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TWU
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Life > Athletics > Softball > April
7
LEGENDARY SOFTBALL COACH TO RETIRE
AFTER 30 YEARS
 DENTON,
Texas – Dianne Baker has been a softball coach
since 1975, and after nearly 800 wins and a quarter century
of coaching at the collegiate level, she has announced that
she will retire from coaching after the 2005 season.
“It has been a pleasure and honor for me to coach at my alma mater,” Baker
said. “I thank the University, (TWU Chancellor and President) Dr. Ann Stuart,
(TWU Vice President for Student Life) Dr. Richard Nicholas and (Director of Athletics)
Chalese Connors for their support and belief in me. I am finishing my 30th year
of coaching and it has been a heck of a ride.”
Baker is one of the winningest coaches in NCAA softball history. At the helm
for TWU the past eight years, she has compiled a record of 264-140-2 (.653).
Baker’s overall career record is 764-437-3 (.636) in 24 years of coaching,
dating back to her first collegiate head coaching position in 1980. This season,
the Pioneers are 19-15 overall and 5-7 in the Lone Star Conference with 12
regular-season games remaining.
 Baker started her coaching career in the Lewisville (Texas) Independent School
District in 1975. From there she had a remarkable 15-year coaching run at Stephen
F. Austin State University that included leading the Ladyjacks to an NCAA Division
II national championship in 1986, the first and only national team title in
the school’s history. Baker also served as the University’s assistant
athletics director from 1982-95.
A 1975 graduate of TWU, Baker lettered in five sports and played shortstop
on the softball squad as a Pioneer. She returned in August 1995 when softball
was reinstated, and was inducted into the TWU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall
of Fame shortly thereafter. The 1995-96 academic year was spent recruiting
student-athletes, designing and building a first-class complex, and reintroducing
softball to the Denton and university communities. From there, Baker has led
the Pioneers to two NCAA tournament appearances in the South Central Regionals
and one Lone Star Conference South Division championship, and has had seven
Pioneers earn a total of nine NCAA All-American awards and one NCAA Division
II Catcher of the Year honor. There have also been two academic All-Americans
and seven academic All-America district VI honorees under Baker’s leadership.
“I am experiencing joy and sadness at the same time with this announcement,” Director
of Athletics Chalese Connors said. “I am very happy for Dianne that she
has reached a time in her career where she’s ready to retire. She definitely
deserves all the wonderful things that go along with retirement such as time
and freedom to do new things and set her own schedule. She has built a career
that puts her among the greats in collegiate softball and I am thrilled that
Texas Woman's University is a part of that career. Dianne is not only an alum
who has a deep love for her university but she’s also a great ambassador
for this school and for softball. She’s the foundation on which we rebuilt
our program. And that’s also why I am sad because she has decided to retire.
She will be missed on the field and in this department as a head coach. She’s
a passionate leader and member of our athletics family. So this is bittersweet.”
On Dec. 4, 1998, Baker was recognized by her peers when she was inducted into
the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame. In addition,
Baker was honored as a 2000 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award recipient, recognizing
both her career as a student-athlete and a professional.
“I promised myself when I started my coaching career that I would never
do anything to embarrass my University, my athletes or myself,” Baker said. “For
30 years I have kept that promise and held to the fact that being a professional
was the utmost important thing to me. If one could have a legacy, I would like
the commitment to my profession to be mine.”
 Baker’s coaching honors also include being named the 1999, 2002 and 2004
LSC South Division Coach of the Year, 1986 NCAA Div. II National Coach of the
Year, 1985 and 1986 Regional Coach of the Year, and the 1984 Gulf Coast Conference
(GCC) Coach of the Year. Baker's teams have won the 1986 GCC title, 1990 Southland
Conference title and the 2002 LSC South Division title. Baker was inducted
into the SFA Ladyjacks Hall of Honor in 1987. She has coached 26 All-Americans
and one Olympian, Sandy Green, a left fielder on the 1996 Canadian Olympic
Team.
“Dianne’s retirement is emotional and in the softball world, it is
the end of an era of a very good coach,” Associate Head Coach Marty Blowers
said. “Retirement or leaving something you love is always very hard and
watching her go through it and knowing this is her family makes it even tougher.”
Baker has accepted a full-time position as the National Promotions Director
for Softball at Schutt Sports and will continue to be active in TWU Athletics.
“Dianne will stay involved and we’re just starting to look at what
role she can play,” Connors added. “I am eager to have her continue
to help the Pioneers and I want to use her talents in the corporate world and
in promotions to add a dimension to our program that we desperately need. So
I’m losing a great head coach but gaining an advocate on the business side
of athletics.”
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