Softball’s Championship Culture

By NATHAN WITT/Editor-In-Chief

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in Patriot Pulse, the magazine of Talon Student Media. Pick up a copy of the magazine for this and other stories in the orange racks around campus. 

UT Tyler’s softball team waited three years to be able to compete for a national championship. Once they got the chance, they wasted no time.

“The secret recipe is the culture,” Head Coach Mike Reed said. 

Since Coach Reed started the softball program in 2003, the Patriots have won seven conference championships, a Division III national championship in 2016 and a Division II national championship in 2024.

Advancing to a NCAA higher division requires a three-year waiting period before a team is allowed to compete for a national title. The team put that time to good use. 

‘THE OLD-SCHOOL WAY’

UT Tyler is one of a shrinking number of college teams that still make extra-effort plays like diving. The Patriots claim that their willingness to do whatever it takes is why they’re so successful.

“We try to do the old-school way of hard work and doing it right,” Coach Reed said. “It’s not about what’s at the top of the mountain. We truly spend our time talking about how we’re going to take each step.”

The Patriots are already gearing up for a 2025 run.

“People call it the off season, but that’s really when we put in the hardest work,” senior Sam Schott said. 

‘ONE STEP AT A TIME’

The big trophy is nothing more than confirmation their old-school culture really does what it promises. 

“It was just a relief off your shoulders that all that work really did pay off,” Schott said. 

The national championship win came from a culture 20 years in the making. 

“It wasn’t just our win, it was the hundred other alumni that came before us and put in the hard work too,” Schott said.

Patriots 2024 Record: 58-8

The Patriots have never ended a season with a negative win-loss ratio. Coach Reed has a career success rate of 83.5%. He said they never focused on the titles or accolades. 

“Each year the journey starts over,” he said. “You start at the bottom of the mountain and focus on one step at a time.”

‘GOOD AS IT CAN BE’

There is more to winning than talent, he said. “Good players, that’s half of the recipe.”

The other half is the mentality they all share to perform at their highest level. As the UT Tyler softball team looks toward the future, that’s all they’re thinking about. 

“You’re trying to create that hunger again,” Coach Reed said. “We’re trying to make sure that every single day our process is as good as it can be and we’re doing it the right way.”

Added Schott, “There was a sense that this past year’s national championship was simply the outcome from the hard work and effort. When you work that hard, you can just come out with confidence.”

Hard work, discipline, hunger, unity and sacrifice are the ingredients to a championship culture, according to Schott, Reed and other team members. 

From the looks of it, they might be right.