After serving for seven seasons, Chantiel Wilson will not be returning as the head coach for the softball team. Athletic Director Jared Mosley informed Wilson her contract will not be renewed when it runs out at the end of this month.
After Mosley conducted a postseason evaluation conducted, he determined it was time to make a change.
“I am constantly evaluating our athletic programs, and given the season we had this year, we felt that we needed to have a change in the leadership of the program,” he said.
The Wildcats came into the season with high expectations after being picked to finish second in the Lone Star Conference in the LSC preseason poll. But the season never lived up to the expectations. The Wildcats stumbled out of the gate to a 9-17 start and never got back on track, finishing the season with a disappointing 21-31 record and a 5-12 record in the LSC.
According to Mosley, the underwhelming season was not the only factor in the ultimate decision not to bring back Wilson.
“It wasn’t all about the record of wins and losses; we owe it to our athletes and our students to be different, and we just felt we needed a change.” Mosley said.
Although he would not cite specific reasons, Mosley did say it was not based on one particular aspect of the program.
“I can’t really give a specific number of how much one thing contributed to this decision or another,” he said. “We just looked at the program as a whole and made the decision.”
Wilson, a Wildcat standout in 1997-98, came to the fledgling program seven years ago and helped to turn it around. She led the Wildcats to four NCAA postseason tournaments – the only four in program history – and a record of 195-137. Last season, Wilson led the Wildcats to a program-record 43 wins and an LSC South Division title.
In a press release Monday afternoon, Mosley thanked Wilson for her service as the softball program’s head coach.
Mosley said the Department of Athletics is hoping to move quickly into the process of finding a replacement for Wilson, wanting to give the new head coach time to get settled before the next school year.
“We want to get someone in here fairly quickly to take over this program,” he said. “We want someone who has some experience in the NCAA, but we also need to find a coach who buys into our mission; otherwise it’s hard to have the kind of success we want to have here at ACU.”
