New ISU softball coach got early start

It did not take long for new Iowa State softball coach Stacy Gemeinhardt to realize she had chosen the right profession. The 27-year-old former Missouri standout has been chosen to turn the Cyclone program around after spending the past four years as the head coach at division two Emporia State. She says she wasn’t for certain that’s what she wanted to do, but now she says she wonders how she could’ve ever wanted to do anything else. It did not take long for Gemeinhardt to climb the coaching ladder. She became a head coach at the age of 24 when the coach left after she came in as an assistant. She says she was in the right place at the right time and got the athletic director to name her as the interim coach and then applied for the position.The Cyclones were 18-32 this past season, the ninth and final one under former coach Ruth Crowe. Gemeinhardt says the program can overcome the advantages the warmer weather schools have in the Big-12. She says there are ways to close the gaps, like having neat people that athletes want to play for. This past season Emporia State finished with a 54-13 record which included a trip to the NCAA regionals.