Published: August 11, 2008 02:01 pm            

New assistant joins O-State softball team

Oklahoma State softball welcomed a new staff member last week.

Tom Gray was named an assistant coach for the Cowgirls and will replace Matt Meuchel, who accepted the head coaching position at Nevada last month.

“(Gray) brings a lot of stability and experience,” OSU coach Rich Wieligman said Sunday in a phone interview. “He’s been in the game a long time. He brings a lot of what Coach Meuchel had and that’s what I was looking for.”

Gray spent the past seven seasons as co-head coach at Illinois-Chicago with Sarah O’Malley-Fisher. The duo compiled an overall record of 216-208 and claimed four regular-season championships in the Horizon League.

The Flames advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and ’04 under Gray’s direction. The 1986 Cal State-Northridge graduate coached four All-Americans, four conference Players of the Year and two league Pitchers of the Year during his time at UIC.

When Gray joined the Flames in 2000 as an assistant, the program went on to win both the Mid-Continent Conference regular season and tourney championships.

“I’m ecstatic to be joining the coaching staff at OSU,” Gray said in a press release. “When I visited the campus, I was completely impressed with the staff and facilities. I’m extremely happy that I’ll have the opportunity to get to work in that situation.”

Before moving to Chicago, Gray was head coach at Crossroads High in Santa Monica, Calif. He led the club to nine league championships and was named the California Interscholastic Federation Coach of the Year three times (1992, ’93 and ’96).

While in Santa Monica, Gray was also an assistant for the Orange County Batbusters, an ASA 18-and-under squad. He guided the group to a Gold National Championship in 1997 and a runner-up finish the following year.

“(Gray) has a lot of contacts out on the west coast to help in recruiting,” Wieligman said. “If we can combine the west coast with our Oklahoma kids, I think we can be pretty successful.”

Gray will join a Cowgirl squad that finished 26-25 last season with a 9-9 mark in Big 12 play — the school’s highest conference win total since 2003.

O-State returns eight starters in ’09 including junior pitcher Anna Whiddon and sophomore infielder Alysia Hamilton, who led the team in batting average (.344) last spring.

        

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