Longtime pitching coach Marty McDaniel is leaving the Tennessee Lady Vols, sources confirmed to JWOS on Monday night.
McDaniel spent sixteen years on staff with the Lady Vols, becoming nearly as synonymous with the team’s pitching staff as Ralph and Karen Weekly have with the program as a whole.
Under McDaniel’s tutelage, the Lady Vols’ pitching staff set a national record for shutouts with 51 during the 2005 season, and have earned more than 700 wins during his tenure. He was part of the Tennessee coaching staff that helped the program become the first SEC team to reach the Women’s College World Series championship series in 2007.
Just a handful of the pitchers to come from under McDaniel’s tutelage include softball legend Monica Abbott; sisters Ivy and Ellen Renfroe; and current and former Division I coaches Megan Rhodes Smith and Cat Hosfield.
A report from Extra Inning concluded that McDaniel intended to spend more time with his family following his departure from Tennessee.
Prior to his lengthy tenure at Tennessee, McDaniel was the head coach at Division II Armstrong Atlantic State from 1998-2004. In 2008, he was inducted onto the Armstrong Atlantic softball program’s Wall of Fame. He also spent two years on Ralph Weekly’s coaching staff at Chattanooga from 1996-97.
