Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel earned the 200th win of her career in the Razorbacks’ 2-0 shutout over Mississippi State on Friday night.
While the Hogs’ head coach celebrates her milestone victory, here are Five Fast Facts about her that you should know.
1. She is in her 7th season as a head coach.
Deifel’s first head coaching position came at Maryland, where she spent one season before taking the Arkansas job in the summer of 2015. The 2021 season marks her sixth as the Razorbacks’ head coach.
2. She is the only Arkansas softball coach to ever reach three straight NCAA tournaments.
Deifel is the fourth head coach in Arkansas program history, but she was the first to accomplish the feat of placing her team into the NCAA tournament in three consecutive seasons when the Hogs reached the postseason in 2017, ’18, and ’19.
3. In 2018, she and her staff were named the Regional Coaching Staff of the Year.
In a year that saw the Hogs earn their first-ever regional hosting opportunity and reach the Super Regional round for the first time in program history, Deifel and her coaching staff were named the South Region Coaching Staff of the Year by the NFCA.
4. As a player, she was an All-American and National Champion.
During her playing career at Cal that stretched from 2000-03, Deifel led the Golden Bears to the Women’s College World Series in all four years. The team won the national championship in 2002, the first in program history, and finished as runners-up in 2003. She was an All-American as a senior in 2003, and owns the program record for career putouts.
5. She comes from multiple legendary coaching trees.
Before becoming a head coach herself, Deifel fine-tuned her craft under some legends of the game. In addition to her playing career under the legendary Diane Ninemire at Cal, Deifel spent two seasons on Patty Gasso’s staff at Oklahoma as a graduate assistant. Her later tenure as a full-time assistant coach included a multi-year stop at Louisville, where she coached under program architect Sandy Pearsall.
BONUS FACT!
Deifel comes from a softball family. In addition to her own success as a player and a coach, her sister, Amanda, won a national championship at Fresno State in 1998 and is currently the successful head coach at Division II Missouri-St. Louis.
