The Player Who Forever Inspired New Wolfpack Head Coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift

On Saturday it was announced that Jennifer Patrick-Swift, the highly successful coach at St. Francis University over the past seven seasons, would be the new head coach at North Carolina State.

Extra Inning Softball spoke with the new Wolfpack coach Saturday evening and she admitted that, while she’s excited for the new position, it came with a lot of tears saying goodbye to players and others tied to St. Francis.

“It’s time and I’m super excited about the opportunity, but it was very emotional at the same time. I’ve cried a lot over the last 24 hours, especially talking to the players because those are our babies.”

During her tenure at the university, Patrick-Swift led the Red Flash to its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament (twice) and in the last two seasons coached St. Francis to Northeast College Athletic Conference titles.

Over the seven years she led the program, she averaged over 32 wins per season.

As detailed in the official Wolfpack release on her hiring, Patrick-Swift finished her coaching run at St. Francis on a 38-game win streak, which is the fourth-longest streak in NCAA Division I history and over the last two season the Red Flash was just one of two teams (Florida State in 2017 and Oklahoma in 2018) to go undefeated in conference play.

Her team was known for its power bats and led the nation this year in home runs with 83 heading into the NCAA Tournament where it lost a 1-0 game in the Scottsdale Regional to the Univ. of Arizona.

The coach also has ties to North Carolina: she was a standout first baseman at Methodist University, an hour and a half drive from Raleigh, where North Carolina State is located and her husband, Patrick, is from Williamston.

Her success on the field is impressive and with 14 of 15 players scheduled to return for the Wolfpack—and more than 90 percent of its pitching innings and at-bats returning—she has some experience to work with.

But it was a player that she never got to coach, Mikayla Focht, who Patrick-Swift says helped define her as a coach… and as a person.

Focht was an all-state power hitter from Hollidaysburg Area (Pennsylvania) High who signed with St. Francis in the fall of 2016 and looked to have a bright future with the Red Flash.

Tragically, the three-time All-District player was killed in an ATV accident on April 14, 2017 just months before she would put on her Red Flash jersey as a freshman.

“Mikayla was a fantastic person and it’s important to make sure everyone remembers that,” Patrick-Swift says as she begins to tell the story of the young athlete from Pennsylvania who will always hold a special place in her heart.”

“Mikayla is a part of me and always will be. As I’m getting to know my new team (at North Carolina State), I will tell them that who I am—and turned into as a coach and a person—is because of Mikayla and what she embodied on and off the field.”

“With SFU being my first Division I job, Mikayla was my first early recruiting commitment.  I took the job there in July 2011 and in January 2012 we held our first clinic which was where I saw Mikayla for the first time.  At that point she was in the 8th grade.”

“When we got to the offensive part of the camp and I saw Mikayla take her first few swings, I knew she was something special and that we had to have her at SFU.  From there the recruiting process began.  From our first conversation after the camp that day, I can still remember the huge smile on her face and the glow in her eye when we told her we really liked what we saw in her and wanted to talk about her being a part of our softball program.”

“It wasn’t long after that we got the call that she told she knew in her heart that Saint Francis was where she wanted to be. From that call on, Mikayla and her parents were all in.  She never missed a clinic we had and each and every year we saw her get better, and better, and knew we had found an unbelievable player and person right in our backyard.”

“Mikayla bled Saint Francis.  To this day, I don’t think I ever had a recruit or a player that loved our softball program and Saint Francis as much as she did.  Because she came to all of our camps and a lot of our games, everyone on the team knew her well. Also, we had several players on our team that grew up either playing against her or with her in travel ball.”

I’ll never forget the day we found out when the accident happened.  We had just swept Robert Morris at home, games to which Mikayla and her parents were supposed to attend.  After we finished the huddle, my assistant pulled me aside and said to me “Mikayla was killed last night.”

I got numb immediately and confused and said, “What?” And he said it again: “Mikayla Focht was killed last night.” And I just dropped to my knees right there on the field.  We knew we had to be the ones to tell the team, so we did, and it was awful.  We lost one of our own, a teammate, a family member, someone we already looked at as another daughter.”

“The days, weeks, months, and still now, time that has followed has been life changing for me as a coach and a person, our softball program, and our university.  Those among the university community that did not even know her could feel the person they knew she must have been.  For those of us that knew her, our hearts were forever altered and a permanent scar will remain.”

“Mikayla was the type of person that made you want to be a better person.  Her love of life, her love of people, and her love of God and her faith radiated from her without her even having to try.  She was the girl that lit up the room when she walked into it.  On the softball field, she did the same thing.  With Mikayala on the field you just hoped the situation came down to her having the bat in her hands because she wanted it and she was going to find a way to come through.

Our program’s keystone is the acronym “PRIDE” which stands for Positive, Relentless, Integrity, Drive, and Excellence.  We put that together as a team in 2014.  At the time we wanted to describe what we wanted to look like as a program and what we wanted to hold ourselves and each other to as individual players and a coaching staff.”

“We wanted to set the standards to which all players coming into our program knew they had to exhibit and all players that finished their careers and left our program would continue exhibiting throughout their lives.  We didn’t realize it at the time, but everything we were describing was who Mikayla was as a person, a player, and a teammate.”

“Mikayla was truly a coach’s once-in-a-lifetime recruit.  While she never got to wear a Red Flash jersey on the field, we provided one to have with her until the end of time.  The other we gave to her parents to have because I made the decision that there was and will only ever be one #4 on our team.  Mikayla took the #4 with her and because in my mind, there will never be another player that could live up to the person and player she was, the #4 will no longer be an option for future players, as in the minds of the players and our program there was only one #4.”

“Her jersey has hung in our dugout in every game since the time of her passing and it will continue to be there for the next three years that she should have been wearing it on the field.  Her name and number were on our lineup cards this year and will continue to be for the next three years.  Her helmet dawning the #4 remains in her cubby at the field and her bat with the #4 sticker stands tall in the bat rack.”

“She may be gone but she will never be forgotten.  As a coach, I try to coach every day to honor her.  As players in our program, we remind each of them every day to play to honor her.

The reminder comes with a slight change to our keystone as it now is #4PRIDE.  We added the #4 ahead of PRIDE because that is exactly what Mikayla stood for and all that we as players and coaches strive every day to be.”

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Final note: now that she has left St. Francis, Patrick-Swift says she will not let the memory of Mikayla Focht be forgotten, ideally at both universities.

“I’m still very close with the administration at St. Francis and it’s my hope to be able to retire her #4 there so no one ever wears it, as no one is wearing it there now.”

“And when I get to Raleigh, I will tell the team about the person and player she was and when we form our new culture I will ask the players if they will let me put her #4 in front of the new acronym so we can play and represent what Mikayla embodied.”

“I want them to always remember that this is something bigger than us, this is something that is bigger than the team and even the sport.”