During her three years as an assistant coach at Indiana State, Erin Arevalo presided over some quality achievements with the team’s pitching staff. In her first season, the staff added some new numbers to the team’s all-time record book, and in 2020, she shepherded senior pitcher Gabbi Schnaiter to a season-opening gem of a victory over then-ranked Wisconsin.
Happy and successful in her role at ISU, Arevalo had no plans to leave. Then, she got a phone call from a friend that put a new set of wheels in motion.
The Oklahoma softball program needed a volunteer assistant coach, and for the last several years, the Sooners staffed the position with someone who could assist with the team’s pitching staff. Arevalo’s friend wanted to know if she was interested in the role.
Every year during Arevalo’s playing career at the University of Georgia, her Bulldogs faced off against their archrival Florida Gators. The teams evenly split their matchups against one another during Arevalo’s career, and she became intimately familiar with the opposing team’s success in the pitching circle. The architect of those Gator pitching staffs was Jen Rocha, long-regarded as one of the nation’s top pitching coaches.
Rocha now leads the pitching staff at OU, a fact that was singularly-enough to help Arevalo make her decision. “It was all good with coach Gasso, and most importantly was coach Rocha,” Arevalo said. “I faced her the whole time that I played while she was at Florida, and she knows how to produce pitchers. She’s pretty much a pitching coach goal, and the opportunity to be mentored by her, to learn from and work with her was a no-brainer for me.”
Going from a paid coaching position to a volunteer role is nothing new on the softball coaching carousel, but the happenings of 2020 threw an added wrench or two into the works. Volunteer coaches usually earn money off of camps and other similar events that are conducted during the offseason months; thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, though, those camps have been non-existent this year, and it remains unknown to what level they’ll be able to be conducted in 2021.
Even still, Arevalo had few qualms about assuming the “volunteer” title, and her reasons why are very simple.
“It was a big gamble, a little stressful, but it’s also an opportunity to work with coach Gasso, coach Rocha,” Arevalo noted. “That’s not just a no-brainer, it’s totally worth the risk. Is it COVID ‘season’? Yeah. Do I know what’s going to happen [in 2021]? Absolutely not. But I’m still getting the great experience of working with this coaching staff.”
As she has settled into Norman over the last few months, Arevalo has embraced her new role and has fit seamlessly into the coaching unit. She hopes to continue in the role and grow as a coach, with one eventual endgame in mind.
“I have goals to eventually be a pitching coach in the Power Five,” Arevalo shared. “I haven’t coached in the Power Five; I played there, but I haven’t gotten to coach at that level yet. And this [position at OU]is going to make me a better coach, and hopefully that will be something that I can add to my resume one day.”
