Overview:
Jo Evans’ 1,355 victories rank third among active coaches in NCAA Division 1 softball and ninth all-time
The journey into the Oklahoma prairie to play in softball’s College World Series is as challenging for a coach as a trek up Mount Everest.
Joleen Evans was ambitious enough to scale that mountain four times as a coach — as recently as 2017 with Texas A&M and as long ago as 1991 at her alma mater of Utah.
But the only lofty ascents feasible for UC Santa Barbara softball coaches over the years have been the ones up the front range of the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Evans has been tackling those and more since becoming the eighth coach in Gaucho history in August 2022.
“I love to go on day hikes, get up to Inspiration Point and Gaviota Cave,” she said. “I do some great walks along the beach, or at the Douglas Preserve.
“Every day, I love to get on my bike and ride to work … I love to be outside here.
“I have a lot of family and friends and former players come and stay and take in the whole Santa Barbara experience. It’s everything I thought it would be.”
The task of building a program at a school with such an unremarkable softball history has been everything she’d hoped, too. A true labor of love.
The Gauchos have enjoyed only five winning league seasons — and zero championships — during their 40 years of Big West Conference play.
They’ve advanced to the NCAA regionals just three times, and all during Kristy Schroeder’s six-year reign as coach from 2002 to 2007.
But coach Jo, as she’s known around the circuit, has enjoyed the view from sea level from Day One.
“I’m as excited and enthusiastic as I’ve ever been,” she said as she entered Week 3 of her 40th season of coaching. “It’s fun to live in a place like this, and it’s great to work for (athletic director) Kelly Barsky.
“It’s great to have student-athletes who care about school, who care about having a social life, and care about softball.
“There’s a balance here that’s probably unlike any place I’ve ever been.”
Promising Start
And, yes, she’s logged that balance on a winning ledger so far this season.
UCSB will bring a record of 9-7 into its home debut Thursday when it opens its own tournament with a noon double-header against Saint Mary’s.
The Gauchos will play host to four additional tournament games — two each against Creighton and UNLV — from Friday through Sunday.
“We’re working to be a school that can have it all … that can win and go post-season and go hang out at the beach and get an amazing education,” Evans said. “It’s really a great place to be.”
Evans has taken three schools — Colorado State, Utah and Texas A&M — to great places.
Her career record of 1,355-770-3 ranks ninth in the NCAA record books for coaching victories, just four behind Cal’s Diane Ninemire for eighth place.
She’s third among active coaches, trailing only Oklahoma’s Patty Gasso and Minnesota State’s Lori Meyer.
Evans was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame a full decade ago.
But Texas A&M still declined to renew her contract after she’d guided the Aggies to their 20th consecutive NCAA Regional in 2022.
It’s Oklahoma City or bust for an A-List athletic factory such as A&M.
Evans is happy with her current path.
“I don’t look back and wish for anything different,” she said.” I don’t want to be in that world now of NIL (name, image and likeness) and transfers, where the focus really isn’t on building a culture but about building a powerhouse.
“That happens in a revolving door, and I’m not interested in that.
“This place is completely opposite. We’re the have-nots.”
Evans had all the bells and whistles a softball coach could want at Texas A&M.
She helped fund-raise $28.6 million for the Davis Diamond, a 2,000-seat stadium that opened in 2018 with such amenities as luxury suites and an expansive, state-of-the-art press box.
“Here, we’re struggling to get resources to just run a basic program … and I wouldn’t trade it,” Evans said.
“My job is to try to generate an interest, get a buzz about this program so that people start to take note, and then want to support us financially and get our facility up to where we want it to be.”
Hit Parade
The Gauchos have been making noise with their bats.
They return a nice one-two punch from last year’s All-Big West Second Team.
Sophomore pitcher-designated hitter Ainsley Waddell is batting .391 this season with a team-best five home runs and 15 RBI. Senior outfielder Alexa Sams is hitting .340.
Also back are a pair of honorable mention all-leaguers: junior second baseman Jazzy Santos and senior catcher-DH Elicia Acosta.
The Gauchos were picked third in the Big West coaches’ preseason poll behind only Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton — their highest placement since 2008.
Graduation did cost Evans four impact players from last year. The biggest loss was Madelyn McNally, a shortstop who set a school record with a four-year batting average of .403.
Sophomore Tehya Banks is trying to fill those big cleats at short.
“Defensively, Tehya has the chance to be a really special player,” Evans said. “She’s got good range and can throw from lots of different angles, which good shortstops do.
“She’s aggressive out there. She’s vocal. I’ve seen her make some really special plays already. I feel good about her and our future with her as our shortstop.
“The biggest hit we take is that nobody hits like Maddie McNally.”
Senior centerfielder Erin Mendoza, who transferred from Oregon State’s College World Series team of 2022, keeps UCSB’s defense strong up the middle.
