The University of Mississippi Athletics
TRANSCRIPT: Jamie Trachsel and Keith Carter Press Conference
4/28/2020 | Softball
Trachsel was officially named Ole Miss head coach on April 24
OXFORD, Miss. – For the first time since Jamie Trachsel was named head coach of the Ole Miss softball program on April 24, Coach Trachsel and Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter met with the media on Tuesday in a virtual press conference. The transcript from the press conference is below.
Opening Statement…
"We really couldn't be more excited to have Jamie on board as our new softball coach. When we started this process, she was somebody that we identified really early on as somebody that we wanted to get to know and spend some time with. We were able to interview her via Zoom and it went really, really well. I was telling somebody else during another interview that while we were interviewing her the rest of us on the committee were texting each other behind the scenes how impressed we were with her even five or 10 minutes into the interview. Obviously, she has a great background with a lot of success at North Dakota State and then onto Iowa State and Minnesota. She's taken her team to the College World Series, which is obviously the level we want to be at here at Ole Miss. We feel like our program and its foundation is set up to take that next step and we think Jamie is the coach to do that for us. We were really happy to go to the second round of interviews. We were actually able to get Jamie to Oxford and let her spend a little bit of time here the middle of last week. I know that was important for her, having not been in the South and worked or lived in this area. We wanted to get her down and check it out and I think she fell in love with Oxford just like we all do. We're really excited to have her. The expectation is high and what I really loved in our conversation is she referenced winning a national championship multiple times. That's what we're looking to do, we want to get to Oklahoma City and be knocking on that door and have the opportunity to bring a national championship to Oxford."
On what impressed about Coach Trachsel during the interview process…
"I believe we interviewed six people that kind of made the first cut of interviews. We had a pretty strong field and when we met Jamie, I was just really impressed with her composure. You could tell that she was really mature and she understood the world of softball. I could tell that she was a winner. All the questions we asked her she had really in-depth answers. What I also liked is she asked a lot of great questions. I think that's always important when you're interviewing a candidate that they've done their research, that they're asking questions that are meaningful and have some substance to them. You could tell she had done her research on Ole Miss. The opportunity to coach in the SEC and at Ole Miss was something she was very interested in. It was pretty obvious early that she was going to be our top candidate and we are very fortunate to reel her in."
On whether finding a mature coach was a deciding factor in the decision process…
"Yes, we needed someone that could come in and stabilize. I think that our young ladies have been through a lot. When Coach (Trachsel) met with the team, there was a sense of being ready to move forward and have some stability. It was a great meeting and I think they got along very well in that initial meeting. I know she's having follow ups with the individual players now. But there was a sense of it's time to move forward and with Jamie I felt like she could come in with a long history of being a head coach and understanding lots of personalities and dealing with situations over the years. It just felt like she'd be a great person to come in and do that and obviously she's already made a great connection with our team."
On the future of Ole Miss softball…
"We've really seen over the last three or four years how excited our fanbase has gotten and rallied around softball. The Regionals have been awesome and we've had to bring in extra seating. There are just so many things that we feel we can continue to grow. We had done a master plan for softball a couple years ago and kind of put it on the backburner, but we're going to revisit that. We talked to Jamie about that during this process. Facilities are going to be a big part of this. Obviously, we don't know where we're going to land after COVID-19, when this is going to end and what expenses will look like. But when we get back in the world of talking about capital projects, softball is going to be a priority and one that we're going to look at. Now it'll be great and we can visit that master plan with Coach Trachsel and get her input on some things. We understand the field and the things that the student-athletes have are pretty good, including the new locker room in the Gillom Center and things inside of there. But we need to do some things for our fans, new seating, new press area where you guys can come and watch the game where you can fit in. What we have found when we start hosting these Regionals that are on television is we don't have the infrastructure to handle that. We'll revisit the plan with Coach (Trachsel) and see what makes sense. We want to put the resources in because we think softball can be something that is really great at Ole Miss and something that can be a long-term investment that people really enjoy."
On the process for reopening facilities as states slowly open back up…
"We spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks talking about just that. We have 11 states in the footprint of the SEC. What we would love to do, and really what we've done since about March 13 when all this started, is we've made a lot of decisions at the conference level that have affected all institutions and all athletic departments. We would love to continue to do that, but we also know that just based on the cases and where the states are with COVID and those types of things some are going to open up sooner than others. We're seeing Tennessee opening up restaurants and Georgia is also opening up. We have to talk about that and we have to be equitable, but we're talking on our campus about a way to get our student-athletes back on campus for the summer. That's important for us because we want to get the fall started on time and that's our goal. We have got to get our students back and get them back in shape. That July 1st date is kind of standing out if we get too far past that it's going to be hard maybe to start on time. We're looking at some things there, but this thing is so everchanging and evolving, it changes every single day. We're just trying to think about all scenarios and trying to get students back. We're going to get them back eventually. We just have to make sure we're doing it the right way. I know our students are ready to get back and our coaches are ready to get their hands on them for sure."
