Time for a change!

[HookedonGriz]

The only way anything gets done is to initiate change. This staff is in WAY over their heads. This is the most disappointing start I could even imagine. They are getting destroyed by everyone. I have emailed Haslam about my concerns and I would strongly recommend anyone who follows the program do the same…..unless you enjoy the absolute demise of the program:

[email protected]

Hey hooked, just curious if Haslem has responded to you. I wouldn’t expect him to but I hope he’s listening. I’m guessing he knows he needs to make the call but I’m also guessing this will probably be the tuffest decision he’s had to make here from an emotional stand point. It’s business though and he’s gotta know the right thing to do. It’s obvious they’ve been in a steady decline since Melanie has taken over.

I just sent the email today. I’m guessing he will actually respond he’s pretty good about that stuff. I will let you know what I hear.

[MissoulaMarinerFan]

IMO, the decision on letting go of Schweyen was more difficult - especially since Shannon was a legendary player for the program. All I'll say on the matter is....losing sucks - especially a long losing streak (0-19!!). I feel for the players who I guarantee feel a lot worse than the fans do. Go Griz!

[CDAGRIZ]

When, if ever, was the last time UM Athletics fired a HC mid-season for bad performance? I can't imagine the staff is into it or that this is productive for the players at this point. You can't just go 0-19 to start without at least stealing a W somewhere along the way if everyone is giving 100%.

[Griz til I die]

Hey hooked, just curious if Haslem has responded to you. I wouldn’t expect him to but I hope he’s listening. I’m guessing he knows he needs to make the call but I’m also guessing this will probably be the tuffest decision he’s had to make here from an emotional stand point. It’s business though and he’s gotta know the right thing to do. It’s obvious they’ve been in a steady decline since Melanie has taken over.

I just sent the email today. I’m guessing he will actually respond he’s pretty good about that stuff. I will let you know what I hear.

Did you ever hear back Hooked? I'm curious!

[OMGriz9501]

Regular season is over.
6-35 overall
4-11 in conference
What isn’t working? Can it be fixed?
Does anyone care if it gets fixed?
Each season worse than the last.
Settling for winning 18-20 games a season..finishing 4th or 5th in conference…
Just drove that 2017 Cadillac right into the Clark Fork

[HookedonGriz]

Regular season is over.
6-35 overall
4-11 in conference
What isn’t working? Can it be fixed?
Does anyone care if it gets fixed?
Each season worse than the last.
Settling for winning 18-20 games a season..finishing 4th or 5th in conference…
Just drove that 2017 Cadillac right into the Clark Fork

Incredible really how bad they’ve fallen since Pinkerton. It’s 100% a coaching issue….they play no small ball (in a world that is now all small ball to be successful) and they are obviously failing on the recruiting end as you look at pitching and batting and fielding stats. They need to get rid of the staff immediately following the season. Anything less than that means UM doesn’t care about softball.

[maroonandsilver]

Regular season is over.
6-35 overall
4-11 in conference
What isn’t working? Can it be fixed?
Does anyone care if it gets fixed?
Each season worse than the last.
Settling for winning 18-20 games a season..finishing 4th or 5th in conference…
Just drove that 2017 Cadillac right into the Clark Fork

Incredible really how bad they’ve fallen since Pinkerton. It’s 100% a coaching issue….they play no small ball (in a world that is now all small ball to be successful) and they are obviously failing on the recruiting end as you look at pitching and batting and fielding stats. They need to get rid of the staff immediately following the season. Anything less than that means UM doesn’t care about softball.

Anyone know where Coach Mel is in her contract?

[Griz til I die]

Incredible really how bad they’ve fallen since Pinkerton. It’s 100% a coaching issue….they play no small ball (in a world that is now all small ball to be successful) and they are obviously failing on the recruiting end as you look at pitching and batting and fielding stats. They need to get rid of the staff immediately following the season. Anything less than that means UM doesn’t care about softball.

Anyone know where Coach Mel is in her contract?

I'm pretty sure with the exception of Chris Citowicki in Women's Soccer, that all the so called "Olympic" sports coaches are on 1 year contracts every year

[Grizfan-24]

Here is my novel on the situation:

Coaches can be ineffective in lots of situations for a multitude of reasons that extend beyond their instructional impact. I've coached, and been a head coach, in baseball and softball for much of the past 20 years or so at the high school level. I'm not saying that to throw my weight around that I know more, but rather to provide perspective. There are things that defy logic. Just watch the 2023 St. Louis Cardinals in late April and early May. Sometimes you just lose because you lose not because of coaching, because baseball and softball to a large degree are outlier outcome sports. What you do sometimes more than puts you on the wrong end of the result more than not...

