Winning never gets old for Jen Bagley.
Surely one of the greatest players to ever grace a Minnesota State University Moorhead softball uniform and arguably the greatest Dragon pitcher of them all, Bagley continues to add chapters to her sparkling intercollegiate softball career.
Bagley recently completed her 10th season as head softball coach at Missouri Western State University in 2011 and guided the Griffons to a 40-15 record and a first ever MIAA regular season title. She was saluted as MIAA Coach of the Year for a third time and pocketed her 300th career collegiate victory in February.
A product of Hoyt Lakes on the Minnesota Iron Range, Bagley once carried a laminated picture of Minnesota Twins legend Kirby Puckett in the back pocket of her softball uniform for good luck. She charted a rewarding schoolgirl career in volleyball, basketball and softball at Mesabi East High School.
“I didn’t start playing softball until eighth grade, and Mr. (Tom) Gillach, who was my PE teacher, was quoted as saying he would get the two biggest girls in class and teach them how to pitch. You can how imagine how horrified I was, because the last thing an eighth grade female wants is to be thought of as big.
“He took me under his wing. He would play catch for me and take me to different clinics, and that’s how it started. Now, kids are playing competitive ball as early as 12 and 13 years old.
“I was in track, but I wasn’t very good. I ran high hurdles and was terrible; I still have the scars on my knees to show it. We played basketball and volleyball, and my family golfed and skied, so we were very active.”
MSU Moorhead head coach Katie Wilson won the spirited recruiting battle and signed Bagley to a scholarship at MSU Moorhead. It was a stroke of good fortune that would soon lift Minnesota State Moorhead to national prominence.
“I wanted to be a Paralegal major. I had gone to Minnesota-Duluth pitching camps and had a close relationship with their pitching coach, but they didn’t have Paralegal as a major. I looked at places in the state that offered it, including Winona State and Moorhead State. Katie Wilson called me; we visited, and it just felt right.”
The most dominant pitcher in Dragon softball history, Bagley was a four-year starter and anchor of a pitching staff that led MSUM to NAIA national tournament appearances in 1993 and 1994. She was named to All-NSIC teams in 1995 and 1996 and also lettered in golf at MSU Moorhead.
“We played in two national championships in (Columbia) Missouri. I thought our 1993 team was awesome with Jill Knisley, Kim Bieck, Missy Jaeb, Cheryl Johnson, Amy Tenute, Dana Gross, Deb Kazmierczak, Kailey Smith and Pauline Stern.”
The rules were simple when Bagley took the mound---she would be in charge and the batter would benefit by quickly coming to that realization.
“My rise ball and my curve ball were my best pitches; I threw about 60 per cent rise balls and 40 per cent curve balls. Once in a while, I would throw a changeup, but I felt my speed was my strength. My pitches usually moved really well, but I didn’t always know where they were going.
“I honestly believed every time I got on the mound I was just going to dominate. I don’t know where that came from. I guess I was just that naïve; I had no fear. Pauline Stern was my catcher all four years, and we worked together calling the game. I think we worked mostly to my strengths as opposed to what the batters’ strengths and weaknesses were, and we set hitters up depending upon what was working for me that day.”
After graduation, Bagley accepted a position with a local law firm and was appointed pitching coach for the Dragons.
“I got hired at Forrest Hutchinson and Assoc. in Fargo after I graduated, and I was also named an assistant coach at MSU. They let me come in early and leave early to get to practice, and that was great. After a couple of years, it dawned on me I could make a living as a head coach, so I went and got my master’s degree at North Dakota State.”
After completing her degree at NDSU she served as an assistant softball coach at Humboldt State University in California and helped guide the Jacks to a 54-14-1 overall record and a third place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships.
“That was a great experience, a pivotal time in my life when I said ‘yes, this is what I want to do.’ I learned so much from coach (Frank) Cheek in one year on how to run a program, not only the Xs and Os, but the intensity of a program, and it taught me a lot about the kind of coach I wanted to be. He was a huge mentor in my life.”
Bagley was installed as head coach at Missouri Western in 2002 and has averaged 33 victories a season. The Griffs have qualified for the NCAA Central Regional Tournament five times in the last seven years under Bagley’s watch.
She has also taken her act abroad as head softball coach at American Internal Sports Tours for four summers, coaching athletes in Prague in the Czech Republic, Holland, Italy, France and Belgium.
“I’ve loved every moment of it. It’s so awesome to be a part of a program long enough where you have alumni that are ‘my girls.’ Watching these kids in this period of their lives---being real life career women, getting married and starting families---it’s really a special time in their life, and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it.”
While Bagley largely welcomed the warmer climes of Missouri, she confesses that she still misses the wacky winters of the upper Midwest. “Believe it or not, I miss the weather and being able to play in the snow, but we can be outdoors practicing in February and still have the change of seasons,” Bagley said.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment