Cowley Softball Staff

Head Coach Ed Hargrove

Ed Hargrove begins his 26th season as the head coach of the Lady Tigers, coming off a 2009 season in which they finished 52-7 overall and 26-0 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, good for a sixth consecutive conference championship.  The Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division title was the programs’s 16th with Hargrove as coach.  The Lady Tigers also won the Region VI District E championship qualifying them for the national tournament in Normal, IL where they finished 5th.

The 52 wins marked the 12th consecutive season of 40 or more victories for the Lady Tigers, and the 12th consecutive season the team was ranked in the top-20 of the NJCAA rankings as Cowley was ranked as high as third in the country during the 2009 season.

Hargrove is the winningest coach in Cowley sports history, and his 917 victories rank him first in the nation on the National Junior College Athletic Association’s wins list of active softball coaches.  Also, the 917 victories are the most by any coach in Region VI.

Hargrove was  named the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division Coach of the Year in 2009, the  seventh time he has won the award.  Hargrove earned Coach of the Year honors in 1997 (28-4 in the east), 1998 (28-4), 1999 (29-3), 2000 (29-3), 2004 (16-2), 2005 (18-0) and 2009 (26-0).

He won his 900th game on April 15, 2009 with a 21-0 win over conference foe Independence.  He was inducted into the NJCAA Softball Hall of Fame May 16, 2007 at the NJCAA National Tournament in Normal, IL.  Hargrove also received the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission “Outstanding Achievement Award” on June 26, 2007 in recognition of his 800th win and induction into the NJCAA Softball Hall of Fame.  Hargrove was inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.

Hargrove is a graduate of Arkansas City High School, Cowley, and Fort Hays State University.  He attended Cowley on a football scholarship and Fort Hays State on a baseball scholarship graduating in 1976.

Ed and his wife Linda, a former Cowley athlete and coach, have been married 39 years.  They have two children:  Tara, a 1994 graduate of Wichita State University, and Brian, a 1998 graduate of WSU.  Tara and husband Jeff have three children, Jacob 11, Brynn 8 and Halle 7.  Tara played 3rd base and 1st base for her dad at Cowley in 1991. Tara is a volunteer Room Mom for each of her three children at Martin Elementary School in Andover. Brian lives in Wichita and is the Director of Events and Marketing for the Greater Wichita Sports Commission.  He attended Cowley during the 1994-95 school year.  Linda, a standout athlete at Cowley, is a member of Cowley’s first Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame class, the Class of 2000.  She was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of her 17 years of coaching at Cowley, nine years as the women’s basketball coach at Wichita State University and nine years as coach/general manager in the WNBA with teams in Portland, OR and Washington D.C. Linda currently works as a consultant with the WNBA's newest team in Tulsa, OK.

Coach Hargrove can be reached at (620) 441-5263 or by email:  hargrove@cowley.edu.

ASSISTANT COACH SUZANNE KERR-UNRUH

Having achieved tremendous success as a softball player and coach at Cowley College, Suzanne Kerr-Unruh is back for her fifth season as assistant coach.

After a two-year hiatus, Kerr-Unruh returned to Cowley last season and helped the Lady Tigers win conference and region titles before placing fifth at the national tournament.

She helped Cowley capture back-to-back Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division titles and finish with a record of 74-18 during her two seasons as a player. While, the Lady Tigers have won four conference titles and gone 196-45 during Kerr-Unruh’s four years (2004-06, 2009) as an assistant.

Kerr-Unruh, who is one of only two Cowley softball players to be named a two-time All-American, helped lead the Lady Tigers to a pair of fourth place finishes at the national tournament during her first stint (2004-06) as the team’s assistant coach. She also helped coach the school’s only other two-time all-American in Ashly Bright, who broke four of Kerr-Unruh’s former records at the school.

Kerr-Unruh was inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame in February. She played at Cowley during the 1997 and 1998 seasons and still holds the school-record for triples in a season (13), triples in a career (25).

In 1997, Kerr-Unruh was named Jayhawk East Freshman of the Year, first-team All-Conference first baseman, first-team All-Region VI first baseman, and was selected as the team’s Offensive Player of the Year. In 1998, she was named Jayhawk East Most Valuable Player, a first-team All Jayhawk East outfielder, first-team All-Region VI outfielder, and was selected as the team’s Most Valuable Player.

The Derby High School alumnus went on to play two years at Fort Hays State University where she was named All-Conference (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) both years.

Kerr-Unruh served as the head junior varsity softball coach at Derby High School during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

She and her husband, Mike Unruh, have a two-year old daughter, Kinlee Kate Unruh.

Coach Unruh can be reached at (620) 442-0141 or by e-mail: unruhs@cowley.edu