The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Softball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Texas head softball coach Mike White announced on July 18, 2018, the addition of Kerry Shaw as an assistant coach on the Longhorns staff.
“I am very excited to bring Coach Shaw to the Forty Acres,” White said. “I believe that he will lead our team to new heights offensively. As a coach, he has been successful in improving each of the teams he has worked with offensively over the past several years. As a player, he competed at the highest level, gaining knowledge and experience that will definitely benefit UT softball in the years ahead.”
A decorated fastpitch player, who also enjoyed a successful career in the minor leagues as part of the San Francisco Giants (MLB) organization, Shaw possesses more than 25 years of coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate levels.
He spent the last three seasons (2016-18) as head coach at the University of Mary (Division II) in Bismarck, N.D. With the Marauders, he was in charge of all recruiting and evaluation of prospective student-athletes, practice planning and implementation, scouting, video analysis and game planning, travel and budgeting, fundraising and student-athlete academic monitoring.
During the 2018 campaign, Shaw tutored a pair of All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) selections in outfielder Emma Noble and infielder Kylie Alto (.340 batting average, six HR’s, 23 RBIs). Noble was chosen as the NSIC Softball Newcomer of the Year after leading the University of Mary in slugging percentage (.709), on-base percentage (.429) and HR’s (10) while rating second on the squad in batting average (.359) and RBIs (28).
Prior to his time at the University of Mary, Shaw spent the 2015 campaign as a Division I assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
“I am beyond thrilled to receive this opportunity to work alongside Coach White, Coach (Chelsea) Spencer and the rest of the great softball staff and administration at the University of Texas,” Shaw said. “The chance to work with such established winners only comes along once in a lifetime. I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
At the interscholastic level, Shaw served from 2010-14 as both the softball and baseball coach at Odessa (Mo.) High School, leading the baseball team to conference and district titles and the softball squad to a state playoff appearance. He also had a successful career as the head baseball coach for Grain Valley (Mo.) High School from 1994-2002, leading his team to three conference championships and two state playoff appearances.
Additionally, Shaw also coached an American Legion baseball team in Oak Grove, Mo., from 2009-2012, and was the assistant coach from 1992-2016 in the Ban Johnson Amateur Collegiate Baseball Summer League in Kansas City, Mo.
Before venturing into coaching, Shaw began his own standout playing career on the baseball team at William Jewell College (Liberty, Mo.) from 1984-86 before heading to the University of South Carolina-Aiken for the 1987 campaign. From there, he went on to play from 1988-91 as part of the San Francisco Giants organization (MLB) with minor league teams based in Salt Lake City (Utah), Salinas (Calif.) and San Jose (Calif.), hitting .265 over a 288-game career with 47 extra-base hits and 121 RBIs.
Following his time in the minor leagues, Shaw began a successful fastpitch career in St. Joseph, Mo. He played a part in winning five ASA Major National Championships (including one in 2002 for Players Casino alongside Texas head coach Mike White) and the 2002 ISC World Championship while earning seven ASA All-American and two ISC All-World selections. For his outstanding efforts, he was recently inducted into the Missouri ASA Softball Hall of Fame.
A two-time ASA Major Tournament Most Valuable Player in 2000 and 2001, Shaw was also a part of the U.S. Men’s National Fastpitch Team from 2001-03, winning a gold medal at the 2002 Pan Am Qualifier in Guatemala and a silver medal (as a teammate of Texas head coach Mike White) at the 2003 Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic.
Shaw earned a bachelor’s degree in health & physical education from Missouri Western State College (St. Joseph, Mo.) in 1993. He is married to Cheri and has three children, Tiffany, Hillary and Zac, and two grandsons, Aiden and Jackson.
