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ABOUT
From 2012-15, Samantha Santillo was a regular presence in the Robert Morris lineup. She helped lead the Colonials to a trio of Northeast Conference titles during her career and also won the league’s Golden Glove award in 2012, ’13, and ’14, the only three-time winner of the award to this day.
After college, Santillo coached high school softball before joining the collegiate coaching ranks as the head coach at Monroe College, a junior college in New York. She spent four years with the Mustangs, including setting a new program single-season record for wins in 2019. In late July, Santillo returned to her alma mater when she was named as the new assistant coach at Robert Morris.
Extra Inning Softball: When did you know that you wanted to pursue coaching as your career path?
Samantha Santillo: All I have ever wanted to do was play ball. The game was my first love. When I finished my 4 years as a player at Robert Morris, I desperately wanted to keep the game in my life. More importantly, I wanted to positively contribute to the game and to the young women who share the same love for the game.
Extra Inning Softball: Describe your coaching style. What do you feel are your biggest strengths as a coach?
Samantha Santillo: I’m very passionate and bring high energy to my coaching style! I’m extremely competitive and big on accountability for both my players and me. I think my biggest strength is making personal connection with all my players. I think to make a lasting impact, players need to know that I am their biggest fan and fiercest supporter on and off the field.
Extra Inning Softball: How valuable is the experience of having been a head coach and getting that experience under your belt early in your career?
Samantha Santillo: The short answer is invaluable. The four years I spent at Monroe College gave me so much perspective and experience in running a program, growing a program, and managing the ins/outs of a program. I was lucky to have a great support staff at Monroe helping me navigate the uncharted waters, but my players were the greatest teachers. I grew as a coach, they grew as players, and together we learned so much.
Extra Inning Softball: What drew you to the RMU position and made it attractive to you? How big of a draw was getting to coach at your alma mater?
Samantha Santillo: I was ready to step back into the NCAA after spending time at the JuCo level. I knew I was ready to step into an assistant role. I know I have a lot of learning and growing to do. I am looking forward to working with head coach Jexx Varner and gaining from his experience. Plus, I’m a Pittsburgh girl! Robert Morris is not only my alma mater, but Pittsburgh is my hometown. Having the opportunity to come back and be part of this softball program, Robert Morris University, and the City of Pittsburgh is a dream come true!
Extra Inning Softball: After coaching at the JuCo level, now that you are a D1 school, does your approach change when you’re recruiting and building relationships or is it fairly ‘par for the course’ no matter the level that you are coaching at?
Samantha Santillo: Recruiting is one of the areas I have been looking forward to growing as a coach. I am very excited to learn more about the ways in which the approach may or may not be different at this level. However, I know that as a person and a coach I am very open about who I am, and what I am about so making connections and building relationships from my personal perspective will remain very similar.
Extra Inning Softball: The last couple of years have not been easy for anyone in the coaching world… how have the challenges of the mid-pandemic times affected and influenced you and how you do what you do as a coach?
Samantha Santillo: The last couple of years in coaching has made me a much more patient, present, and empathetic person. I think it can be easy at times to take for granted the things that seem “automatic” in our life, softball was certainly an automatic for me, so when it abruptly came to end my perspective shifted. I had a different appreciation for the game itself and time with my players. Time on and off the field became a gift that I did not want to take for granted again.
Extra Inning Softball: Let’s say we’re having this conversation one year from now, once you have a full season under at RMU under your belt. What needs to have happened during that season for you to be able to say ‘this was a successful year’?
Samantha Santillo: I expect, and I am sure the players expect, a conference championship this year. RMU was runner up last year in the Horizon League and we will work hard to not repeat! I also need all my players to feel that no matter where this year takes us, that we all finish it smarter, stronger, and more connected as a team than how we entered it.