New softball coach?

[JohnnieBallgame]

Oh, and another piece of advice. Consider hiring a close personal friend of Mark Griggs as an assistant or build a positive relationship with Mark himself and see if you can keep some of the high quality local players at home!

:goshocks:

[SFL]

What they say:
Emporia State Director of Athletics Kent Weiser:
"Coach Bredbenner established herself as one of the best softball coaches in the country while here at Emporia State. Throughout her six seasons, ESU has become one of the most successful and respected softball programs in the NCAA."
"It is tough to see Kristi leave ESU, but the opportunity at Wichita State is a great one. I appreciated the professionalism of WSU Athletics and Eric Sexton throughout their search, and believe they have made an excellent choice.""As sad and difficult as it is to see Coach Bredbenner leave Emporia State, we are excited for her with this new opportunity at WSU. She knows how to build and lead a championship program, on the field and in the classroom. I'm confident she'll do a great job for the Shockers."
"Emporia State Softball has consistently played for championships under Coach Bredbenner's leadership. She recruits quality student-athletes, who are not only great players, but great students as well. Her teams have been great representatives of Hornet Athletics, and I'm grateful to have had the chance to work with her for the past six years."

[luvthoseshox]

Oh, and another piece of advice. Consider hiring a close personal friend of Mark Griggs as an assistant or build a positive relationship with Mark himself and see if you can keep some of the high quality local players at home!

:goshocks:

Good luck with that!

[flyingMoose]

Though the current consensus appears to be in JohnnieB's "underwhelmed" camp, I will point out again that Coach Bredbenner's hire is in the Brent Vigness mold: he has Midwestern roots, did well at D-II Assumption College in Massachusetts, came to Creighton and has done very well there.

I am looking forward to her doing well at Wichita State.

I would compare it more to the Judy Favor mold. Female coach from a successful D2 program in the mid-west and has the same coaching style.

I would quibble with a few details: Columbus, Georgia, is not in the Midwest. I don't recall Columbus State being *that* successful, but I am not interested in doing the research right now. I think Kennesaw State was the big dog in the D-II softball world in the South fifteen years ago.

But "coaching style" is the part you wanted faithful readers to pick up on, and I have no idea in that area.

[Hovpen]

There are a lot more players who can play at the WSU level in our area than just those who play for the Mustangs.

Had a coach been in place last week at this time, there was a very good pitcher who got a release from her previous D-1 college that WSU will see next season if my sources are correct that the Shocks could have had a shot at.

[Orion is a Shocker fan]

She would seem to get the most out of her players, at least.

[Snapshot9]

She has nice credentials. Lets see how she does on the field.

[ABC]

Jim Tressel (tattoo gate not withstanding) did a decent job at Ohio State coming from a Div II school.

[1972Shocker]

Iowa State hired Coach Bredbenner's predecessor at Emporia State. She is still at Iowa State although she has not had a great deal of success at Iowa State, atlhough that has to be a tough gig.

Always difficult to predict how a coach will do jumping from D-II to D-I.

She has gotten it done very well at the D-II level and she does have a few years of assistant coaching experience at D-1 UC-Santa Barbara.

I think that this is a hire that will just have to play out for 2 or 3 seasons before we know whether it was the right move or not.

Welcome aboard and good luck Coach Bredbenner.

:goshocks:

[flyingMoose]

Iowa State hired Coach Bredbenner's successor at Emporia State.

Predecessor, not successor, of course. Stacey Gemeinhardt, a Mizzou alum.

[flyingMoose]

The article from the Eagle:

http://www.kansas.com/2011/06/07/1881605/shockers-tab-bredbenner-to-fix.html

[luvthoseshox]

I like that she isn't going to clean house, but work with who she has. Hopefully, she can do what she needs to do to turn this program around.

[1972Shocker]

Iowa State hired Coach Bredbenner's successor at Emporia State.

Predecessor, not successor, of course. Stacey Gemeinhardt, a Mizzou alum.

:oops: Corrected.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Bredbenner definitely has a challenge on her hands next year.

We lose by far and away our best two hitters in Heather (0.364) and Jamie (0.341) from a team that batted only 0.262 (without Heather and Jamie the team batted 0.236).

Our pitching is near the bottom of the MVC statistically as pointed out in today's Eagle article.

Personally I am not expecting a whole lot next season. Hopefully, we will see steady improvement during the season. A have a hard time seeing a significant change in the win-loss columns. I think it will take Coach Bredbenner a few seasons to get this ship righted although I would love to be proven wrong on that outlook.

A 0.500 performance next spring would be an upside surprise, a significant accomplishment and a welcome step in the right direction.

[Quick Pitch]

Watching the hitters swings, their approach at the plate, the defense, and the pitchers pitch selection, a good coach can take this team without adding players and play .500 ball just by teaching them the right way.
Sexton was quoted as saying he is impressed with Bredbenners player development abilities. This should be an easy task considering where our players are at the present time.
I predict that we will be at least a .500 team next year.