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CITY, N.D. (VCSU) – Valley City State University announced today that Michael Mook has been hired as head softball coach starting next week.
A former assistant at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., Mook replaces Elle Fracker, who recently accepted a head coaching job at Fort Lewis College in Colorado.
“We’re excited to have Michael take over our softball program,” said Jack Denholm, VCSU athletic director. “He brings a wealth of college softball experience and success, and he should be a great fit at the university.”
A native of Boscobel, Wis., Mook worked the previous six seasons as the top assistant coach for Gretta Melsted at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. He worked primarily with pitchers, but also coached other areas of the game. During his time at Augustana, pitchers earned several NCAA All American awards and the team made six straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
The 2015 Augustana team finished 53-11 overall and 28-2 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Mook hopes to turn his success and experience as an assistant coach into success as the head coach at VCSU.
“I’m really excited,” he said after accepting the job at VCSU. “Just getting a chance to talk with the players during the interview process, they seem like a good group that are going to work hard and are excited to get better. I think it’s going to be a really fun season for us.”
Mook will hit the ground running at VCSU as students report next week for the start of classes. Once all the logistics are worked out in the first week, Mook is looking forward to seeing his new team take the field.
“Once we get on the softball field, I’ll do a lot of evaluating,” he said. “We’ll watch them play a bit, do drills, situations, scenarios and scrimmages. Once we see what everybody can do, we’ll go on to the next step of figuring out what we need to work on.”
From 2005 to 2008, Mook was head softball coach at Hastings High School (Minn.). He graduated from Winona State in 2007 with a physics degree. Prior to joining the Augustana staff, Mook worked one year as an assistant coach for the University of Chicago-Illinois. He also was a co-head coach of the Minnesota Blizzard traveling team that recorded a 35-6 record and qualified for the USA/ASA National Tournament in 2008.
Valley City State University finished last season 24-22 overall and placed third in the North Star Athletic Association. VCSU has four scrimmages scheduled for this fall. Regular season games begin in February and March.