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Softball
If there is one challenge Kathy Arendsen can rise to, it’s building a softball program into a winning entity. The first-year Oregon head coach has proven she can start a program from scratch and successfully guide a team into the postseason, recruit All-Americans and win consistently. Prior to her arrival at Oregon, Arendsen (AIR-en-son) rebuilt Mississippi States’s softball program following a 10-season hiatus to a pair of NCAA tournament berths within a six-year span. The 43-year-old Zeeland, Mich., native arrived on the scene in Starkville in 1996 and quickly led the Bulldogs to a winning season (30-26). By 2000, Mississippi State was an NCAA Tournament team as the Bulldogs reached regionals. It marked the first time in Arendsen’s career that she reached the postseason and along the way she picked up her 300th-win. “Building a program at Mississippi State has really prepared me heading into my first season at Oregon,” Arendsen said. “It’s two different situations, but the bottom line was coming in with the goal of winning and establishing success.” In 2001, Mississippi State made a return trip to the NCAA Tournament and finished the season 36-31. Arendsen, known as one of the nation’s top pitching technicians, coached Kellie Wilkerson to her fourth-consecutive All-American campaign, becoming just the second player in Mississippi State history and the school’s first female to ever earn such honors. MSU’s Keri McCallum was a first-team AA Catcher and Diamond Sport Division I Catcher of the Year in 2000. Despite the fact that Oregon softball is entering its 29th season, Arendsen does have the task of bringing the Ducks back on track after missing the postseason for two consecutive year. Prior to that, the Ducks had made three straight postseason appearances (1998-2000) and have been to the tournament nine times total. Arendsen’s first priority will be to return Oregon to the postseason and be competitive within the Pacific-10 Conference. “Oregon is a program that has had success in the past,” Arendsen said. “There have been some great players at Oregon and it’s a program that has competed in a difficult conference and been successful. That’s our main goal — get back to what has been done here in the past and grow beyond.” With 13 years of collegiate coaching experience and an overall record of 372-275, Arendsen has the knowledge to return the Ducks to prominance. Prior to her stop at Mississippi State, the 13-time ASA All-American, left her mark in the Ivy League, coaching the Yale Bulldogs to a 90-73 record. Arendsen has suffered just one losing season in her career, her first year at Yale (12-26). She immediately turned the program around the following year, posting a 31-12 record, which included a perfect league record and the Ivy Championship. She remains Yale’s winningest softball coach of all time. “When we arrived at Yale, Bulldog softball had perenniallybeen in last place in the Ivy league. The opportunity to recruit and develop the players helped us to an Ivy Championship and provided and excellent background as we headed to Mississippi State. Arendsen first broke into the collegiate coaching ranks as a softball graduate assistant at Temple in 1981 before spending a one-year stint as assistant softball and women’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut. She assumed her first head coaching position as head softball coach at Western Connecticut State during the 1983 season. Following a one-year absence from coaching, Arendsen returned to coaching in 1984 as an assistant at Northwestern, assissting with three Big 10 Championship teams before resuming her head coaching career at Eastern Illinois in 1990. During her two seasons with the Panthers Arendsen accumulated a 46-36 overall record. Perhaps more impressive is Arendsen’s playing career, which spanned 15 years. In 1996, Arendsen was inducted into the American Softball Association Hall of Fame. She was the first-ever three-time Broderick Award recipient (1978-79-80) — recognizing the nation’s top collegiate softball player and is a 13-time American Softball Association “All-American”. While playing at Texas Women’s University and Cal State-Chico, Arendsen helped guide her teams to AIAW Division I National Championships in 1979 and 1980, respectively. Following her sophomore year, Arendsen played 15 seasons as a pitcher for the Raybestos Brakettes (Stratford, Conn.). A dominant pitcher over her career, Arendsen posted a career record of 338-26 while accumulating 79 no-hitters, 42 perfect games, 265 shut-outs and a 0.15 ERA before retiring in 1992. She also appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes, “Real People” and P.M. Magazine. Before retiring, however, Arendsen struck out 4,038 batters, including baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson three times in an exhibition on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. In 1981, Arendsen became the first softball player ever to be a finalist for the James E. Sullivan award, recognizing the top amateur athlete in the country. In addition to being the youngest player (37) ever inducted into the ASA Hall of Fame, she has been voted into halls of fame at Cal State-Chico and Texas Women’s as well as the state of Michigan’s ASA Hall of Fame and the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Hall of Fame. She was honored as one of the 50 best-ever athletes to come out of the state of Michigan by Sports Illustrated in December 1999 and was also named as the top softball player of the past 25 years by the U.S. Sports Academy. With both a successful coaching and playing career, Arendsen has the tools necessary to coach in the nation’s top softball conference. “The Pac-10 is what it’s all about,” Arendsen said. “It’s the top conference in the nation and I am honored to coach at Oregon.”
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