By Jim Richards
SCHMALLEN ERA SET TO BEGIN
Kristina Schmallen knows what it’s like to be a part of a champion ACCAC softball team and she’s of the opinion that she can guide a club to the top.
“If you look at the last six to 10 years of National Champions, at Division I or DII, a junior college softball team has won from the state of Arizona,” said Schmallen, who will replace the retiring Tony Maya as SMCC’s new softball coach at the end of the current season “The kids are here. We just have to get them.”
Schmallen was a member of the 2004 Pima Community College NJCAA Division I championship team and is currently an assistant softball coach at Kansas’ Fort Hays State University. She played softball at Tolleson Westview High School before moving on to Pima and then the University of New Mexico.
A head coaching position at the collegiate level is something Schmallen has always wanted. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was 8 or 9,” she said. “ All my cards are stacking up well.” Schmallen will enter one of the most difficult softball conferences in the nation and will go up against the likes of perennially nationally-ranked Mesa CC and Phoenix College, which will be going for its fifth consecutive national Division II title over the next few weeks.
“It’s a program that we’re going to have to build,” Schmallen said. “I think with the support system at the school and them making it a full-time job and being supportive 100 percent of what we’re going to do, it’s definitely going to be a program of change.”
She knows the area, especially the popular club softball scene. “I’ve grown up here,” she continued. “I’ve played here. Played travel ball for 11 years here. I’ve coached here. I did all my lessons at the indoor facility in Scottsdale. For our sport, we don’t really do a lot of the coaching out of high school. It’s mostly out of clubs sports. “I think with my network of club coaches and the high school coaches--I think, maybe Year 1 might be a little bit digging for kids--but after that, there’s no reason why we cannot compete for regionals and a national championship at South Mountain.” Coach Schmallen can be reached after May 9th at kristina.schmallen@smcmail.maricopa.edu Office 602-243-8242 or the SMCC athletic department 602-243-8236.