OMAHA, Neb. — D1Softball.com announced its Top 10 Head Coaching Hires of 2023 on Monday, with UTSA softball's Vann Stuedeman listed as the third-best hire out of 35 Division I softball leadership changes.
Stuedeman came to San Antonio in June of 2023 after most recently serving as a pitching coach at Illinois.
Before that, she amassed a career record of 276-189 (.594) as the head coach at Mississippi State (2012-19), logging seven winning seasons. Under her tutelage, the Bulldogs reached the NCAA Tournament seven times and amassed 33-plus wins in seven of her eight seasons at the helm.
Prior to her time at MSU, Stuedeman was the pitching coach at Alabama (2000-11), where she helped the Crimson Tide reach the Women's College World Series six times, claiming three SEC regular-season titles in the process. Her pitching staff at Bama maintained an ERA under 2.00 in eight of her 11 seasons, and she oversaw six All-American pitchers in Tuscaloosa.
In her journey to the SEC, she had a stint as the head coach at East Limestone HS and got her coaching start as a graduate assistant at West Alabama for two seasons before heading to the University of Alabama-Huntsville for three years as an assistant for her sister, Les Stuedeman.
Across her coaching career, Stuedeman has developed pitchers who've earned 12 All-America honors, 23 All-Region awards, 12 All-SEC accolades, three SEC Pitchers of the Year awards, an SEC Freshman of the Year accolade, and an SEC Tournament MVP winner. Her Division I pitching staffs have accumulated 313 shutouts, 31 no-hitters, and five perfect games.
A Birmingham, Alabama native, she graduated and played softball at Huntingdon College, where she was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame on Oct. 8, 2011, after an impressive playing career that saw two third-place finishes at the national tournament and All-America honors.
Set to embark on her inaugural season at the program's helm, Stuedeman inherits an 8-41 squad and will look to turn things around as the 2024 campaign officially begins on Thursday, Feb. 8, with the Runners competing at the Texas State Tournament.
Keep up with UTSA Softball all season long on goutsa.com, and by following the program on Facebook at /UTSASB, X (Twitter) @UTSASoftball, and on Instagram @utsasoftball.
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