Title: Head coach, UCLA
Sport: Fastpitch Softball
Career Record: 219-68

Kelly Inouye-Perez, beginning her fifth season as the Bruins’ head coach in 2011, led the UCLA softball program to its 12th national title and 11th NCAA championship in 2010. The Bruins went a perfect 10-0 in the postseason, including 5-0 at the Women’s College World Series. UCLA set numerous WCWS records, including the most home runs in one tournament with 14. Megan Langenfeld was named the Most Outstanding Player of the WCWS, while Samantha Camuso and Andrea Harrison each earned All-Tournament honors. Following the season, Inouye-Perez and her staff were honored as the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year.

The Bruins went 36-19 in 2011, bringing Inouye-Perez’s career record to 219-68 (.763 winning percentage) in five campaigns.  The Bruins made it to regional play, where they were up-ended by the Florida Gators.

In 2010, UCLA set single-season school records for home runs, slugging, on base percentage and walks. Langenfeld and GiOnna DiSalvatore were each named to the NFCA All-America first-team. The Bruins also had three players named to the All-Region team and 10 honored by the Pac-10.

In 2009, Inouye-Perez led the Bruins to a Pacific-10 Conference Championship, as UCLA went 45-11 overall and 16-5 in league play. She was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year and earned her 100th career victory on Feb. 22 against Maryland. In 2008, the Bruins went 51-9 and advanced to the Women’s College World Series, finishing second in the Pac-10 with a 17-4 record. In her first season at the helm of UCLA in 2007, Inouye-Perez posted a 37-18 overall record and a 12-9 Pac-10 mark (t-3rd).

Over Inouye-Perez’s four seasons, the Bruins have earned 12 All-American awards, 19 All-Region honors and 34 All-Pac-10 accolades.

Inouye-Perez, just the third head coach in UCLA softball history, officially took over the reins from Sue Enquist on Jan. 1, 2007. Enquist announced her retirement as head coach on Sept. 26, 2006.

No stranger to the Bruin dugout, Inouye-Perez starts her 23rd straight season in Westwood in 2011. She is a link to four decades of Bruin softball success, joining the UCLA softball program as a freshman in 1989. Inouye-Perez’s time is highlighted by seven NCAA Championships and eight Pac-10 titles in her previous 22 years, spending five campaigns as a player and 13 as an assistant coach.

Over Inouye-Perez’s 13 seasons (1994-2006) as an assistant coach, UCLA was 617-150-1 (.804) and appeared in the NCAA title game seven times, winning the NCAA Championship in the 1999, 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Bruins also won three Pac-10 titles during that span (1999, 2002, 2006) and in 2004 were named the National Coaching Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA).

Inouye-Perez was an exceptionally strong fielder behind the dish for the Bruins. She made her mark immediately as a collegiate player, earning first-team All-Pac-10 as a true freshman and second-team as a sophomore, leading the Bruins to the 1989 and 1990 NCAA Championships before receiving a medical redshirt in 1991 due to shoulder surgery. She came back strong in 1992, picking up second-team All-Pac-10 honors as the Bruins once again won the national championship and finished with a 54-2 record, the fewest losses in a season in program history. Inouye-Perez also was named to the 1992 All-Women’s College World Series Team, going 5-for-12 (.417) with four RBI during WCWS play. She wrapped up her career as a fifth-year senior in 1993 with an NCAA runner-up finish. Inouye-Perez graduated from UCLA in 1993 with a B.A. in psychology and earned her master’s degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific University in 2004.

Prior to college, Inouye-Perez was one of the top players during her ASA days, winning four national championships, with the Panthers (1984, `85 and `89) and the Raiders (1986). She also competed on an international level in Japan in 1985 and in Peru in 1987 (Pan American Tournament) and followed her collegiate career with time playing on the NPF Pro Tour.

Inouye-Perez and her husband, Gerardo Perez, currently reside in Cerritos. The couple has two children, Michael (11) and Kylie (6).