Opening Statement…
"I just want to thank Keith and the search committee for this opportunity. You win with people and you build successful programs with people and it didn't take long to realize that this is a great administration that believes in me as a head coach, believes in me as a person and trusts me to lead their softball program. When I went to Oxford you could tell the feel was very family oriented and committed to a level of excellence that I want to be a part of. The opportunity presents itself to come down and be part of something special while we compete for championships year in and year out. I want to come down and try and lead this program to the Women's College World Series and try to ruin a couple of teams' day and take home that national championship. I'm excited for the opportunity and ready to get down to Oxford and get to work."
On looking ahead and unifying the team…
"Coaching changes are hard. It doesn't really matter how they facilitate, it's hard. There's a lot of different emotions, opinions and conversations that take place behind the scenes. The dynamic of your team is going to be impacted. What I'm looking forward to is coming down to Oxford and putting a great staff together and uniting everybody. We'll get everybody back on the same page, make it simple again and get the team excited for being student-athletes. Also, being passionate for what you do and uniting everyone with our goals, mindset and work ethic that we're going to have to attack and accomplish those goals. I think us getting our staff together, reaching out, developing the relationships with these young women will be a good starting point. From where we are at right now with the quarantine, we're going to be able to do that even though we're not able to get out on the recruiting trail for another few weeks. We will really get to focus on the players that are currently committed to Ole Miss and start building those relationships with us coaches. When we are back together we can hit the ground running and go from there. But I think the consistent basis, the unifying messages, the like-mindedness of getting these kids excited about what they're doing again and moving everybody forward."
On the decision to leave Minnesota…
"I wasn't looking to leave, but like every good recruit you should always be open to new opportunities and I was. I had some more familiarity with Ole Miss because our (Minnesota) assistant coach Katie Rietkovich (Browder) had talked about it for so long. She loved her experience, she loved the people, they were successful in recent years when she was there. So, I had a little familiarity with Ole Miss, but I wasn't looking to leave or any of that. There were some other opportunities where people reached out and I declined those. When it's the right fit at the right time you just kind of know. I'm always going to be drawn toward people and the level of commitment and how people are treated and the opportunity. Talking with Keith Carter and the rest of the search committee and the feel of it, that's something that will always attract me to a place and an opportunity. I think that's how I am as a coach and how our staff will be, very relationship-based and very player-development friendly. This was the right feel. I'll be honest, it's hard to leave home, but each opportunity presents something different and I'm excited for what's in front of me."
On what it will take to push the team to the next level…
"Keep working hard and speak it into existence. Work at the level that you need to commit to in order to challenge and play at your best when it matters the most in those moments. Obviously, developing your current players, which our teaching staff will do. Recruiting is a big part of that, bringing in the right players that are still the right fit. Doing things the right way on and off the field. But first and foremost, I need to make sure I can get a staff that can come in here that is capable of being passionate and being experts in our field to be able to develop our players, which we are responsible for doing. We will continue to build our players, work on the mentality and physicality piece of it and make sure we're emotionally in control of what we're doing as well as continue bringing in great recruits that believe in Ole Miss and the opportunity that's there along with what the SEC presents. You can put the right people in the right place at the right time and you can do some pretty special things. It's hard to win consistently at a certain level. When you do have those special years when you put those things together, you cherish them and they make you hungry for more and make you hungry to work tirelessly to continue to go after what you want."
On compiling her coaching staff and meeting the current team…
"I'm working on my staff right now. That's been the focus for this week. This process seems a little longer, but this all started Thursday night through the weekend. Then, connecting with the players again. I had a chance to do that late last week, which was great, so I want to be able to reach back out to them. I also want to watch some tape for when I have individual meetings with them so I can put faces to stats and their backgrounds. I'll collectively start diving into this team with the personnel we have and what our roster looks like with the communication and evaluation piece of the video over the next few weeks."
On the current Ole Miss roster…
"I don't want to go too far into it because I haven't done enough research just yet to comment on that, but they we're just in the Super Regionals in 2019 and there are a lot of players that are still on this roster. I know we're really excited about the recruits that are coming in with the 2020 class. The combination of the existing personnel and players that are coming into it and with us taking a deep dive into potential players that may be available and may be able to help with this program to continue to move this team in the right direction. We're open to all scenarios, but first and foremost we've just got to dive into this team. There are winners on this team. There are a lot of kids on this team that have been very successful and a part of a lot of these championships and a part of the build to the Regional and Super Regional level and that's exciting."
