2021 Softball Schedule & Season Discussion Thread

[blakem 296]

As I said in the other thread, I can’t help but think now that Lauren LaPorte was the “man behind the curtain” so to speak of JMU. I think Dean was a pretty good recruiter but they sure aren’t missing him.

[wmsau 63]

2 hours ago, blakem said:

As I said in the other thread, I can’t help but think now that Lauren LaPorte was the “man behind the curtain” so to speak of JMU. I think Dean was a pretty good recruiter but they sure aren’t missing him.

All the players that are in the departing Sr. group, like the pitcher, was recruited, signed and coached by Dean in their freshmen year. 

[blakem 296]

4 minutes ago, wmsau said:

All the players that are in the departing Sr. group, like the pitcher, was recruited, signed and coached by Dean in their freshmen year. 

You can recruit and sign as many good players as you want. What I’m noticing is how they are developed once they are there. Which was not done by Dean.

[blakem 296]

36 minutes ago, blakem said:

You can recruit and sign as many good players as you want. What I’m noticing is how they are developed once they are there. Which was not done by Dean.

Adding to this. That was Coach Myers most valuable trait. He never had highly ranked recruiting classes. He’d get a highly regarded recruit or two in each class. What he did do though is turn almost all of them into quality SEC softball players. Something I think Dean has failed to do.

[AUBwins 10,075]

I suppose I'm the grand scheme of things, it's a bit hard to evaluate teams this past year based off how most teams had super seniors.  The teams in the WCWS are loaded with 5th year seniors that produced for them, while we saw very little production from our seniors.  In game questions about Dean are still valid, but i think the landscape would have looked much different in a regular year, including us. 

Now the question becomes, will things stabilize next year or are we still going to be dealing with roster issues until the current students are gone.  Everyone playing in 2020 received an extra year. I would think it would somewhat stabilize since teams can be better prepared to fill holes in roster.  I believe the roster count changes back to normal next year as well. 

[Jad0003 408]

I definitely give my congratulations to JMU and LaPorte. It’s hard not to root for them right now. Alexander is the best pitcher in the country not named Montana Fouts or Rachael Garcia, and she might give them a run for their money. JMU scored 4 runs, but they only had 3 hits. Granted, 2 of those hits were HRs, but they weren’t exactly lighting up Saile. It goes to show how important the long ball is in today’s game. Hopefully the current players and incoming class can provide more pop in our lineup. 

I think next year will be more telling about LaPorte’s long-term coaching success. She can clearly develop talented players, but like Dean, her success is tied to two pitchers who Dean identified and recruited to JMu. If she is successful without Alexander, Gordon, and the other super seniors then I think she will be considered for any school who wants to make a change. 

I’m not sure she would come to Auburn if Dean’s contract was not renewed. She coached with him for 10 years, and I imagine they are good friends. Hopefully there are plenty of coaches who will jump at the chance. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Jad0003

[AUBwins 10,075]

5 hours ago, Jad0003 said:

I definitely give my congratulations to JMU and LaPorte. It’s hard not to root for them right now. Alexander is the best pitcher in the country not named Montana Fouts or Rachael Garcia, and she might give them a run for their money. JMU scored 4 runs, but they only had 3 hits. Granted, 2 of those hits were HRs, but they weren’t exactly lighting up Saile. It goes to show how important the long ball is in today’s game. Hopefully the current players and incoming class can provide more pop in our lineup. 

I think next year will be more telling about LaPorte’s long-term coaching success. She can clearly develop talented players, but like Dean, her success is tied to two pitchers who Dean identified and recruited to JMu. If she is successful without Alexander, Gordon, and the other super seniors then I think she will be considered for any school who wants to make a change. 

I’m not sure she would come to Auburn if Dean’s contract was not renewed. She coached with him for 10 years, and I imagine they are good friends. Hopefully there are plenty of coaches who will jump at the chance. 

