Head Coach Kathy Arendsen
 | PERSONAL |
| Born: October 10, 1958 Birthplace: Zeeland, MI College: Cal State-Chico, 1980 |
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Unlike others in her profession, Kathy Arendsen did not dream all her life of being a softball player. True, it was a ball player she wanted to be, but it was a ball of a different diameter.
But, it was on those Sunday nights after dinner in her hometown of Zeeland, Mich., that the young Arendsen would go door-to-door in the neighborhood gathering up teams to put together pick-up games, getting her first taste of a game that would consume much of the next 30 years of her life.
"That was my first experience with softball," Arendsen said. "Softball itself was more of a pick-up game because I didn't know competitive fastpitch at that point. After supper, we would have pick-up games with grandpa and grandma, mom and dad and the kids in the neighborhood. It was just a family event."
With the lack of interest in organized fastpitch at the time, Arendsen would continue setting up make-shift pitching mounds in the backyard where her and her brother, Jim, would fantasize about becoming major league pitchers with, of course, the female Arendsen becoming the first to break the Major League Baseball gender barrier.
It was not until nearly two years later when, on a trip to nearby Lansing to watch a still-unfamiliar sport, Arendsen get her first exposure to a team that, ironically, would ultimately transform her into a legend. With the Lansing Laurels Women's Fastpitch team slated to play the visiting Raybestos Brakettes, a team that Arendsen would become all too familiar with in the then-unforeseeable future, she was just an hour of driving time away from falling in love with the sport of fastpitch softball.
"I saw what fastpitch could be like and I went 'Oh my. I don't have to be the first female major leaguer. I have a place to play,'" she said. "That became my dream from that point. I wanted to be just like those folks."
But, it was about that time that Arendsen's body began to have other ideas about what sport she should settle into. Already a six-foot seventh grader, junior high and high school coaches began to take notice of her height and hastily got her onto the basketball court. But, still in love with the game that she saw that incredible day in Lansing, Arendsen did not stray from her dreams, despite suiting up on the hardwood.
With nearby Michigan State fresh off a AIAW College World Series championship, Arendsen quickly developed the dream of where to continue her education. Unfortunately, the Spartans never came knocking.
"Michigan State had won the College World Series my senior year in high school. That's where I wanted to go to school but they really just weren't that interested," recalls Arendsen. "By the time that they decided they were interested, when we won the state championship, I had already agreed to go to a small school in Michigan."
But with the hunger for a national championship still very much alive in her, Arendsen spent just one year at Grand Valley State College before transferring to Texas Woman's University, an up-and-coming softball power in Denton, Texas. The program quickly took off, finishing third at the College World Series in Arendsen's sophomore campaign, but then won the national title the following season in dramatic fashion, working their way out of the loser's bracket and defeating powerhouse UCLA twice to take home the national crown.
However, two weeks before making the trip that season to Omaha, then the site of the national softball tournament, the team was surprised to learn that their coach would be travelling out of the country to expose the sport of softball to China. Still confused about her coach's position after the team's berth in the national tournament, Arendsen's, as well as her teammates', questions were quickly answered.
"She said that she was going to be there like three or four weeks and we panicked and thought that we weren't going to get to go to the College World Series," Arendsen said. "She said 'No, I trained you well enough. Go on your own.' So we ended up taking a couple of vans and driving, without any chaperones, up to Omaha."
Jolted by the fact that her coach had betrayed her and her teammates in such a way, Arendsen put in for an immediate release from the school and, with the guidance of Ralph Raymond, then coach of the Brakettes, transferred to Cal State-Chico where she became an immediate hit with the team. But, the transfer did not come as easily to Arendsen as previously thought. Suffering through a light stage of burnout, Chico head coach Joan Wallace, her friend and mentor, helped put the fun back into the game of softball for Arendsen.
"Joan Wallace saved my career really," Arendsen said. "She just didn't take things too seriously. She put softball in perspective again.
"When softball season came up, I was really ready to go again. She really brought back the love of the game, the passion of the game and that's why I played as long as I did."
Three times, the first coming after her sophomore campaign at TWU, Arendsen was recognized as the top collegiate softball player by accepting the Broderick Award. However, still amazed with herself and the way that the country had now looked up to her by presenting her with this award, she was flabbergasted by the honor - mainly because she had no idea what it was. It was the first time in the history of the award that a player had won it three times - duplicated more than a decade later when former teammate and current Team USA pitcher Lisa Fernandez accomplished the feat - but she still had no idea what she was about to accept.
