Iowa softball
- Thread starter megahawk
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Gayle Blevins never had a losing season in 23 years at Iowa, and retired with the 2nd most wins in D1 college softball history. Despite the challenge of fielding a winning softball program in a northern climate (to say nothing of the exact same recruiting limitations often cited by other underachieving programs at Iowa), all Blevins did was win almost 70% of her games and lead Iowa to 16 NCAA tournaments and 4 college World Series appearances. The way her "retirement" was handled is a lasting embarrassment to Hawkeye athletics, and Iowa is pretty much getting what they deserve with the program swoon from elite perennial contender to conference doormat.
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Not sure whether Blevins left on her own accord or if she felt some loss of support from the administration and just decided it was time to move on. In either case the program has dropped from a perennial contender to a bottom feeder. I am pretty sure the current coaching staff means well and is doing what they think is right but I don't think they were ready for this particular job.
Well Said.
My opinion of Gary Barta was permanently damaged by how Gayle was treated. Looper was a fall back hire because no legit coach was going to take the position after what happened to Gayle. Then he extends Looper's contract after lasts season because the program was apparently on the right track. blah, blah, blah.
He has a committee structure do the initial vetting of candidates and then he would be involved with interviewing the finalists and the hiring choice would ultimately be his.
Furthermore, the decision to extend her contract after last season until 2018 was completely his. This for a coach who had a combined record her first 3 seasons of 84-74 and a combined losing B1G record of 33-34 was a pretty big head-scratcher to many.
Kudos to Looper, she was able to translate a 30-win season and an 8-15 losing B1G campaign into a nice Guaranteed $500,000.00.
I have no idea what happened with Blevins other than what's been posted here. She's a legendary figure in Iowa sports history and earned that with all of her great accomplishments. My daughter and I have been to a lot of places and as as family we came away more impressed by Coach Looper and her staff than anywhere else. I've got the chance to talk to Coach White at Oregon and he's a great guy with tremendous softball knowledge but I'm telling you this staff is right there with him. Just need to bring in the talent and results will come. I wasn't expecting a whole lot when we made our first recruiting visit here but I was absolutely blown away. There was a 2014 OF from California here on a visit the same day, Allie wood, and she had bigtime offers but she committed to Iowa after her visit also. I can only speak for my daughter but she had serious offers and chose to play for Iowa because they love and believe in this staff, the passion of the fan base and the University.
Coach Looper loves everything about Iowa and has made the commitment to make her program a fixture in the community because she loves her job. When you have the passion she has you have no choice to be successful and she will be. Has this season gone like we all wanted, HELL NO. I believe in this staff. The past can't be undone but the future can be rewritten. Get behind the program and help keep the instate talent @ Iowa. My family will be in Iowa city Friday-Saturday and would love to meet some Iowa softball diehards.
Coach Looper loves everything about Iowa and has made the commitment to make her program a fixture in the community because she loves her job. When you have the passion she has you have no choice to be successful and she will be. Has this season gone like we all wanted, HELL NO. I believe in this staff. The past can't be undone but the future can be rewritten. Get behind the program and help keep the instate talent @ Iowa. My family will be in Iowa city Friday-Saturday and would love to meet some Iowa softball diehards.
I can only hope you're right Cranker, but I'm beginning to think Iowa's cursed. Allie Wood, who you say had big time offers, is currently batting .135 and batting eighth on the HIGH SCHOOL team....
http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/allie-wood/VwF7RPTlEeKZ5AAmVebBJg/gendersport/softball-stats.htm
Very odd for a player to have that big of a drop after 2 highly successful years back to back unless they are battling injuries. Let's hope this year is an anomaly. I haven't seen her play in person but she plays for one of the best travel teams in the country so she has obvious talent.
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