater, Texas.
He continued his playing career into college, first at New Mexico Junior College where he was a JC national batting champion (.487) before finishing at Texas State University. Between the two programs, Clemmer was a two-time 1st Team All-Conference honoree and two-time conference champion
After his playing days were over, the father of two married to wife Leticia helped develop his own girls—Lindzi and Mia—in softball and decided to channel his efforts into teaching kids to love the game as much as he does. It’s been 20-plus years of coaching travel ball teams and those around him would say the passionate leader of young people has many, many more years ahead of him in the game
Says one parent:
“As with any sport, there is more to it than just catching, throwing, and running and Coach Terry not only coaches our girls in softball, but in life. He takes his volunteer role very seriously and our current team will attest to that seriousness with their command of seven-hour practices and their two-hour replay talks after a game.”
“Coach Terry always holds his softball team to the highest standard, whether it is in a game, practice, or in school, and each girl is encouraged to give 110 percent every second.”
And, you can be certain, that if a player starts to slip a bit in effort or intensity, Coach Clemmer will be there to lift them up with an energizing saying or quote to get them back into the groove!
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball President & Executive Editor
