Be Uncommon: Uncommonly Good at the Common Things
Dean Whellams’ impact on the Texas Softball program has Longhorns one win away from WCWS
Chris Allen Brown
5/26/2024
And how about this for the Longhorns, they will hand the ball off to a freshman in the circle — in the biggest start of her career — in Teagan Kavan.Beth Mowins, ESPN
After tossing her final warm-up pitch to her teammate 43 feet away, a 6-foot, right-handed freshman pitcher pulls down a protective facemask from atop her head as she walks back towards the pitching rubber.
One thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two passionate collegiate softball fans are packed around the dimensions of Red & Charline McCombs Field on a spring afternoon to watch the first top-five matchup in Austin, Texas since April 2003.
Stepping into the batter’s box to begin the final game of a three-game series is the three-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) First Team All-American Jayda Coleman, who is a .425 career hitter, and the leadoff batter for the three-time defending NCAA Division I Softball National Champions Oklahoma Sooners.
The University of Texas, coming off a thrilling one-run victory over the then-top-ranked team in the nation the night prior, is searching for its first series win over Oklahoma since 2009. A Longhorn victory would shake up the Big 12 Conference standings and give the Burnt Orange and White an opportunity to continue its chase towards an elusive conference championship after a disappointing loss to begin league play four weeks prior.
The voice of legendary softball play-by-play announcer Beth Mowins echoed inside the home of hundreds of thousands around the country watching on the Longhorn Network:
“And how about this for the Longhorns, they will hand the ball off to a freshman in the circle — in the biggest start of her career — in Teagan Kavan.”
Kavan, an Iowa native inserting herself into one of the biggest rivalries in all collegiate athletics, steps on the pitching rubber and looks toward Reese Atwood behind the dish for the pitch selection.
The true freshman, in just her 18th career collegiate pitching appearance, leans back on her left leg, then pushes off the rubber with her right and sends a change-up through the air and into Atwood’s glove for a called strike from home plate umpire Dustin Douglass.
It’s not only a moment Kavan is physically prepared for after countless hours in the weight and recovery rooms on the Forty Acres, but also mentally ready for thanks in large part to Dean Whellams.
“As a team, and as a whole, Dean really helps explain how the mental side of this game is just as if not more important than the physical side at times,” Kavan said. “Coming into college, I never really worked on that before, so for him to be able to show how important that is, he really helps me adjust and transition to all that happens on and off the field and just everything that happens in life.”
As a team, and as a whole, Dean really helps explain how the mental side of this game is just as if not more important than the physical side at times.Teagan Kavan
Texas will go to the 'pen with two outs in the fourth.
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) April 7, 2024
3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 K, 3 BB, 1 R for 1?7?, who exits the circle to a standing ovation ??#HookEm | @teagan_kavan pic.twitter.com/RQyFzaVrc8
While eyeballs around the country have been locked on sophomore Reese Atwood and her pursuit of countless Texas and Big 12 single-season records throughout the 2024 season, the quintet of Longhorn pitchers have combined for one of the best pitching efforts in program history by boosting one the lowest earned run averages (ERA) in the country, sparked by 18 shutouts. Collectively, the staff has a 1.00 walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) and a .200 opponent batting average.
Citlaly Gutierrez has totaled double-digit complete game efforts, while knocking off UCLA, Tennessee, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. Mac Morgan became the first Longhorn softball pitcher to toss multiple no-hitters in a single season since Shea O’Leary did so throughout the 2019 campaign. Estelle Czech swept national and conference pitcher of the week honors in April. Sophia Simpson has struck out at least one batter, including eight in three innings against UTA and four in two innings of work against Stanford, in every appearance this season
Since facing the then-top ranked Sooners in early April, Kavan has gone on to anchor the five-member pitching staff that features three 10-game winners with the Iowa native boosting an 18-2 record in 27 appearances in the pitching circle for sixth-year UT softball head coach Mike White.
With a compliment of arms to choose from to start any game — or even come out of the bullpen in a moment of need — White and first-year Longhorn pitching coach Pattie Ruth Taylor are tasked with the challenge of spreading the innings effectively as well as making sure everyone stays happy and understanding of their role to help the program achieve its ultimate goal: winning a national championship.
“(Dean) will do a lot of group sessions (with the pitchers) and I think that’s helped them a lot,” Taylor said. “Our pitchers, they celebrate each other well and pull for each other so well and I think that says a lot about how Dean helps them understand that they are helping each other and having a positive impact on their teammates even if they aren’t in the circle.”
But who is Dean Whellams?
In 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the 2020 NCAA Division I softball season to a screeching halt in March, Justin Lewis and Kristen Zaleski were two of the three-member coaching staff at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Lewis and Whellams met while the latter were orchestrating podcasts and developed a good friendship thus remaining in touch for so long that Lewis went to Zaleski to inquire about introducing Whellams to the team.