For all Ole Miss softball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball, on Facebook at Ole Miss Softball and on Instagram at Instagram.com/olemisssoftball.
| OLE MISS VICE CHANCELLOR FOR INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS KEITH CARTER |
Opening Statement…
"We really couldn't be more excited to have Jamie on board as our new softball coach. When we started this process, she was somebody that we identified really early on as somebody that we wanted to get to know and spend some time with. We were able to interview her via Zoom and it went really, really well. I was telling somebody else during another interview that while we were interviewing her the rest of us on the committee were texting each other behind the scenes how impressed we were with her even five or 10 minutes into the interview. Obviously, she has a great background with a lot of success at North Dakota State and then onto Iowa State and Minnesota. She's taken her team to the College World Series, which is obviously the level we want to be at here at Ole Miss. We feel like our program and its foundation is set up to take that next step and we think Jamie is the coach to do that for us. We were really happy to go to the second round of interviews. We were actually able to get Jamie to Oxford and let her spend a little bit of time here the middle of last week. I know that was important for her, having not been in the South and worked or lived in this area. We wanted to get her down and check it out and I think she fell in love with Oxford just like we all do. We're really excited to have her. The expectation is high and what I really loved in our conversation is she referenced winning a national championship multiple times. That's what we're looking to do, we want to get to Oklahoma City and be knocking on that door and have the opportunity to bring a national championship to Oxford."
On what impressed about Coach Trachsel during the interview process…
"I believe we interviewed six people that kind of made the first cut of interviews. We had a pretty strong field and when we met Jamie, I was just really impressed with her composure. You could tell that she was really mature and she understood the world of softball. I could tell that she was a winner. All the questions we asked her she had really in-depth answers. What I also liked is she asked a lot of great questions. I think that's always important when you're interviewing a candidate that they've done their research, that they're asking questions that are meaningful and have some substance to them. You could tell she had done her research on Ole Miss. The opportunity to coach in the SEC and at Ole Miss was something she was very interested in. It was pretty obvious early that she was going to be our top candidate and we are very fortunate to reel her in."
On whether finding a mature coach was a deciding factor in the decision process…
"Yes, we needed someone that could come in and stabilize. I think that our young ladies have been through a lot. When Coach (Trachsel) met with the team, there was a sense of being ready to move forward and have some stability. It was a great meeting and I think they got along very well in that initial meeting. I know she's having follow ups with the individual players now. But there was a sense of it's time to move forward and with Jamie I felt like she could come in with a long history of being a head coach and understanding lots of personalities and dealing with situations over the years. It just felt like she'd be a great person to come in and do that and obviously she's already made a great connection with our team."
On the future of Ole Miss softball…
"We've really seen over the last three or four years how excited our fanbase has gotten and rallied around softball. The Regionals have been awesome and we've had to bring in extra seating. There are just so many things that we feel we can continue to grow. We had done a master plan for softball a couple years ago and kind of put it on the backburner, but we're going to revisit that. We talked to Jamie about that during this process. Facilities are going to be a big part of this. Obviously, we don't know where we're going to land after COVID-19, when this is going to end and what expenses will look like. But when we get back in the world of talking about capital projects, softball is going to be a priority and one that we're going to look at. Now it'll be great and we can visit that master plan with Coach Trachsel and get her input on some things. We understand the field and the things that the student-athletes have are pretty good, including the new locker room in the Gillom Center and things inside of there. But we need to do some things for our fans, new seating, new press area where you guys can come and watch the game where you can fit in. What we have found when we start hosting these Regionals that are on television is we don't have the infrastructure to handle that. We'll revisit the plan with Coach (Trachsel) and see what makes sense. We want to put the resources in because we think softball can be something that is really great at Ole Miss and something that can be a long-term investment that people really enjoy."
On the process for reopening facilities as states slowly open back up…
"We spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks talking about just that. We have 11 states in the footprint of the SEC. What we would love to do, and really what we've done since about March 13 when all this started, is we've made a lot of decisions at the conference level that have affected all institutions and all athletic departments. We would love to continue to do that, but we also know that just based on the cases and where the states are with COVID and those types of things some are going to open up sooner than others. We're seeing Tennessee opening up restaurants and Georgia is also opening up. We have to talk about that and we have to be equitable, but we're talking on our campus about a way to get our student-athletes back on campus for the summer. That's important for us because we want to get the fall started on time and that's our goal. We have got to get our students back and get them back in shape. That July 1st date is kind of standing out if we get too far past that it's going to be hard maybe to start on time. We're looking at some things there, but this thing is so everchanging and evolving, it changes every single day. We're just trying to think about all scenarios and trying to get students back. We're going to get them back eventually. We just have to make sure we're doing it the right way. I know our students are ready to get back and our coaches are ready to get their hands on them for sure."