Here is where I see it the calculation at this point and why we are at where we are at:

1. Recruiting: One of the questions that was brought up when the program was started, is how the program is going to compete in a sport that the state that produces 1 or maybe 2 players per year that are at replacement D1 players. Pinkerton leveraged his connections to bring in recruits and transfers, but the issue was always the same: Montana just doesn't produce enough HS players on a yearly basis to be inherently competitive in softball. Montana talent wise is at a deficit to Idaho, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Arizona. Saw it as a coach first hand, how much better softball is in parts of Idaho and Utah as compared to Montana.

They have failed in recruiting pitchers who can be above replacement pitchers even at the lower D1 level and that shows. Brock is barely replacement level and our last in-state Achenbach (while being one of the better the state has produced recently) and the two freshman this year simply weren't capable of filling the innings left by injuries. Maybe O'Brien and Haegele get there, but at first blush both have a bit to go to refine their craft to be average to above average BSC pitchers.

The roster was hurt, in part, by a forced recalculation during the pandemic. I've mentioned this before, and I have heard it from people I trust. Lack of revenue, lack of access to ASA tournaments, and a few other factors tilted the deck in who they could recruit, when and where. This goes a bit back to the first part of the conversation, where most of players in Montana aren't power 5 kids at the HS level, let alone BSC level (tier 3) which for the conversation conference would be. When you are regionally limited, in a sport that can't hand out full-rides to every player on the roster, it hurts A LOT. Montana had two girls on its roster this year from Montana, might have four or five, and those scholarship equivalents carry more weight when they are local. You recruit Montana-Idaho-Oregon in part trying to find players that WUE eligible, so that you can spend those full scholarship to lure girls to Montana with full scholarship rather than 1/2's.

Montana can't field a roster of 20 California HS kids even if they wanted to, and that number dropped significantly since the pandemic because of recruiting limitations.

2. Facilities Montana AD has been working on the indoor facility for close to a decade. Tons of road blocks including lack of capital, downturn in University funds, Covid, etc, conversations about use and space. Heard this again from people I trust, that the development of an indoor facility was identified as one of the essential elements of any long term plan for the softball program. I don't know how late the development was, in comparison to the original plan, but 2023-24 season is almost 10 years after the program was first established. There is no other ready-made facility that provided the necessary elements to house a D1 softball program. Much of the space used over the past ten years or so has been cobbled out of multi-purpose parts of the existing UM athletic physical plant. Almost none of it capable of allowing for live action softball play either in a partial or complete form during the off-season (Nov-Dec) or pre-season (January) as the team spools up for the upcoming season. This is an issue that other programs in cold weather states have managed to navigate, in recent years, but it wasn't like the athletic department wasn't aware of the drawbacks when they put forth the plan to start the program. Moving forward, the use of the indoor facility, even though it is multi-purpose is going to be a huge boost to the overall success of the program and it'll help improve recruiting as well.

Montana won't host games in January ever and the indoor wouldn't resolve nor is it meant to either. In fact they generally won't host games in February either. I have made mention of this before, but it bears repeating again, no playing at home until the second week of March every year is taxing on any and all D1 softball program. Less practice time, more travel time, and so forth. They played five tournaments, almost all of them 5 games in 3 day tournaments, and that isn't necessarily conducive for success, when there is little to no chance that you can see live anything and on a scale that reflective of game experience.

I heard it enough from people not connected to Montana but other programs both in Softball and in Baseball over the years to know that spending the first two months on the road, Thursday-Sunday or Monday is a bear because of how much instructional and coaching time you lose.

3. Coaching I look at this in a bit different lens, because while it is easy for internet fans to just levy accusations left or right, half-dna rifle, there are things the staff has struggled with but they aren't incompetent. You and I might disagree about how or why they doing thing, but these are all professionals using the best data inform decision. Sometimes all that time and effort just doesn't bring results. Their pitching just hasn't improved, and in a way that provides a fighting chance to win games. That has been a systemic problem in the program dating back to least the pandemic shortened year. Some of that is recruiting/talent but it is tough to win when you aren't getting your pitchers to get the most out of their ability. It isn't easy, but it has been a clear shortfall.

The hitting, which while losing some punch from 2022, expected to be deep with contact ability, never got on a roll. They struck out more, had tons of weak contact. A team constructed to put pressure on the opposition through contact and OBP, never had players on let alone in scoring position for most of the year to score.

Part of that stemmed from the early struggles and players chasing contact. But the improvement throughout the season was too slow. Only Ontiveros performed at last years levels consistently this year, the rest including a couple of seniors just never got going. Klucewhich hit nearly .300 and couldn't get to .200 this year. Phelps who accounted for 22 RBI's and hit .313 last year hit .250 and had 7 RBI's. Whatever the philosophy was or the focus was this year it led to negative results.

In the best circumstances it was or performed at times as one of the better defensive units in the conference, but the inability of the pitching staff capable of playing into those skills undermined the defensive side as well.

In the end, the combinations the decision making didn't produce results. Wasn't without trying. Moving players around, attempting different pitching rotations, the results just weren't there and the coaches will likely bear the brunt of those failures this year.


