Inside Pitch: A Changing of the Guard in the Collegiate Coaching World

It’s been an interesting year in the college softball world: a time for saying “hello,” as the Women’s College World Series returned to record-setting TV numbers on ESPN after the 2020 hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, and a time for saying “goodbye” as some of the longest tenured and most successful DI coaching legends have stepped down.

Extra Inning Softball contributor Justin McLeod of Justin’s World of Softball shares his thoughts on the retirements of some of the greats in the game—key “Program Architects” as Justin calls them— in our latest edition of his weekly “Inside Pitch” column…

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Tennessee co-head coach Ralph Weekly’s retirement was announced on Wednesday afternoon, marking an end to a stellar coaching career that included two Olympic gold medals and seven trips to the Women’s College World Series.

Weekly’s legacy as a coach is already being celebrated, and he follows a trend that has become more and more prevalent over the last few years: this summer alone, Weekly is the fourth coach from an exclusive group to announce his retirement.

Earlier in June, Arizona’s Mike Candrea; Georgia’s Lu Harris-Champer; and San Diego State’s Kathy Van Wyk each announced their respective retirements.

I refer to that exclusive group as “Program Architects;” coaches whose names are immediately recognizable with the programs that they led for so long. Coaches who built their programs from nothing, or from very little, and built a legacy for themselves in the process.

Consider Margo Jonker at Central Michigan, who retired in 2019.

Jonker spent four decades leading the Chippewas, to oft-forgotten tremendous success in the late 20th century and left such a legacy behind upon her retirement that CMU’s softball stadium bears her name.

Or take Sandy Montgomery at SIU-Edwardsville.

Montgomery led SIUE to a Division II national championship, and then not only led the team through the transition to Division I but had the Cougars as one of the “First Four Out” of the NCAA tournament just a few years later.

The list is long and includes:

• Sandy Pearsall at Louisville
• Connie Clark at Texas
• Maria Dibernardi at Villanova
• Veronica Wiggins at Florida A&M

These are just a few of those architects who have stepped away from the collegiate coaching world in recent years. All spent decades coaching softball but also worked especially hard behind the scenes to build their programs from the ground up.

Even as they enjoy their own retirements, the impacts that so many of these coaches left behind are innumerable:

• Softball fans and Tennessee alumni alike will not soon forget Ralph Weekly’s directness and “grandfather figure” personality.
• Lu Harris-Champer had unending dedication for her team, but even moreso for the young women who were part of it.
• For so many coaches, Mike Candrea modeled what a coach is “supposed” to look like.

While we see this changing of the guard slowly take place across Division I softball, the legacies these legends leave behind will continue to play a considerable role in shaping the game for the next generation of coaches and leaders.

— Justin McLeod, Extra Inning Softball Correspondent