Posted by Bones on May 21, 14 at 23:32:18:
In Reply to: Re: Question for softball insiders... posted by devildoescare on May 19, 14 at 13:45:32:
I really liked Coach Myers, and am grateful for the success and development he brought to the ASU softball program. I am not quite sure of the current staff despite their impressive resumes. In response to the pitching concerns expressed above, Coach D'Arcy has been the pitching coach since 2011. He also has some assistance from Coach Suzie Rzegocki. I did see some progress in the pitching approach of Dallas Escobedo, although her bread and butter pitch has always been the rise. Over the years, teams were coached to adjust to that particular pitch, and we witnessed a jump in homeruns given up. Any blame, if you will, in a regression or flat line in pitching performance would be on Coach D'Arcy and not Coach Myers or Coach Nicholson. Coach Nicholson arrived on campus with a reputation as an offensive guru of sorts. His resume at Ball State adequately demonstrated that. I was dismayed when ASU lost to Ball State this season. The other thing that bothered me this season was the decline in offensive production from some of our best offensive performers. In particular, Cheyenne Coyle and Alix Johnson, did not perform as I had hoped they would. My question would be, why did they experience such a drop off in performance? I know that Cheyenne Coyle went from All-America last season to Honorable Mention this season. The team, as a whole, seemed to leave a gazillion runners on base this season. If Coach Nicholson is an offensive guru, why then the drop off in offense? As far as Coach Myers goes, look at what he accomplished at Auburn this season. During interviews with his players, they remarked on how he was able to instill much of confidence in them. They darn near made it to a Super Regional. He knows how to recruit, and whom to recruit. I will reserve my overall opinion of Coach Nicholson and his staff until I have the recruiting and performance information required to make a fair assessment. I hope the program does not fall from national prominence to being a mediocre program. With the success of PAC-12 programs like Oregon, UCLA, Arizona, and Washington on the rise, it will be interesting to see where Coach Nicholson takes this program.