Mike White named Head Softball Coach at Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — After building the University of Oregon's softball program into a consistent national power over the past nine years, Mike White has been named Head Softball Coach at The University of Texas, Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte announced on Monday. White guided the Ducks to five Women's College World Series appearances, five Pac-12 Conference titles and nine-straight NCAA Super Regional appearances during his time at Oregon.

"Mike is a highly-respected coach with a tremendous reputation in the softball community," Del Conte said. "What he has accomplished in nine years at Oregon is truly special. In a short period of time, Mike took a program that had not had a great deal of success and built it into a consistent national power. He is a program builder, and Mike truly cares about developing his student-athletes - on the diamond, in the classroom and as people. I'm so excited about the future of Texas Softball with Mike leading our program."

"Why not Texas?" White said. "I believe The University of Texas has every resource available to become a national power in softball. The recruiting base in Texas is tremendous, and the plans that Chris Del Conte has for the program and facility upgrades make Texas very appealing. I think it's the right time in my career to make a move. I still have a lot of energy and time left to make an impact, and Texas has the backing and resources to do just that."

"Connie Clark did an amazing job at Texas, especially with the pitchers that she had come through the program," White continued. "From Christa Williams to Cat Osterman to Blaire Luna, she tutored a number of great pitchers. She also had a lot of great hitters over the years. I still remember going through Austin in 2012 and having a true battle to get to the Women's College World Series. What I want to do now is take the solid foundation established by Coach Clark and build on it going forward."

During his nine years at the helm of the UO program, White registered a 435-111-1 (.796) overall record while guiding Oregon to five Pac-12 Conference titles in the last six years, including four in a row from 2013-16, and to five 50-plus win seasons. He led the Ducks to five of the program's six overall WCWS berths (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018) and to the school's first ever NFCA No. 1 ranking in 2014 (also reached No. 1 in the polls in 2015 & 2018). Along the way, he tutored 22 NFCA All-Americans, 56 NFCA All-Region selections, 50 All-Pac-12 honorees, five Pac-12 Pitchers of the Year, two Pac-12 batting champions, three Pac-12 Freshmen of the Year and one Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

During the recently-completed 2018 campaign, Oregon posted a 53-10 overall record while winning the Pac-12 title, earning the No. 1 national seed for the NCAA Tournament and advancing to the WCWS. The Ducks finished the season third in NCAA Division I in winning percentage (.841), fifth in earned run average (1.38), seventh in team batting average (.322), ninth in home runs-per-game (1.24) and 10th in scoring (6.11).

In all, four players reaped 2018 NFCA All-American accolades as catcher Gwen Svekis, pitcher Megan Kleist, pitcher Miranda Elish and third baseman Jenna Lilley all were named to the prestigious squads. Elish (25-2 pitching record) and Kleist (21-7) both posted more than 20 wins and finished the campaign at 12th and 17th in the nation in ERA, respectively. Svekis hit a team-leading 17 home runs and rated in the national top 20 for RBIs (60), while Lilley batted .363 with a squad-best 14 doubles, five homers and 41 RBIs.

"I want to thank Chris Del Conte and Chris Plonsky for their hard work in getting this done," White said. "I'm truly honored and flattered that they have the trust in me to run the Texas program."

"Personally, I'm tremendously excited to be the head coach at The University of Texas," White said. "My first goal will be to get the current players on board with our vision for Texas Softball. I also need to put together a great coaching staff of people who want to grind along with me to get this program to the top."

A well-known quantity throughout the softball world as both a coach and former pitching standout for U.S. National Teams, White followed up a previous two-year stint as an Oregon assistant coach (2003-04) by taking over as the head coach of the Oregon program prior to the 2010 campaign.

A standout during his own fastpitch playing career, White was a top pitcher on U.S. National Teams before retiring in 2007. A native of New Zealand, he became an American citizen in 1994 and helped guide Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2000 World Championships, going 2-0 with a 0.89 ERA and 19 strikeouts. In 1999, he posted a 3-2 mark with a 0.68 ERA and 35 K's in helping the United States to a Pan American Games silver medal. He also helped New Zealand to two gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze in four events. For his efforts, White was inducted into the International Softball Congress (ISC) Hall of Fame.

The Wellington, New Zealand, native earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing and management from Mount Mercy College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) in 1989. He is married to the former Lisa Revers, and the couple have three daughters: Nyree, Kenzie and Sidney.

Mike White - Year-by-Year Head Coaching Record

School	Year	Overall	Pac-12	Pac-12 Finish	National Finish
Oregon	2010	36-21	8-13	T6th	NCAA Super Regional
Oregon	2011	42-16	11-10	T3rd	NCAA Super Regional
Oregon	2012	45-18	12-9	3rd	T5th at WCWS
Oregon	2013	50-11	19-5	1st	NCAA Super Regional
Oregon	2014	56-9-1	20-3-1	1st	T3rd at WCWS
Oregon	2015	51-8	21-3	1st	T7th at WCWS
Oregon	2016	48-10	20-4	1st	NCAA Super Regional
Oregon	2017	54-8	17-6	2nd	T3rd at WCWS
Oregon	2018	53-10	21-3	1st	T5th at WCWS
Overall	9 yrs	435-111-1	149-56-1	5 Pac-12 titles	5 WCWS appearances

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

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Blaire Luna