Kendall Fuller used to vacation in Banner Elk, North Carolina, but as she prepares to make her return to the Tar Heel State town, she’s ready to get down to business.
On July 30th, Fuller was officially named as head coach at Division II Lees-McRae. She will continue the rebuilding process that saw the Bobcats end the 2019 season above the 20-win plateau for the first time in nearly a decade.
“”If you were looking at a rebuild job, it’s a bit less pressure,” Fuller said. “I think there’s a little more pressure coming in here, with the expectation to get in and win, and that’s certainly my goal. That’s actually what I liked; it’s a great setup to win. Solid foundation, really good kids coming back; talking to those kids has made me even more excited to get started.”
The new position is Fuller’s second career head coaching stint, though it is the first where she holds the title all on her own. She previously spent two years as the co-head coach at Winthrop, serving in the role alongside program Hall of Famer Mark Cooke. Now, as she gets set to lead her own squad, her previous experience is sure to come in handy.
“I have a great mentor in coach Cooke, who had a 30+-year coaching career, which is something you just don’t see very often anymore,” Fuller remarked. “I was really lucky to have him, and to still have him, as a mentor. For the transition into Lees-McRae, I don’t see a lot of huge differences between being co-head coach and head coach. I still feel like I have a big support system that I can lean on anytime that I need to…. My job is to teach these kids not only the game of softball, but some life lessons along the way. That’s my coaching philosophy, too.”
Fuller holds a unique distinction among her peers, in that she is a career softball coach who did not play the sport in college. An Appalachian State alum, Fuller got her bachelor’s degree in biology and secondary education before embarking on her coaching career. “I grew up playing all the sports – softball, basketball, a little bit of tennis,” she said. “I got my degree at Appalachian State, and then taught two years of high school and coached basketball and softball there. After that, though, I really decided that I wanted to get my Master’s and try to pursue a coaching career in college; through that, I found Western Carolina and the opportunity to be their volunteer assistant, then that led me to Winthrop, and now here we are!”
Following her own academics-first approach during her own undergraduate career, Fuller emphasizes the importance of her athletes’ off-field endeavors. “I’m serious when I say that academics are important,” she noted. “The student part comes first; to be successful as a student-athlete, you have to take care of your job in the classroom.”
After spending the first decade of her coaching career in the Carolinas, Fuller has intimate knowledge of the geographical region and the recruiting landscape, which she expects to play a majorly-beneficial role in her new position.
“I feel like I’m pretty well-connected in North and South Carolina, as far as travel ball is concerned,” Fuller noted thoughtfully. “So recruiting is going to be the tell-tale of what we do as a program. It’s the most important thing to me to get out there and find kids that are going to fit and want to be at Lees-McRae, and I think that being in this area with Western [Carolina] and with Winthrop gives me good connections and the ability to do that.”
Now, as she begins to settle into her new role as head coach, Fuller is ready to set her roots down in Banner Elk long-term: “The mountains of North Carolina… there’s just something that draws you to them. This is where I plan to be for a while. This is home.”
