Title: Head coach, UCLA
Sport: Fastpitch Softball
Career Record:
Kelly Inouye-Perez began her third season as the head coach of the UCLA softball program in 2009. Inouye-Perez led the Bruins to a 51-9 record in 2008 and a trip to the Women’s College World Series. The Bruins finished second in the Pacific-10 Conference with a 17-4 record and were ranked fifth in the final NFCA and USA Softball national rankings. Inouye-Perez coached four NFCA All-Americans in 2008, the most All-Americans for a UCLA team since 2003.
Inouye-Perez, just the third head coach in UCLA softball history, officially took over the reins from Sue Enquist on Jan. 1, 2007. In her first season as the UCLA head coach, Inouye-Perez guided the Bruins to a 37-18 record and a tie for third in the Pac-10 (12-9).
No stranger to the Bruin dugout, Inouye-Perez starts her 21st-straight season in Westwood in 2009. She is a link to three decades of Bruin softball success, joining the UCLA softball program as a freshman in 1989. Inouye-Perez’s apprenticeship is highlighted by six NCAA Championships and seven Pac-10 titles in her previous 20 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’s primary responsibility as an assistant coach was guiding the Bruin pitchers and catchers, a list which includes many of the most honored and recognizable names in collegiate softball. Behind the dish, where Inouye-Perez also starred as a three-time All-Pac-10 honoree during her playing days at UCLA, she helped mold and influence arguably the best catcher in the history of USA Softball in Stacey Nuveman. Nearly every UCLA pitching record has been set during the time Inouye-Perez has overseen the Bruin battery and the top four pitchers on UCLA’s career wins list, Goerl, Selden, Freed and B’Ann Burns, were coached by her.
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. 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. Impressively, Inouye-Perez did not commit a single fielding error during her final two seasons.
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.
