"THIS IS A DESTINATION JOB" -- HOLLY MEETS THE MEDIA
It's been a whirlwind 48 hours for Coach Aprile, flying into Louisville on Tuesday, meeting with the media and then the team Wednesday and starting off Thursday on Howie Lindsey's "Louisville First" radio show. From all accounts, Holly is quite excited to be here, loves the city, facilities, administration, campus and city.
A destination job. It was her thoughts about Louisville and Louisville athletics the first time she ever stepped onto campus -- back in her assistant coaching days at Pitt. Now that she's arrived, she outlined some of the things she wants to accomplish at her destination.
She spoke of improving on the already strong tradition of Louisville Softball and taking it to new heights. That would involve taking the Cards to their first-ever Softball College World Series appearance. She's also a fan of Louisville Baseball's Dan McDonnell and cited him as a role model on how to build a successful program. Holly stresses scoring runs anyway you can, defense and pitching. She's a former pitcher, something she and A.D. Vince Tyra have in common, and vowed to develop a strong pitching arsenal at Louisville.Holly met with the media in the YUM Practice Facilities Interview room on the first floor. A place Cardinal Couple columnist are well familiar with...attending conferences there for Jeff Walz and Scott Teeter. The room was full of media columnists, reporters, television cameras, talk show hosts, a few players, UofL administration (including Vince Tyra, who introduced her to start off the press conference) and sports information directors.
Holly believes in learning from mistakes -- as she pointed out, you're going to have them in the course of the season -- but stressing the fact that she wanted to see her players "fail forward". That means learning from them, and avoiding committing the same ones again. It's a philosophy we've heard many times from Louisville head women's basketball coach Jeff Walz and Louisville head lacrosse coach Scott Teeter.
She takes over a team that went 33-20 in 2018, returns their top five hitters (Funke, Hensley, Melton, Ferguson and Newman) top five pitchers (Hensley, Watson, Snyder, Paige Schindler and Hale) and narrowly missed a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. There are positions to fill...a strong center-fielder and team leader in Nicole Pufahl has graduated. Steady utility player Alison Szydlowski, catcher Jenna Jordan and second-baseman Jamie Soles have graduated.
When you hear Holly speak, it is immediately obvious that there is a passion, a fire and a dedication in her words, descriptions and in her voice. To match that drive and desire with the resources available at the University of Louisville has the potential to create great things at Louisville Softball. She made a great first impression. I doubt there are many that will out-work her in her recruiting, teaching and mentoring her players. Reaction, of course, by many to her will be simplified to her win/loss record, who she brings in and what she does with what she currently has on campus. I'd encourage readers to give her ample time to build Louisville Softball her way. I think you'll like the end result.
Welcome to the "Viile", Holly. Do well here and add to the proud tradition of Louisville Women's Athletics. The Louisville airport has a banner that reads "Success Is Created Here." She saw that on her way to baggage claim. She'll get her chance to live up to that phrase.
You came in, you had your control, threw strikes and produced a strong performance. Consider this columnist quite impressed.
Be envious no more, Holly. You're here.
You can see/hear a brief promo for her at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7HW6SByMI
Note: When there are a bunch of electronic devices in the interview room, like yesterday, any recordings I try to do in there are accompanied by a annoying clicking, static noise. Nevertheless, if you want to hear the entire presser, follow the link below. Sorry about the quality.
Holly Aprile Introductory Presser
paulie
xxxxx
It sounds like a dynamic beginning for Holly Aprile. I'll be pulling for her to succeed here at Louisville. It looks like she has a solid nucleus to build around her first year and we'll see how she recruits. I give her a "thumbs up" -- Wait, that's a umpire signal someone is out. How about a double fist pump?
ReplyDeleteCurtis "Calls them like he sees them" Franklin
Who is this new minion that the Curious-Urinal sent to cover the presser? She mis-spelled Melton's first name and why start an article about envy? Just another example of how a once-proud and relevant newspaper has devolved into a rag not even suitable for bird-age lining.
ReplyDeleteGood job on your recap, Paulie. I don't follow softball a whole lot but I'll be watching in the spring of 2019 to see how Aprile's first year goes. She sure is saying all the right things.
Nick O.
Not to throw a water balloon or anything at your thesis, Dave-O but since 1982, the PAC 12 has had the NCAA Softball Champion 17 times. I'd say that puts them well above the SEC (3 times) or Big 12 (2 times).
ReplyDeleteGo for all you can, Holly. You've got an AD and community that'll support you.
The Real Joe Hill
PAC-12 has a few very good teams. Basically *all* SEC Softball teams are very good. PAC may have gotten more 'ships, but top to bottom there really is no better softball conference than the SEC in the past decade or so.
ReplyDelete