SAN DIEGO -- Kathy Van Wyk, the all-time winningest coach in the Mountain West and in San Diego State history, announced today that she is retiring as the head softball coach at SDSU.
Van Wyk, who enters the weekend with an 805-555-1 record (.592), led the Aztecs to a league-record seven regular-season MW titles and 11 NCAA tournament appearances, including eight straight trips from 2008-15, in her 25 years on The Mesa. Additionally, Van Wyk has been named the MW Coach of the Year five times over her career.
Under Van Wyk's leadership, San Diego State has had eight All-America selections, 41 NFCA all-West Region picks, 86 all-conference honorees (84 in the MW) and 24 MW major awards, including nine MW Pitchers of the Year, nine MW Freshmen of the Year, four MW Players of the Year and two MW Defensive Players of the Year. Van Wyk has also had 139 player/pitcher of the week winners, including 132 in the MW.
"Kathy's impact on the softball program and athletic department overall has been nothing short of remarkable," director of athletics John David Wicker said. "Reaching the 800-win plateau is a testament to her hard work, dedication and desire for excellence. But it is the countless student-athlete lives that she positively impacted that will be her lasting legacy."
Prior to Van Wyk's inaugural head coaching season in 1997, San Diego State had losing records in 18 of its previous 20 years of Division I softball. SDSU boasted just a .413 winning percentage up to that point with a 400-569-5 record.
Since Van Wyk's arrival, the Aztecs have compiled a .600 or higher winning percentage in 15 of the last 21 campaigns. In addition, SDSU has been .500 or better in 21 of Van Wyk's 25 years. Van Wyk is also the first Aztec softball coach to achieve a top-25 ranking, four 40-win seasons and is the fastest to both 100 and 200 career wins in the history of the program.
Van Wyk joined San Diego State in 1995, working for two years as the co-head coach with Linda Spradley before taking the reigns of the program in 1997.
Van Wyk's breakout season came in 2001 when the Aztecs made their first NCAA appearance. Back when it was an eight-team, double-elimination regional (the current setup is a four-team, double-elimination regional), SDSU advanced all the way to the regional final before falling to eventual Women's College World Series runner-up UCLA.
In 2002, San Diego State won its first of a league-record seven MW regular-season championships as Van Wyk won her first of five MW Coach of the Year awards.
The Aztecs captured another league championship in 2003 and made their second appearance in the NCAA tournament.
SDSU had its best season to date in 2006 with a 34-15 record, culminating with a runner-up finish to host UCLA in the NCAA Regional as Van Wyk was named the league's coach of the year.
In 2008, the Aztecs set or tied school records in 11 categories, including wins (44) and win percentage (.721, 44-17). The 44-17 mark was even more remarkable considering the team played a schedule that featured games against seven of the eight WCWS teams from the year before, seven of the top-10 RPI teams and 12 of the top-25 and 23 of the top-50. San Diego State, which was ranked as high as No. 17 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball national poll, went on to pick up 10 victories against nationally ranked teams, including a 5-2 mark against its seven 2007 WCWS opponents. Van Wyk was rewarded for the team's accomplishments when she was named the 2008 MW Coach of the Year for the third time in her career.
The 2008 NCAA appearance began a stretch of eight consecutive appearances to the NCAA Regionals, including three trips to the regional final. In all, Van Wyk has 16 victories in the NCAA tournament with four regional final appearances.
SDSU started a run of dominance in 2012, winning three straight league championships (2012-14) with Van Wyk being named the MW Coach of the Year in both 2013 and 2014. In 2013, San Diego State became the first team in the league's history to sweep the MW awards, winning the player of the year, pitcher of the year, freshman of the year and coach of the year (there are now five awards).
In 2015, San Diego State once again made the regional final before falling to host and eventual WCWS participant UCLA.
In 2017, SDSU led the country with a .356 average, shattering their previous best of .310. In all, the Aztecs set seven school records, including batting average, on-base percentage (.418), slugging percentage (.516), hits (497), RBIs (295), sacrifice flies (23) and runs (324, tied).
Prior to San Diego State, Van Wyk spent 10 seasons as a player and an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton. She was an assistant coach from 1983-87, helping the Titans to the 1986 NCAA national title.
After leaving Fullerton, she became a pitching instructor at the Rod Carew Baseball School in Anaheim, Calif., from 1987-89.
In 1989, she moved to Azzano Decimo, Italy, where she was the head coach and pitcher for the Azzanase club. She guided a team that had recorded just one win the previous season to its first playoff berth.
From January to March 1990, she was the pitching coach for the Walkerville Softball Club in Adelaide, Australia.
She then returned to Cal State Fullerton as an assistant for the 1991 season.
In addition to coaching the Aztec softball team, she was the pitching coach for the Dutch national team leading up to and during the 1998 World Championships in Japan.
As a player, Van Wyk established herself as one of the top pitchers in the history of collegiate softball, enjoying a phenomenal 1982 season with a 35-1 mark and a 0.18 ERA. The victories remain a school single-season record and her .972 winning percentage was an NCAA Division I record (30 or more decisions) until 2001 when Jennie Finch of Arizona went 32-0. Her ERA is still eighth-best in Division I history. Her phenomenal season included four no-hitters, six one-hitters, back-to-back perfect games, 26 shutouts (ninth most in NCAA history in a single season) and 270 strikeouts.
Throughout her career, she won numerous awards, including All-America honors and the Broderick Award, which is given annually to the nation's top collegiate player. She was also named the WCAA Player of the Year and won an NCAA postgraduate scholarship with a 3.43 grade-point average.
Van Wyk was a member of the U.S. softball team in 1985 and 1989 and is a five-time Amateur Softball Association All-American.
Van Wyk began her collegiate playing career at Texas Women's University, where she garnered 1979 Texas AIAW Player of the Year accolades and was inducted into the TWU Hall of Fame. She transferred to CS Fullerton in 1981 after TWU dropped its softball program and is in their hall of fame as well.