Aug. 19, 2009
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State softball head coach Kathy Van Wyk announced Wednesday the hiring of Mia Longfellow as an assistant coach at SDSU. The four-time all-Pac-10 selection and San Diego native (Ramona HS) will primarily work with the outfielders and will assist in all aspects of recruiting.
"We are extremely excited to be adding Mia to this staff," Van Wyk said. "She brings in six years of playing and coaching experience at Oregon State and UC Riverside under excellent staffs. Mia will give more individual attention to our outfielders while helping (assistant coach) Stacey (Nuveman) with the offense as well."
Longfellow comes to The Mesa after spending last year as an assistant coach at UC Riverside, where she worked predominantly with the infielders. In her one season with the Highlanders, Longfellow helped UCR improve in winning percentage (both overall and in the Big West Conference), triples, sacrifice bunts and fielding percentage.
Prior to UC Riverside, Longfellow spent one season as an undergraduate assistant coach at Oregon State, where she shined as a player for four years from 2004-07. Longfellow led the Beavers to four consecutive NCAA appearances, including a berth in the 2006 Women's College World Series.
Longfellow, who played shortstop, third base and left field while at OSU, earned all-Pac-10 conference accolades all four seasons, including second-team honors each of her final three years. Over her four seasons at Oregon State, Longfellow broke five program records, including four career marks - at-bats (775), hits (242), singles (192) and stolen bases (57) - and one single-season mark - stolen bases (18 in 2005). Overall, Longfellow's name appears 26 times in the Beaver record book with single-game tying bests in hits (four), runs (four) and home runs (two).
Longfellow graduated from OSU in 2007 with a double major in education and human development family science. She also played professionally for the ProFastpitch X-Treme Tour (PFX).
Longfellow rounds out a staff that includes the three-time Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year with 441 career victories (Van Wyk), a three-time Olympian (Nuveman), a four-time men's fastpitch All-American (volunteer assistant coach Steve Miner) and two-time NAIA All-American (director of operations Miranda Bleisch).