Hannah Flippen steps down from coaching for a shot at the 2021 Olympics

She's without a doubt the greatest softball player to ever don a Utah softball uniform.

After bleeding Ute red and white, assistant coach Hannah Flippen is stepping down from coaching to pursue "future personal endeavors," which includes a shot at the 2021 Olympics.

"I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that I have had at Utah," Flippen said in a statement on the Utah Athletic Website. "The staff, department, campus and city are unmatched. It is the best place to be. I am lucky to call myself a Ute and be a part of this amazing program.

Thank you to Coach A for being a mentor to me while I was playing and during the beginning of my coaching career. It is very difficult to step back from this program and coaching the Utes but I am unbelievably excited to dive into my professional playing career and pour all of my heart into it. Thank you to the University of Utah and Utah Softball. I will miss it all so much but I will always be watching and cheering from the stands. Go Utes!"

Flippen is stepping down from coaching so she can focus more on her athletic career and hopefully make the U.S. National team ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

She also recently signed with Athletes Unlimited and will play in the inaugural softball season, which is set to begin in late August. Flippen currently plays for the Scrap Yard Dawgs but that may now be in question after the team sent out an inappropriate tweet regarding the BLM movement, something Flippen wholeheartedly supports and stands by.

I’m embarrassed and broken. I do not support the comments made by @ScrapYardFP. I will not stand with this organization. I believe that Black Lives Matter.
— Hanns (@hannahFlippen) June 23, 2020

Prior to Flippen's coaching career, she was arguably the best softball player to ever come through Utah's program.

She was a three-time All-American, the first ever for the Utes, and led the squad to the NCAA Tournament three times, including back-to-back Super Regional appearances during the 2016-17 seasons. She owns Utah career records for runs, hits and batting average, while being a four-time all-Pac-12 honoree.

But one of her best accomplishments stems from the 2017 season when she became the first player in conference history to not only be named the Pac-12 player of the year, but the conference's defensive player of the year as well.

Upon graduation, Flippen was drafted 17th overall in the fourth round of the 2017 NPF Draft by the Scrap Yard Dawgs, helping lead them to a National Pro Fastpitch championship. She then signed a one-year contract with the Chicago Bandits on Feb. 12, 2019, helping lead them to a runner-up finish — before resigning with the Scrap Yard Dawgs.

“It is very difficult to try and sum up what Hannah has meant to our program in a few sentences,” Utah head coach Amy Hogue said in a statement. “She was an amazing student-athlete, a great coach and an even better human being. We have been blessed to have her as part of our program for the last six years. She represented the Utes extremely well in all kinds of different arenas.

Even though she will be missed tremendously, her impact has been great. She and her teammates elevated our program on the field and Hannah continued to move us upward when became an assistant coach. I am in full support of her decision to pursue her professional softball career. This will be a phenomenal experience for her to continue to play the game she loves and to spend this year training for the Olympics.”

After being a part of Utah's coaching staff the past two seasons and playing in the National Pro Fastpitch league the previous three years, Flippen is now ready to embark on her new journey and hopefully represent Team USA on the world's biggest stage.