The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Softball recognized as ATEC/NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year
06.18.2026 | Softball
It marks the second-consecutive year Texas’ coaching staff has received the award.
AUSTIN, Texas – For the second-consecutive year, Texas Softball's coaching staff has been named the ATEC/NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year, the NFCA announced Thursday.
It's the program's third NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year honor.
Head coach Mike White and assistants Pattie Ruth Taylor, Ehren Earleywine and Kristen Zaleski helped skipper the Longhorns (53-12) to the program's second-straight NCAA Women's College World Series Championship. Texas swept Texas Tech in the Championship Series, 7-3 and 4-1, on June 3-4. Texas posted its program-record, third-straight 50-win season and went 11-2 in the NCAA Tournament. Texas finished the season 6-0 in elimination games. After dropping their WCWS opener to No. 8 Tennessee, 6-3, on May 28, Texas rattled off six-straight wins at Devon Park to repeat as National Champions. Texas became the fifth team in history to lose its WCWS opener and go on to win the title. White has 24 career wins at the WCWS, the sixth-most all-time and third-most by an active head coach. The Horns have played in the WCWS Championship Series in four of the last five seasons.
Senior Reese Atwood and juniors Teagan Kavan and Katie Stewart were named NFCA Second-Team All-Americans, while Atwood and senior right fielder Ashton Maloney became the first Longhorns to win NFCA Gold Glove awards. Kavan became the first two-time WCWS Most Outstanding Player in history with Stewart joining her on the WCWS All-Tournament team. Stewart became the program's first SEC Player of the Year and was a top-10 finalist for USA Softball's Collegiate Player of the Year award. Stewart established a single-season program record with 31 home runs, the fourth-most in the nation this season. Seven Longhorns earned All-SEC selection in Atwood, Kavan, Stewart, Kayden Henry, Viviana Martinez, Leighann Goode and Hannah Wells. Wells was named a Freshman All-American by D1Softball after breaking the program's freshman home run record with 15 in her first season on the Forty Acres.
In addition to the back-to-back national titles, Texas won the program's first SEC Tournament title and fifth overall conference tournament championship.
Texas set a single-season program record in home runs with 99 total. UT's .335 team batting average was the third-best single-season mark in program history. Texas also had the third-most runs (449), hits (577), RBI (411) and total bases (984) in single-season program history. Texas' .572 slugging percentage and .424 on-base percentage were the third-highest in program history. Texas' .318 batting average during conference play led the SEC while the Longhorns also paced the league in hits.
Texas is the first team since 2003-04 UCLA to lead the WCWS field in home runs and ERA.
