Ohio State announced on Monday that it has fired head softball coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly after 12 seasons leading the Buckeyes.
“On behalf of the department, I want to thank Kelly for her leadership of the program and for the positive impact, both on and off the field, on the many student-athletes who wore the Scarlet and Gray during her tenure,” said Mike Penner, Ohio State’s Executive Associate Director of Athletics.
Schoenly, who had one year remaining on her current contract, joined the program in 2013 after spending six seasons as head softball coach at Miami (Ohio). She accumulated a 367-226-1 record (155-113-1 in Big Ten) during her time leading the Buckeyes and helped the program advance to five NCAA Regionals, the latest occurring in the 2022 season.
Ohio State failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in the last two seasons, a stretch in which it accumulated a strong 64-40 overall record but just a 24-22 mark in the Big Ten. The team also did not advance past the second of the Big Ten Tournament in either of those campaigns.
The Buckeyes finished eighth in the Big Ten regular season standings this season and finished the year with a season-ending 5-1 loss to Wisconsin in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Schoenly leaves Columbus as the second-winningest coach in Ohio State softball program history, trailing only her predecessor Linda Kalafatis (1997-2012), who finished with a 538-358-0 record.
Ohio State said a search for the program’s ninth-ever head coach will begin immediately.
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