SB: Baker begins national search for head coach
7/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
ARLINGTON, Texas - UTA Director of Athletics Jim Baker announced on Tuesday the beginning of a national search for a new head coach to lead the Maverick softball program and its continuing pursuit of competing for Sun Belt Conference championships and aspirations to be a national power in the NCAA Tournament.
"I am excited about the future of our program and the potential that we have to attract a coach to lead a very talented group of young ladies," Baker said. "We have aspirations to compete at the highest level of softball in a well-regarded Sun Belt Conference and we expect to be just as successful in the classroom."
The Mavericks are coming off a season in which they returned to the postseason for the first time since 2003 after receiving an at-large bid into the National Invitational Softball Championship. The team reached the Sun Belt Championship semifinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2014. UTA's 32-win season was the best since 2011 and has set the standard for a program that has been on the rise for the last five seasons.
The expectation remains high with a wealth of talent in place to lead the program. The Mavs return all four Sun Belt All-Conference selections, as well as two NFCA All-Region members in Krista Rude and Sandra Mendoza.
UTA continues has competed with the best in the league with series wins over national powers South Alabama and Texas State in 2017 -- both teams in the NCAA Tournament in the last two years -- to go with a win over then No. 5 Louisiana in 2016.
New ingredients that were not part of the search for a head coach five seasons ago are the program's top-rated facilities now in place. UTA completed a new 622-seat stadium in 2015 that lifted the University to having one of the best facilities in the league. The complete renovation included new coaches' offices, a player lounge, locker room, on-site training room, an indoor hitting facility and a new field. Since completion, it has hosted Power 5 programs such as Arizona, Texas, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Tulsa.
The new facility has attracted top talent from all over the United States, with recruiting classes that received top-ranked marks amongst recruiting sites such as FloSoftball. Top-ranked recruits have chosen UTA, including incoming talent for the 2017 that are ranked inside the Top-100 of several sites.
Baker noted that the national search for its newest head coach has received major attention as a desired job with a great location, facilities and in-place talent to lead. He said that he expects that UTA softball expects to have its head coach named around the start of the 2017-18 academic year at the end of August.
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