When Vann Stuedeman took over a softball program that last had a winning record in Southeastern Conference play in 2001, she knew a tough challenge was ahead of her.
Although she still has five months before her changes can be felt on the field, Stuedeman is doing everything in her power to change the program’s mentality off of the diamond.
“Everybody should look at softball at Mississippi State like it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” Stuedeman said after discussing options to enhance the appearance of the school’s softball complex with her assistants.
Stuedeman, who came to MSU after serving as an assistant at Alabama, has quickly caught on to what the athletic department as a whole has been aiming to do: reach out to the state of Mississippi.
Without being asked about Mississippi, Stuedeman referenced the Magnolia State well over a dozen times when going over her plans for the softball program. The lifelong Alabama resident and Birmingham native echoed the thoughts of Whit Waide, an Instructor in the Department of Political Science, who spoke at a recent welcome back meeting with the student athletes.
“He said ‘No matter where you’re from, you’re in Mississippi and you’re a Mississippian now’ and embraced the new folks,” Stuedeman said. “After it I walked up to him and I said ‘I was born and raised in Alabama, lived there my entire life, never lived outside the state lines, but now I am a Mississippian.'”
Declaring herself a Mississippian does not mean Stuedeman is staying put, however. Her staff has been recruiting in eight states, hoping to “be everywhere,” a piece of advice she picked up from Florida coach Tim Walton.
When not on the road, Stuedeman has been preparing her team for the upcoming season with daily workouts at 5 a.m., which junior Erin Nesbit described as something that might not be for the faint of heart.
“We’ve had ‘character building’ workouts so far, and those are physically demanding,” Nesbit said. “That’s all I’ll say.”
Thanks to the SEC lifting its restrictions on travel in the fall, Nesbit and company will be hitting the road to four locations in Mississippi, as well as one in Alabama, for a series of exhibitions, which Stuedeman hopes will raise publicity for the program. The team will also conduct free clinics at each exhibition.
With the softball signing period looming in November and the prospect of turning around a pitching staff that finished last in the SEC in 2011, the new coach has not wasted much time relaxing. She admitted sleep has been at a minimum, and that she will occasionally wake up in the middle of the night just to jot down an idea.
“I’m drowning, but boy, I’m swimming as fast as I can,” Stuedeman said. “I get up for air but then I get back busy.”
Stuedeman has not been alone in her work and has even received some help form an unexpected source: head football coach Dan Mullen. With all that is going on around the football program as they face higher expectations thatnit has seen a decade, Mullen took some time to talk to a softball recruit that was visiting the campus.
The camaraderie between the coaches has been evident recently, with a handful of coaches helping out volleyball coach Jenny Hazelwood last week by participating in a coaches challenge at halftime of a volleyball match, adding to an already exciting atmosphere with a record 3,024 fans in attendance.
“The environment here is everybody’s agenda is to help the other person, instead of an agenda of not,” Studemann said.
Whereas Nesbit said Stuedeman focused her entire first meeting with the team on how the girls should handle themselves off the field, senior Ka’ili Smith said the coach has been preaching, fixing the little things and believes the talent is comparable with the other SEC teams.
“She pushes paying attention to detail and that is the difference between winning and losing,” Smith said.
For Stuedeman, even though she spent more years than she would like to admit working as an assistant (she started coaching in the mid-‘90s), she said she is just lucky to make a living on a game that has been kind to her over the years.
“The state of Mississippi is important to me, and the sport of fastpitch softball is important to me,” Stuedeman said. “I eat and breathe and clothe and house myself on a game. How fortunate am I? It’s a dream to be able to do that.”