Title: Head coach, Fresno State University
Sport: Fastpitch Softball
Career Record: 1,421-519-3

2010-2011 is Margie Wright’s 26th season as head coach of the Fresno State softball program, where she has directed the Bulldogs to a national title (1998) while guiding the program to the NCAA Women’s College World Series 10 times out of the program’s 12 appearances. As the first NCAA Division I softball coach and 24th overall in NCAA Division I history, regard less of sport, to amass 1,000 Division I career victories and the first to tally 1,300 fastpitch wins, she owns an impressive 26-year school mark of 1,258-427-1 (.746) and a 32-year career record of 1,421-519-3 (.732).  She became the NCAA’s all-time winningest softball coach in 2000 and has garnered 9 conference coach of the year honors, 16 outright or shared conference titles, two WAC tournament championships, 10 regional championship crowns while leading Fresno State to 24 consecutive NCAA postseason appearances.

Margie has coached 53 All-Americans, 16 Academic All-Americans, four NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award winners, four Honda Awards Program softball finalists, 16 NCAA individual and 11 NCAA team statistical champions, eight professionals, 15 Olympians, two NCAA Top VIII Award winners and two No. 1 professional draft picks. Wright has been featured in USA Today, showcased in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” and featured in two books — She Can Coach! and Celebrating Women Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary. She was also selected to be a support runner for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Torch Relay.

Fresno State is one of the top two NCAA Division I all-time winningest fastpitch programs with 1,442 wins — ahead of UCLA, Florida State, Louisiana-Lafayette, CS Fullerton, California, Michigan, Iowa, Texas A&M and Oklahoma. While owning the NCAA record for 31 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, Fresno State is third all-time in NCAA Tournament wins (88) and World Series appearances (12). In the NCAA polls, Wright has guided the program to a final Top 25 ranking every year except three times (those three years the Bulldogs received votes for a 28th place finish) and 14 final Top 10 rankings.

A highly sought after public speaker who is nationally and internationally renowned as well as published author, Wright has been honored by being inducted in 10 hall of fames: Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame – Team; Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame – Coach; NFCA; Illinois ASA– team; Illinois ASA – player; Illinois State Athletic Hall of Fame; Illinois State University – team; Decatur Athletic Hall of Fame; Fresno
County Women Lawyers; and Women’s Sports Foundation International. She was also recognized by the National Women’s Political Caucus of Fresno County with the “Promises to Keep Award” and honored by the California National Organization for Women.

On the international stage, Wright led the USA National Team to a gold medal as the head coach at the 1998 ISF World Championship capturing an unprecedented fourth world title in Japan and served as an assistant coach for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games where she helped the fi rst-ever United States Olympic Softball Team capture the gold medal in the inaugural year of softball as a medal sport.

In addition, Wright also has served as a coaching consultant for the Netherlands Antilles fastpitch team for men and women in both the Latin American and Pan American Games. In 1989, she became the fi rst softball coach to represent the United States Information Agency (USIA) in Czechoslovakia, where she conducted clinics in several cities.

Prior to her arrival at Fresno State, Wright was 163-92-2 (.638) in six years at Illinois State. She guided the Redbirds to the 1981 AIAW Softball College World Series. She also directed ISU to three State championships from 1980-82.