“She really runs the show out there,” Evans said. “She’s a terrific centerfielder and is a big part of the team’s want-to-win mentality.
“I’ve had coaches come up to me after our games and say, ‘Your centerfielder is wearing me out!’”
Hitting coach Rachel Huggins, who joined Evans’ staff of Amy Hayes and Joy Jackson last year, has worked to “bump up” other batting averages to compensate for McNally’s departure.
She’s gotten positive results with such players as junior third baseman Bella Fuentes (.286) and sophomore outfielder Emily Carr (.267), as well as senior reserves Lucy Morgan (.400) and Daryn Siegel (.273).
“They’re learning about approach, how to break down film … Just all the things that make them better prepared,” Evans said.
Frosh Approach
Her recruiting got a late start when she was hired just before the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
Freshman catcher Delaina Ma’ae, however, has made an immediate impact by batting .514 with three homers and 10 RBI.
“She’s small but she’s got really good hand-eye coordination, good bat speed, and a good eye for the strike zone,” Evans said. “She came in and had to work for it.
“She’s got two senior catchers ahead of her, but she separated herself offensively.
“She’s got a great attitude. Catching-wise, she works well with the pitchers. Frames the ball well. She does a lot of good things for us.”
Other Gauchos with promising futures are sophomores Katie Terrazas and Kaylin Garcia, and freshmen Giselle Mejia and Saige Anderson.
The pitching staff returns Waddell, junior Malaya Johnson, sophomore Sam Stoll and senior Ava Bradford from last season.
Johnson, with a 4.38 earned-run average, leads UCSB so far with a 4-2 record and 19 strikeouts
Grace Luderer (2-3, 3.32 ERA, 15 strikeouts), a senior transfer from Seattle University, has added velocity to the circle — as well as a regal sports pedigree as the granddaughter of Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully.
“She’s given us some stability as a starter,” Evans said. “She throws harder than most of our other kids so she gives a different look … She’s been a big addition.”
She expects her program to take another step up next year after having signed six recruits during the fall.
They are Monterey High pitcher Bella Myers, San Diego Cathedral High pitcher Sophia Clark, Garden Grove Pacifica High catcher Catherine Benitez, Charter Oak High centerfielder Jazmyn Johnson, and Santa Ana Mater Dei High first baseman Jaelyn Toledo.
“Those two pitchers will help us immediately,” Evans said. “That whole group has a chance of making us better.
“You typically follow a kid for two years out, and this class we signed in November is the first one we were really able to do that with. I think it’s the best class that we’ve signed.
“I feel like we’re just getting started. We’re not there yet.”
Happy Together
A strong esprit de corps has made it a joyous journey so far.
“It’s a testament to the fact that all those big shiny things aren’t the things that make you happy,” Evans said. “I’m having more fun and more enjoyment, and my life is more enriched now than it has been in a long time.
“Our student-athletes aren’t hung up on what they don’t have. They’re very focused on who they get to be around every day, what their experience is like.
“They actually love each other, and all live with each other … And what’s really cool about that is that it’s also a group that really wants to win.”
They proved their mettle with a pair of extra-inning wins over her alma mater — 6-5 and 7-5 thrillers against Utah — in last week’s Fresno State Kickoff Classic.
Evans felt as though she’d gone full circle. She led the Utes to the College World Series as a second baseman and pitcher in 1982, and then again as their coach in 1991 and 1994.
Both her father and grandfather are also Utah graduates. Her sister and brothers work as scorekeepers for Ute women’s basketball games — a job her dad also once performed for men’s basketball.
“Our family is certainly very much still involved, and some of my best friends are coaching or working there,” Evans said.
They include Amy Hogue, the Utes coach with whom she matched wits last week. Hogue was a star player for both of Evans’ World Series teams at Utah.
It was important to Evans that her Gauchos represent themselves well in front of her former star.
“My dad was her middle school principal, so yeah, there are lots of connections there,” Evans said. “You don’t want your people to go, ‘Oh, man, sorry your career is in the toilet.’”
She’d like to coach long enough to see permanent restrooms at UCSB. The university plans to build some between the Gauchos’ baseball and softball facilities as part of a recently donated, $15 million project for Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
A master plan is also in the works to upgrade the softball facility.
“We don’t have the finances right now — the resources to actually build it — but first you’ve got to have a vision for it,” Evans said. “And then, how do we grow that?
“And how do we get people on board to value our female student-athletes in what we’re doing here right now?”
She sees herself coaching even beyond the end of her current contract in 2027.
“I do think about retirement, and I’m not afraid of it,” Evans said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, what would I do?’ I have plenty to do.
“But how can I give back as much as I can give back here? I have the ability because of my experience — my lived experience in coaching — to bring something to the table here.
“And that feels good.”