I don't think we'd go that route again regardless of how good she is, especially with Deans infrastructure still in place.  Failed with the programs coach once etc.... just saying the likely backlash that would follow.  I don't think it would be popular.  I think she needs to go somewhere else first and then let's hire her lol. Fan of what she's doing. 

[OlderWhiskey 954]

It looks like she's at a big-time program right now.  

[saminbama 740]

10 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

It looks like she's at a big-time program right now.  

First unseeded team to win their first 2 games in the WCWS and she's 1 win away from having her team in the Championship Series.  She has a team that's gritty and has a "us against the world mentality".  They're playing sound fundamental softball on the biggest stage.   Yeah I would agree.  

[slot canyon 1,335]

On 6/3/2021 at 9:03 PM, blakem said:

As I said in the other thread, I can’t help but think now that Lauren LaPorte was the “man behind the curtain” so to speak of JMU. I think Dean was a pretty good recruiter but they sure aren’t missing him.

Looking back on the hiring of Coach Dean I would have to say it was met with overall very favorable approval.  He was a head coach with long record of success at a competitive program.  None of his assistant coaches joined him and remained at JMU and filled the pitching coach position with Libby Morris.  They have been very successful.

Coach Dean hired Eddie Ketelhut as hitting coach and Annie Smith as his other assistant.  They left after 2 seasons.  Ketelhut  now has a training business for hitting and fielding while Smith is a volunteer assistant at Arkansas.  They were replaced by Eugene Lenti and Ruby Rojas.  Rojas seemed to basically take a sabbatical from Mt San Antonio Community college and returned there and resumed her HC position and replaced by Emily Carosone at AU.

When Clint Myers came to AU he brought his assistant Scott Woodard (now at UAB) and hired son Corey as pitching coach as well as having son Casey as volunteer assistant for hitting.  I suspect he was not allowed to have a family member as a paid staff member at Arizona State.  They certainly had some early success prior to the poor ending.

Larissa Anderson, who has been successful at Missouri brought one of her assistants with her from Hofstra.  I believe she just completed her 3^rd season.

I have not done any extensive study of program success based on bringing assistant coaches from a successful program but it might be something to consider if and when hiring a HC.  A good HC should be very familiar with the capabilities of the assistants he/she might hire.  Also, a good assistant is likely a candidate to be hired as a HC at another institution or move for maybe a better paying job. That has not been the case for our earlier assistants and the jury is still out on our current staff. 

Just food for thought.

 

[wmsau 63]

5 hours ago, slot canyon said:

Looking back on the hiring of Coach Dean I would have to say it was met with overall very favorable approval.  He was a head coach with long record of success at a competitive program.  None of his assistant coaches joined him and remained at JMU and filled the pitching coach position with Libby Morris.  They have been very successful.

Coach Dean hired Eddie Ketelhut as hitting coach and Annie Smith as his other assistant.  They left after 2 seasons.  Ketelhut  now has a training business for hitting and fielding while Smith is a volunteer assistant at Arkansas.  They were replaced by Eugene Lenti and Ruby Rojas.  Rojas seemed to basically take a sabbatical from Mt San Antonio Community college and returned there and resumed her HC position and replaced by Emily Carosone at AU.

When Clint Myers came to AU he brought his assistant Scott Woodard (now at UAB) and hired son Corey as pitching coach as well as having son Casey as volunteer assistant for hitting.  I suspect he was not allowed to have a family member as a paid staff member at Arizona State.  They certainly had some early success prior to the poor ending.

Larissa Anderson, who has been successful at Missouri brought one of her assistants with her from Hofstra.  I believe she just completed her 3^rd season.

I have not done any extensive study of program success based on bringing assistant coaches from a successful program but it might be something to consider if and when hiring a HC.  A good HC should be very familiar with the capabilities of the assistants he/she might hire.  Also, a good assistant is likely a candidate to be hired as a HC at another institution or move for maybe a better paying job. That has not been the case for our earlier assistants and the jury is still out on our current staff. 

Just food for thought.

 

Good email. However, I'll add that Dean's first coach he hired at AU is now the Head Coach at Louisiana. He was at Auburn for a few months and then that coaching position came open, and he was hired there. Then Dean hired Ketelhut late in the game as he need to fill that position.