| Ole Miss Head Coach Jamie Trachsel |
Opening Statement…
"I just want to thank Keith and the search committee for this opportunity. You win with people and you build successful programs with people and it didn't take long to realize that this is a great administration that believes in me as a head coach, believes in me as a person and trusts me to lead their softball program. When I went to Oxford you could tell the feel was very family oriented and committed to a level of excellence that I want to be a part of. The opportunity presents itself to come down and be part of something special while we compete for championships year in and year out. I want to come down and try and lead this program to the Women's College World Series and try to ruin a couple of teams' day and take home that national championship. I'm excited for the opportunity and ready to get down to Oxford and get to work."
On looking ahead and unifying the team…
"Coaching changes are hard. It doesn't really matter how they facilitate, it's hard. There's a lot of different emotions, opinions and conversations that take place behind the scenes. The dynamic of your team is going to be impacted. What I'm looking forward to is coming down to Oxford and putting a great staff together and uniting everybody. We'll get everybody back on the same page, make it simple again and get the team excited for being student-athletes. Also, being passionate for what you do and uniting everyone with our goals, mindset and work ethic that we're going to have to attack and accomplish those goals. I think us getting our staff together, reaching out, developing the relationships with these young women will be a good starting point. From where we are at right now with the quarantine, we're going to be able to do that even though we're not able to get out on the recruiting trail for another few weeks. We will really get to focus on the players that are currently committed to Ole Miss and start building those relationships with us coaches. When we are back together we can hit the ground running and go from there. But I think the consistent basis, the unifying messages, the like-mindedness of getting these kids excited about what they're doing again and moving everybody forward."
On the decision to leave Minnesota…
"I wasn't looking to leave, but like every good recruit you should always be open to new opportunities and I was. I had some more familiarity with Ole Miss because our (Minnesota) assistant coach Katie Rietkovich (Browder) had talked about it for so long. She loved her experience, she loved the people, they were successful in recent years when she was there. So, I had a little familiarity with Ole Miss, but I wasn't looking to leave or any of that. There were some other opportunities where people reached out and I declined those. When it's the right fit at the right time you just kind of know. I'm always going to be drawn toward people and the level of commitment and how people are treated and the opportunity. Talking with Keith Carter and the rest of the search committee and the feel of it, that's something that will always attract me to a place and an opportunity. I think that's how I am as a coach and how our staff will be, very relationship-based and very player-development friendly. This was the right feel. I'll be honest, it's hard to leave home, but each opportunity presents something different and I'm excited for what's in front of me."
On what it will take to push the team to the next level…
"Keep working hard and speak it into existence. Work at the level that you need to commit to in order to challenge and play at your best when it matters the most in those moments. Obviously, developing your current players, which our teaching staff will do. Recruiting is a big part of that, bringing in the right players that are still the right fit. Doing things the right way on and off the field. But first and foremost, I need to make sure I can get a staff that can come in here that is capable of being passionate and being experts in our field to be able to develop our players, which we are responsible for doing. We will continue to build our players, work on the mentality and physicality piece of it and make sure we're emotionally in control of what we're doing as well as continue bringing in great recruits that believe in Ole Miss and the opportunity that's there along with what the SEC presents. You can put the right people in the right place at the right time and you can do some pretty special things. It's hard to win consistently at a certain level. When you do have those special years when you put those things together, you cherish them and they make you hungry for more and make you hungry to work tirelessly to continue to go after what you want."
On compiling her coaching staff and meeting the current team…
"I'm working on my staff right now. That's been the focus for this week. This process seems a little longer, but this all started Thursday night through the weekend. Then, connecting with the players again. I had a chance to do that late last week, which was great, so I want to be able to reach back out to them. I also want to watch some tape for when I have individual meetings with them so I can put faces to stats and their backgrounds. I'll collectively start diving into this team with the personnel we have and what our roster looks like with the communication and evaluation piece of the video over the next few weeks."
On the current Ole Miss roster…
"I don't want to go too far into it because I haven't done enough research just yet to comment on that, but they we're just in the Super Regionals in 2019 and there are a lot of players that are still on this roster. I know we're really excited about the recruits that are coming in with the 2020 class. The combination of the existing personnel and players that are coming into it and with us taking a deep dive into potential players that may be available and may be able to help with this program to continue to move this team in the right direction. We're open to all scenarios, but first and foremost we've just got to dive into this team. There are winners on this team. There are a lot of kids on this team that have been very successful and a part of a lot of these championships and a part of the build to the Regional and Super Regional level and that's exciting."
For all Ole Miss softball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball, on Facebook at Ole Miss Softball and on Instagram at Instagram.com/olemisssoftball.
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