BY GEORGE WATSON l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Texas Tech lasted less than a year without a Hays as a head coach.
Shanon Hays, who built the Lubbock Christian softball program from the ground into a national champion in just two years, was named Monday as the new Red Raiders softball coach, just 11 months after his father, Larry, retired as the school’s baseball coach.

“This is a great move for me, and I’m thrilled to be here, excited and thankful for this,” Hays said during a Monday morning news conference. “Coming over here and seeing the emphasis being placed on women’s softball made the decision easy for me. I grew up playing fastpitch softball and I love the game and I love the direction that fastpitch softball is going toward. My goal is to make this program here something the Lubbock community and the Red Raider community can be proud of.”

Hays

Hays becomes the program’s fifth head coach since 1996, a program which struggled throughout the majority of the decade. Tech has not finished with a winning record, either overall or in Big 12 play, since 1996. Tech operated the 2009 season under interim head coach Amy Suiter, a former assistant who took over when former head coach Teresa Wilson resigned to pursue positions elsewhere.

Tech was just 15-42 overall in 2009 and 3-15 in Big 12 play, finishing last among the 10 softball-playing teams in the conference. However, Tech was a young team overall last season and will lose just three seniors — infielder Elizabeth Eimen, pitcher Alex Watkins and outfielder Megan Shupp.

“Having great players obviously is the first step toward having a great program,” Hays said. “If you want to have a good program you have to have the right components. We’re going to try and have talented kids competing at the highest level possible. I think we can do some things this year that the coaching staff was building on here last year.”

Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said the search for a new coach did not begin in earnest until after the season ended, although he and senior associate athletic director Judi Henry kept an eye on candidates throughout the season. Myers said they interviewed several candidates, but in the end, it all came back to Hays.

“All the time I think in the back of our minds we kept thinking about the fantastic job, the unbelievable job Shanon did at LCU,” Myers said. “He’s been successful in quite a few positions as a coach. He has great talent as a recruiter and we’re extremely excited and pleased that he has accepted the job to be our new softball coach.”

Hays spent the past three seasons building and turning LCU into an NAIA softball power. He built the program from the ground up, recruiting exclusively that first season before beginning competition in 2008. It didn’t take long for the Lady Chaps to assert their dominance, going 60-10 and capturing the NAIA national championship. This past season, LCU won the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season crown before being bounced early in bracket play at the national tournament. He is a two-time SAC Coach of the Year honoree and was named the 2008 NAIA Coach of the Year.

LCU athletic director Paul Hise said he is hoping to have a replacement for Hays announced as soon as possible, possibly even this week, but added that if initial plans fall through then the search for a new coach could broaden and take a bit longer.

Prior to compiling a 114-17 mark at LCU, Hays was an assistant basketball coach at the University of Houston, this after serving a short time as athletic director at Division II Abilene Christian University. ACU was also one of his numerous basketball coaching stops along with Frank Phillips College and Midland College. He was also an assistant for two seasons at Tech under former coach James Dickey.

He played basketball for LCU in 1987 before transferring to Texas Tech to play baseball for his father for three seasons.

And, in a strange twist of fate, he now makes a move similar to that of his father, who led LCU to a national championship in baseball in 1983 and left the school following the 1986 season to take over the Tech program. Now, 23 years later, Shanon is doing the same.

“I’ve got confidence in him that he’s going to do what’s best for him and his family and all that,” Larry Hays said. “It’s mixed emotions because I really hate to see him leave Lubbock Christian but the fact that he’s coming to Tech makes it all right. Anywhere else and I’d hate to see it but he’s coming from a great place and going to another one.”

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