"I got notice that I won this award and they had to sit me down at TWU and explain what the award was and what I needed to do," she said. "When you realize that you've been given an award as the top player in your sport in the country, it's pretty overwhelming."
Although its significance will never be forgotten, Arendsen's collegiate career held many wonder for the up and coming star. But the career break for her came in the summer of 1978 following her sophomore campaign at TWU when she signed on to play with the Raybestos Brakettes - the same team that gave her a passion for the game when she was just 12 years old. She played with the team for 15 years before ultimately putting an end to her playing career in 1992.
Arendsen put up impressive numbers for the Brakettes, hurling 79 no-hitters, 42 perfect games and 265 shutouts on her way to posting a 338-26 (93%) record with the team from Stratford, Conn., exhibiting a dominance of the game that few people had ever seen before. She fanned 4,038 batters in 2,632 career innings and, more impressively, struck out baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson three times in an exhibition on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
She is a four-time recipient of the Bertha Tickey award as the outstanding pitcher in the ASA Women's Major Fastpitch National Championship and, in 1981, was the first and only softball player to be a finalist for the James E. Sullivan award, recognizing the top amateur athlete in the nation. A 13-time ASA All-American, Arendsen led her squads to nine ASA national titles and competed on two Pan American teams and three International Softball Federation World Championship squads.
She became the first player to achieve the distinction of playing on the U.S. National, Olympic Festival and World Championship teams. She later became the first player to accomplish another feat when she appeared on three World Championship-winning teams as a member of the 1978 and 1986 U.S. squads that won titles in El Salvador and New Zealand, respectively.
But, in 1992, "K.O. Kathy," as she was so affectionately known, hung up her cleats for good, putting an end to a very decorated playing career in favor of pursuing a newfound love in coaching, which she had already enthralled herself in for a handful of years.
"It was hard and not hard," said Arendsen of finally quitting the game she loved so dearly. "I knew it was the right time. The motivation for me to stay was the Olympics. But the Olympics were four years away and that's a long time when you are already 32 years old.
"I really loved coaching and felt that I really wasn't giving it a fair shake to my teams because I was still playing. I had great assistants that covered for me as a head coach when I played and I had head coaches that were incredibly supportive to me when I was an assistant when I played. But, it was time to take on my own responsibilities and do it right."
It was in 1980 that Arendsen developed a new passion, taking a graduate assistant coach job at Temple where she was required to teach three classes and take on pitching coach duties with the team. Following a one-year stint with the Owls (1981), Arendsen signed on with the University of Connecticut for one year (1982) as an assistant basketball and softball coach. In 1983, she accepted her first head coaching job at Western Connecticut - an experience that Arendsen believes changed her career for the better.
"I was not ready. I was too young," Arendsen said. "But, those folks are awesome. They gave me an experience that helped me grow up. It was not well-funded. We did not have a lot of support. I got a chance to realize what coaching is all about. There is more to it than just knowing the game."
Following a short stint as head coach, and after taking a year off from coaching, Arendsen moved back to the assistant ranks, taking a job at Northwestern for four years (1984-1987) where she helped lead the nationally-ranked Wildcats to three Big 10 championships and a pair of College World Series berths. Following her stint there, she moved, applied for and was offered a head coaching position at Eastern Illinois, leading the Panthers to a 46-36 career record, as her 1990 squad finished with an 18-16 mark and her 1991 team followed with a 28-20 tally.
She left the Eastern Illinois program in 1991, accepting a job as Yale's head coach and took on the daunting task of turning around the Bulldogs' program. After a less than stellar first year, Arendsen helped lead her freshman-laden 1993 team to an Ivy League crown after an undefeated season inside the conference.
In four years, Arendsen established the Yale Bulldogs as one of the top programs in the east and, with a 90-73 career record, is still the winningest coach in the school's history.
"When I got to Yale, that was one of the biggest challenges I have ever had because it was a program that had been in last place in the Ivy for a number of years," she said. "Recruiting had really suffered. That was the greatest preparation for me to go to Mississippi State."
"Our second year, we had gone out and recruited 13 freshmen. We were very young. We brought in a lot of kids that had experience, not only as good softball players, but they had been winners in high school and in club ball. That really rubbed off."
