Title: Head coach, San Diego State
Sport: Fastpitch Softball
Career Record: 509-350-1

One doesn’t have to look hard to see what head coach Kathy Van Wyk has accomplished in her 15-year tenure with San Diego State.

Over the first 20 years of Division I softball, the Aztecs posted two .500 or better seasons and did not make an NCAA tournament. Since Van Wyk was named head coach in 1997 (15 years), SDSU has 13, .500 or better seasons, 11 winning campaigns and have advanced to seven NCAA tournaments. Consider her accolades below:

Three-time Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year (2002, 2006, 2008)
Seven NCAA tournament appearances (2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Four MWC regular season championships (2002, 2003, 2006, 2008)
Three All-America selections l 21 NFCA all-West Region selections
49 all-conference honorees (47 in MWC)
Seven MWC Pitcher of the Year awards
Five Freshman of the Year awards

Coming off a 2011 season that saw the Aztecs advance to their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament (a first in program history), there is no doubt that SDSU softball is considered a national power.

Van Wyk, the school’s all-time winningest coach, has guided SDSU to four MWC titles and seven NCAA appearances, including the magical 2001 season when it came within a hair’s-length of its first-ever Women’s College World Series berth.

Since Van Wyk’s arrival, the Aztecs have compiled a .600 or higher winning percentage in nine of the last 11 campaigns. In addition, SDSU has been .500 or better in 13 of Van Wyk’s 15 years. Van Wyk is also the first Aztec softball coach to achieve a top-25 ranking, three 40-win seasons and is the fastest to both 100 and 200 career wins in the history of the program.

She won her 200th game in memorable fashion on Feb. 15, 2003, when catcher Amber Grahlman’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth scored first baseman Jacque Vaca, giving the Aztecs a 2-1 victory over No. 4 Michigan in the Campbell/Cartier Classic.  In the 2006 Campbell-Cartier Classic, a 1-0 victory over Massachusetts, gave Van Wyk her 300th career coaching victory.  On April 24, 2008, SDSU managed a split at Brigham Young for Van Wyk’s 400th career win.

Prior to San Diego State, Van Wyk spent 10 seasons as a player and an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton. She was an assistant coach from 1983-87, helping the Titans to the 1986 NCAA national title.

After leaving Fullerton, she became a pitching instructor at the Rod Carew Baseball School in Anaheim, Calif., from 1987-89.

As a player, Van Wyk established herself as one of the top pitchers in the history of collegiate softball, enjoying a phenomenal 1982 season with a 35-1 mark and a 0.18 ERA. The victories remain a school single-season record and her .972 winning percentage was an NCAA Division I record (30 or more decisions) until 2001 when Jennie Finch of Arizona went 32-0. Her ERA is still eighth-best in Division I history and her 33-game winning streak remains a record for consecutive victories. Her phenomenal season included four no-hitters, six one-hitters, back-to-back perfect games, 26 shutouts (ninth most in NCAA history in a single season) and 270 strikeouts.

Throughout her career, she won numerous awards, including All-America honors and the Broderick Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top collegiate player. She was also named the WCAA Player of the Year, Orange County Athlete of the Month and won an NCAA postgraduate scholarship with a 3.43 grade-point average.

Van Wyk was a member of the U.S. softball team in 1985 and 1989 and is a five-time Amateur Softball Association All-American.

Van Wyk began her collegiate playing career at Texas Women’s University, where she garnered 1979 Texas AIAW Player of the Year accolades and was inducted into the TWU Hall of Fame. She transferred to CS Fullerton in 1981 after TWU dropped its softball program.

A 1983 graduate of Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, Van Wyk completed her master’s degree in education in 1993 at Azusa Pacific.