 

[slot canyon 1,335]

16 minutes ago, wmsau said:

Good email. However, I'll add that Dean's first coach he hired at AU is now the Head Coach at Louisiana. He was at Auburn for a few months and then that coaching position came open, and he was hired there. Then Dean hired Ketelhut late in the game as he need to fill that position.

 

After I posted I realized I had forgotten to mention Coach Glasco and his brief stay.  Also failed to include that LaPorte was an assistant with CMD for his last 3 seasons at Radford prior to his accepting the JMU position.

Edited June 5, 2021 by slot canyon

[warladytigers 172]

Mackenna Dowel - I'm seeing on robocoach that she isn't listed in the portal anymore - any info?

Edited July 6, 2021 by warladytigers

[OlderWhiskey 954]

Dowell is now a Minnesota Gopher, per robocoach.

[blakem 296]

Handley is off to Ohio State according to her Instagram.

[blakem 296]

Do we know if all of the freshman have reported?

[LetsGo 31]

The Auburn Softball website has been updated with the new roster for 2022. At least we have the new numbers for the incoming freshman.

[OlderWhiskey 954]

I notice Ms. Penta has changed to #9 from #4.

[all4AU 379]

We have 4 pitchers this year with Emmah Rolfe from Bob Jones coming in fall of 2022. I think we'll be fine as long as no one is injured: Lowe, Penta, Dismukes, Yarbrough

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, all4AU said:

We have 4 pitchers this year with Emmah Rolfe from Bob Jones coming in fall of 2022. I think we'll be fine as long as no one is injured: Lowe, Penta, Dismukes, Yarbrough

That is a pretty solid group, and with Lowe and Penta working on their weaknesses and having a year under their belt, I am hoping they will only get better.

Does anyone know what the roster size is allowed to be? 

We have 9 freshman, that is a lot of new faces. I am worried that we do not have strong or a large senior group for leadership. 

[Jad0003 408]

There are no restrictions around roster size, but I think only 20 players can dress out for conference and post season games.

Lowe, Penta, and Dismukes all have 3 years of eligibility remaining, so we should be set in the circle for a few years. This will also allow Dean to develop Rolfe and other pitching recruits slowly without killing any confidence. The freshman were thrown into the fire this year but were able to handle themselves well for the most part.

I have limited knowledge on the subject, but it seems a lot of pitchers take a big step forward from their freshman to sophomore year. Penta probably has the most room for improvement out of our 2 standout true freshman. Her mom is her pitching coach, so I bet they worked really hard on location and change of speeds this summer. Lowe and Penta get most of the notoriety, but I was really impressed with KK towards the end of the season. She quietly had a 1.50 ERA in 60 innings of work in 2021, which was 4th best in the SEC (Shelby was 3rd with a 1.48 ERA). KK’s change up was very effective, even when teams picked the pitch. I’m sure her and Dean will focus on hiding it better this year.

I hope the team can provide more run support because I would love to see Yarbrough work through her troubles. We saw how effective she could be in the shortened 2020 season.

I’m also excited to see how the catchers develop. Godwin improved a lot behind the plate last year, and two more highly rated catching recruits will provide more competition. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Jad0003

[AUBwins 10,075]

If we don't have run support this year, doubt all these pitchers come back next year.  

If this team is not more fun to watch offensively, might be looking at a warranted staff changeover. 

[Jad0003 408]

Haley Nillen no longer listed on the roster. We are down to 24 players.

[blakem 296]

3 hours ago, Jad0003 said:

Haley Nillen no longer listed on the roster. We are down to 24 players.

This one doesn’t really surprise me. My question is have they already started practice or did she just assume she was the odd woman out.

[Jad0003 408]

2 hours ago, blakem said:

This one doesn’t really surprise me. My question is have they already started practice or did she just assume she was the odd woman out.

I think they have started practice but not sure if it’s individual or team stuff. She was on the roster when school started though.