So, in 1996, following a successful career in the Ivy League, Arendsen became the last of 11 coaches in the Southeastern Conference to be hired when she accepted the daunting task of erecting the Bulldog program from scratch in Starkville. She built Mississippi State into a competitive program quickly, taking the Bulldogs to a 30-26 record in her first year, before eclipsing the accomplishment in 1998 when she led her team to the finals of the 1998 SEC Tournament where her Bulldogs eventually dropped a 5-4, nine-inning heartbreaker to Alabama.
In 2000, Arendsen, again, added yet another first to her resum?©, reaching the NCAA Regionals for the first time in her illustrious coaching career. En route, she captured her 300th career coaching victory with a win over Auburn in the SEC Tournament and coached two players, Kellie Wilkerson and Keri McCallum, to first team NFCA all-america accolades. With 16 more victories, Arendsen will capture her 200th at Mississippi State and needs just 62 more wins to reach 400 for her career.
In addition to the awards given to her during her playing career, Arendsen has also accepted a bevy of other awards as well. The national pitching legend was inducted into the ASA Hall of Fame on May 18, 1996, and, at age 37, became the youngest inductee to ever achieve that feat. She was inducted into the Grand Rapids (MI) Hall of Fame just a few years ago, joining such class inductees as baseball pitcher Jim Kaat and Olympic runner Greg Meyer. She also has recently joined the Connecticut Hall of Fame and is also a member of the Halls of Fame at the Michigan Amateur Softball Association, TWU and Cal State-Chico. She was honored as one of the 50 best-ever athletes to come out of the state of Michigan by Sports Illustrated three years ago. In addition, she was named the top softball player of the past 25 years by U.S. Sports Academy.
| PLAYING CAREER | * Led Texas Woman's University and Cal State-Chico to AIAW Division III National ? ? Championships in 1979 and 1980, respectively * Recipient of the Broderick Award (top collegiate softball player) in ? ? 1978, 1979 and 1980 * Hall of Fame member at both Cal State-Chico and TWU * 13-time American Softball Association "All-American" as a professional * Played 15 seasons as a pitcher for ASA's Raybestos Brakettes * Posted career 338-26 record * Helped led her team to nine ASA national titles * ASA Player of the Year in 1979 and 1980 * Inducted into ASA National Softball Hall of Fame in 1996 ? ? (youngest player ever elected) * Inducted into the Michigan ASA Hall of Fame * Also an inductee into the Grand Rapids [MI] Hall of Fame |
| COACHING CAREER | * 1980-81: Graduate Assistant Coach, Temple University * 1981-82: Assistant Coach, University of Connecticut * 1982-83: Head Coach, Western Connecticut State University * 1984-87: Assistant Coach, Northwestern University * 1989-91: Head Coach, Eastern Illinois University * 1991-95: Head Coach, Yale University * 1996-present: Head Coach, Mississippi State University |
| NOTES ON COACH ARENDSEN | * Served on U.S.A. National Team Selection Committee for the past seven years, ? ? including U.S.A.'s 1996 Gold Medal squad * Named one of the top 25 amateur athletes for the past 25 years by ? ? the United States Sports Academy |
| HEAD COACHING RECORD |
Year School Record W/L % Conf. Record W/L % 1983 W. Connecticut 18-10-0 .643 --- --- 1990 Eastern Illinois 18-16-0 .529 --- --- 1991 Eastern Illinois 28-20-0 .583 --- --- 1992 Yale 12-26-0 .316 2-6-0 .250 1993 Yale 31-12-0 .721 7-0-0 1.000 1994 Yale 22-16-0 .579 8-2-0 .800 1995 Yale 25-19-0 .568 8-4-0 .750 1997 Mississippi State 30-26-0 .536 11-17-0 .393 1998 Mississippi State 36-21-0 .632 15-11-0 .577 1999 Mississippi State 38-29-0 .567 15-15-0 .500 2000 Mississippi State 44-27-0 .620 17-13-0 .567 2001 Mississippi State 36-26-0 .581 19-11-0 .633 Career 338-248-0 .577 102-79-0 .564 WCU (1 yr) 18-10-0 .643 --- --- EIU (2 yrs) 46-36-0 .561 --- --- Yale (4 yrs) 90-73-0 .552 25-12-0 .676 MSU (5 yrs) 184-129-0 .588 77-67-0 .535 |