Whellams is the founder and principal of Team Elite Performance, an organization that regularly works with teams and individuals to increase self-awareness, develop corporate culture and improve team performance. Over the last two decades, Whellams has spent time as an educational speaker as well as time as a master trainer for a national leadership training organization. He’s helped develop goals and mapped out plans for multiple NCAA Division I athletic programs. Those training methods included mental preparation, shared truths and experiences, and personal commitment to oneself and one’s team.
“I actually heard another coach that I work with say this in his press conference when he got hired, ‘if you want to have a really good team, you have to start with really good teammates,’” Whellams said. “That’s so simple, but yet so profound and true.”
It was a no-brainer. And even after Lewis left the Lone Star State for an assistant coach opportunity at Fresno State, Zaleski asked Whellams to remain around the program for the next two seasons.
“He helps on so many different levels,” Zaleski said. “Yeah, like there’s the softball side of the performance, but there’s also the overall growth and development as well. The fact that he’s willing and able to jump on a phone or Zoom call at any time is critical. I think for student-athletes to be able to hear things from a non-coach can be very beneficial for everyone.
“He can basically just have conversations with you and recognize things and get things out of you that you may not even realize or have seen from a certain mindset. Sometimes we are all so softball-minded that sometimes the non-softball things in life can be overlooked.”
Even after Zaleski departed Corpus Christi, Texas for Norman, Okla., and then ultimately the Forty Acres, she continued to reach out to Whellams for his guidance. As soon as her first season on White’s staff in 2023, Zaleski wanted to have Whellams around; however, previously arranged plans were already in place.
Then the 2024 season arrived. Zaleski was able to have Whellams work with the Texas Longhorn softball program. By September 2023, just a handful of weeks after the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester at Texas, Whellams was already interacting with the student-athletes.
“One of the biggest things we talk about is bringing a 0-0 mentality each day, because yes, we always want to result however we can’t always control the results, so we need to control what we can control,” Whellams said. “Another thing we talk about is the ‘negativity doesn’t get to me’ mindset, which doesn’t mean we are positive all the time but when things don’t go our way, there’s a belief that we are going to find a way through it. We need to put all our energy in what we can control.”
That was the perfect mindset for a team, led by only four senior student-athletes, whose head coach was putting together one of the top-five hardest strength of schedules in all of Division I softball.
In 2023, Texas was not selected as one of the top eight national seeds for the NCAA Division I Softball Championship thus not having the opportunity to host a potential NCAA Super Regional. White did not want a repeat of that in 2024.
UCLA. Tennessee. Stanford. Kentucky. Northwestern. North Carolina. Louisiana. Texas State. Penn State. LSU. Florida State. Oklahoma State. Oklahoma. Baylor.
The best of the best. As many as he could. He wanted to leave no doubt.
His team followed.
Texas gave UCLA its worst home loss in program history and Florida State its first run-rule loss in Tallahassee in over a decade and recorded back-to-back top-10 wins against Tennessee and Stanford in Clearwater. A pair of victories against Louisiana preceded wins over Texas State and Penn State. UT went on the become the first team to beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., in 2024 and used that momentum to earn its first series win over the Oklahoma Sooners since 2009.
Along the way, everyone started taking notice of what was happening.
Number one rankings in every poll. Multiple conference and national player of the week honors. Countless postseason conference and regional awards.
Even the program’s first regular season conference championship since 2010 was a byproduct of the team’s buy-in to Whellams’ words.
“What always stands out to me is when he says we get to do this, not that we have to,” Kavan said. “One of the times he came to visit us, he said, ‘Guess what, we get to do this tomorrow,’ so I think that’s a good reminder of being grateful for our opportunities and that we are here, and we do get to do this and always look for the fun in this. Honestly, I think that’s what I’ve taken from him the most: this is an opportunity that we get to do.”
“I think what’s gotten me is seeing them truly believe how good they really are and just really believing in themselves,” Whellams said. “When I go back to listen to their media interviews, it is fun hearing them talk about ‘controlling what we can control’ and ‘being present where our feet are’ and all those little phrases that we use.”
And where are those feet currently? Planted inside Red & Charline McCombs Field, where the Texas Longhorns are just one win away from returning to Oklahoma City, Okla., for the program’s seventh all-time Women’s College World Series appearance and first since 2022.
“I think the things he’s brought to the program has been huge for this team,” Zaleski said. “I think everything he’s said has certainly factored in. Like yeah, we have some key players who are older and have been doing this for a while to help lead, but we also have a lot of younger players, so that transition from high school and travel ball to this level with school and life can be tough.
“I think him not being a coach or softball person has helped, too. Just anytime you can help people grow, which he’s doing, the levels of impact on someone’s life are immeasurable.”
Just anytime you can help people grow, which he’s doing, the levels of impact on someone’s life are immeasurable.Texas softball assistant coach Kristen Zaleski
