Title: Head coach, University of Florida
Sport: Fastpitch Softball
Career Record:

In just three short years at the helm, Head Coach Tim Walton has taken the Florida softball program to new heights. Walton’s third season marked the best in the program’s 12-year history, as he led the Gators to an NCAA-record 70-win season. The Gator tallied only five losses, each by only one run and four by a score of 1-0. In addition to the NCAA record, the team set many single season school records in almost every hitting, pitching and fielding category. Walton also coached a school record five players to All-America honors. The 2008 Gators were also the first team in school history to reach the Women’s College World Series and finished 3-2 in their first appearance.

The No. 1 seeded team took the Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship for the first time as the Gators defeated No. 3 Alabama, 4-1, in the title game. They also captured the SEC regular season title for the second time in program history with a 27-1 record. For the second year in a row, Walton and his coaching staff were named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year. He also earned SEC Coach of the Year honors while coaching four All-SEC players, four SEC All-Defensive team members, four All-SEC Freshmen team members and the SEC Pitcher of the Year.

Walton, the third head coach in the history of the Gator program, came to Florida from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., where he had been the head coach for three seasons. In 2005, Walton led the Shockers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 16 years as they earned the first at-large bid in school history. Wichita State finished the 2005 season with a school record 46-18 record and broke 30 school records in the process.

Walton has been a part of national championship teams as an assistant softball coach and as a baseball player, both for the University of Oklahoma. Before heading to Wichita, Walton served as an assistant softball coach for the national-powerhouse Sooners, as the hitting coach and outfielders coach. In his four seasons at OU, the Sooners won three Big XII titles and made three consecutive College World Series appearances, including winning the 2000 NCAA title.

Walton played baseball for two years at Cerritos Junior College in his home town of Cerritos, Calif., before transferring to Oklahoma. Walton made two trips to the College World Series as part of the Sooners pitching staff, earning the win in the 1994 national title game in a 13-5 victory over Georgia Tech.