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College Softball Has a Coaching Problem. Could Pro Softball Be Part of the Solution?

As allegations involving college softball coaches and student-athletes mount, the sport must examine its coaching pipeline, university hiring practices and whether professional softball could provide athletes with a healthier path to adulthood before entering coaching.
Maren Angus|
The on-deck circle features the WCWS logo during the NCAA Softball Women's College World Series at Devon Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-Imagn Images
The on-deck circle features the WCWS logo during the NCAA Softball Women's College World Series at Devon Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

UAB. Gardner-Webb. Cal.

Three college softball programs that have each been connected to allegations involving inappropriate relationships between female coaches and female student-athletes over the last three months.

The details of each investigation are different and all three resulted in coaching changes.

When stories like these begin to accumulate, it is fair to ask bigger questions about the sport itself: Are we asking some people to become leaders before they have had enough time to learn how to lead? What is the vetting process like, and are coaches being truthful with recommendations?

This is when professional softball enters the chat because softball desperately needs Athletes Unlimited Softball League and/or the Professional Softball League to work.

The obvious reason why is that elite players deserve a chance to make a living playing the sport they love.

However, there is another reason.

Professional softball could also give young athletes something they don't have in the current system: time.

Time to become adults. Time to live outside the college athletics bubble. Time to earn a paycheck. Time to manage a career and navigate a workplace. Time to experience leadership from a different perspective. 

And most importantly, time to mature before deciding whether coaching college softball is the career they want.

Right now, softball has a remarkably compressed athlete-to-coach pipeline. The majority of the AUSL is coaching softball as a full-time job, whether it’s as a graduate assistant, assistant coach or head coach. 

It’s kind of crazy to think that a player can finish her collegiate career at 21 or 22 and almost immediately step into a position of power.

The player was just taking direction from a coach and, in a matter of days, can become responsible for recruiting, playing time, scholarships, discipline and the livelihood of athletes who could be the same age or just a year or two younger. 

That transition deserves to be under a microscope because being a great athlete doesn’t automatically make someone a great coach. 

Playing four or five years of college softball doesn’t teach someone how to manage power, establish boundaries, resolve conflict or even understand the responsibility that comes with being an authority figure.

That inexperience is not an excuse for misconduct either.

All too often now, there are stories of coaches crossing unethical boundaries with student-athletes. The responsibility to maintain those boundaries falls on the coach. Period. It doesn’t matter how old or how young they are.

How are universities vetting coaching candidates? 

Hiring a coach shouldn’t always be about wins. Are schools contacting every former employer? Former players? Former administrators? Are hiring committees asking about the coach’s professional boundaries and relationships with athletes or just whether they were a good coach or not?

Which brings more questions, like what kind of professional experience is required before someone can lead a college program? Is there leadership training for young coaches? How much education do young coaches receive about power dynamics, boundaries, mental health, mandatory reporting and sexual misconduct?

How much information is being shared between institutions? If a candidate leaves their previous school under questionable circumstances, how much information is being shared between the former employer and the potential new one?

Coaches can move from school to school. Administrators can too. A program could change conferences, but the one constant is the athletes. They are the most vulnerable to whatever culture is created.

Just because a university runs a background check and doesn’t find anything criminal doesn’t mean it conducted a thorough vetting process.

This also requires references who are willing to be honest. 

If we are going to have an honest conversation within the sport about coach-athlete boundaries, it has to start during the hiring process. It cannot continue to begin after the coach is hired and allegations surface.

While universities are responsible for the hiring process, this could also be how a successful professional softball league could help change that pipeline.

Picture this: a player spends several years competing professionally before entering coaching. She is surrounded by teammates who are adults with jobs and responsibilities. She experiences success and failure in an uncontrolled environment. Most importantly, she learns what a professional workplace should look like.

Then, when she is done playing and if she chooses to go into coaching, she enters the profession with more experience than the system currently provides her.

Yes, I understand that there isn’t enough money in professional softball to live comfortably, and no, not everyone needs that type of experience to become a great coach. And not every young coach is unprepared. Some even enter the profession immediately after graduation and do a fantastic job. 

But the system could be better.

I’m not saying there should be a mandatory waiting period between playing and coaching. Just like I’m not saying every young coach is a potential problem.

What I am saying is that softball should create a culture in which coaching is treated as a profession, not just the first available job after playing.

A legitimate professional league that gives players another option besides immediately moving into the college coaching world is exactly why it matters.

Professional softball isn't just about keeping the best players in the sport. It’s also about allowing them to become better coaches, better leaders and better humans before they are handed an enormous power that comes with coaching college athletes.

Universities also need to be willing to look beyond a résumé before handing someone the keys to a program.

Softball needs the pro game and perhaps, maybe, now more than ever. It also needs a better way to decide who gets to coach its future.

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Maren Angus
MAREN ANGUS

Maren Angus was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

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