_________________

I'm not absolving the staff of anything to be honest, but there is a weird narrative here that I think is a bit detached from reality. We shouldn't expect below average play, and we should expect the team to be in the upper half of the conference. If we look at the trend for the program and it isn't good. I think the staff saw this year, before the season started as a legitimate opportunity to finish 1 or 2 in the conference. I don't think that was a pipe dream and it sort of snowballed when Butterfield snapped her ankle. Joseph never returned to full health that caused her to miss all of last year which compounded the problem.

I don't think the staff is going to outrun it, but it is hardly something that was completely undone by their own incompetence. They made do with what they had, and were playing a lot better softball at the end than the beginning. The girls were bought in and competed hard. There just wasn't results. Results matter and I think the staff and admin recognize that. This was a no good, really bad year.

I don't know what the calculus is for the long term of the program, but I wouldn't be surprised that today might very well be the last game Mel and her staff coaches at the UM. While I personally feel they were dealt a pretty poop hand in some ways, with the opening of the indoor it might provide Haslam a natural break to re-set the program. I know more than some and less than others, but while I have the confidence they'd finally turn the corner next year (better health, more depth, indoor) I doubt seriously that they are going to call me in San Diego to proffer my opinion on the situation.

[Griz til I die]

One loss away from this miserable season mercifully coming to an end. What are the odds Melanie Meuchel knows that Haslam is gonna let her go and just resign and make Haslam's job easier? GF24, you gave a great assessment of the state of the program, but the one thing I will remind you of is the Griz Softball does have an indoor facility already. It's actually really nice if you've ever seen it. It's got hitting cages and pitching lanes in it. Yes it's not big enough to hold a full scale practice, but it's not like they haven't been able to do anything at all during the winter. The new IPF will definitely help them practice better and maybe give them an opportunity to host early season games in there as well!

[maroonandsilver]

One loss away from this miserable season mercifully coming to an end. What are the odds Melanie Meuchel knows that Haslam is gonna let her go and just resign and make Haslam's job easier? GF24, you gave a great assessment of the state of the program, but the one thing I will remind you of is the Griz Softball does have an indoor facility already. It's actually really nice if you've ever seen it. It's got hitting cages and pitching lanes in it. Yes it's not big enough to hold a full scale practice, but it's not like they haven't been able to do anything at all during the winter. The new IPF will definitely help them practice better and maybe give them an opportunity to host early season games in there as well!

If a change is to be made, I hope Mel is given the opportunity to resign.

[Grizfan-24]

One loss away from this miserable season mercifully coming to an end. What are the odds Melanie Meuchel knows that Haslam is gonna let her go and just resign and make Haslam's job easier? GF24, you gave a great assessment of the state of the program, but the one thing I will remind you of is the Griz Softball does have an indoor facility already. It's actually really nice if you've ever seen it. It's got hitting cages and pitching lanes in it. Yes it's not big enough to hold a full scale practice, but it's not like they haven't been able to do anything at all during the winter. The new IPF will definitely help them practice better and maybe give them an opportunity to host early season games in there as well!

Was aware of the indoor, should have specified more accurately was a full practice space. Recognize they are able to practice, sometimes I need to be a bit more clear in my language. My fault for the lack of precision in my language.

[maroonandsilver]

16 of the 37 games this year were loses by run-rule.

[grizzlyjournal]

Excellent, on-target analysis by Grizfan-24 and a good perspective re: Montana softball for the short- and long term. As you wrote: a huge part of softball is not controlable by coaching (on a per-game basis). Take -- for example -- Sac State, which dominated early and seemed to be cruising until the second-to last week in conference play... THEN... wow. The Hornets this afternoon joined Montana as the other Big Sky team eliminated in their first two games of play.

I am NOT a GrizSB insider, but I do know the Meuchel family (I say family, because Melanie's father Dennis was always a volunteer coach), highly respect them and -- at this juncture of their tenure at Montana -- feel badly for them. I am not, however, capable of evaluating their tenure as coaches.

The UNFORTUNATE injury to Dana Butterfield was a huge blow to this Montana team, a winter-accident that no one expected. But there were other injuries as well. Allie Brock was pulled from an early spring game and sat out two full weeks. Did she ever return to full strength after that? I don't know. Senior CF Julie Phelps was also injured, and her mother told me that she was affected through the end of the season. As 24 wrote, this team never realized any offensive consistency. Its inability to bunt or drag bunt hurt it many times. The lack of offense hurt badly over 5-6 games where Griz pitchers held opponents to fewer than 4 runs.

The GOOD: This team played Big Sky caliber defense. I personally believe it was possibly the best Montana team in all-around defense I've seen. Their ability to limit steals and aggressive opponent base-running was the best I've seen. Elise Ontiveros, Riley Stockton and Kendall Curtis are All Big Sky caliber defensive players. In Big Sky Conference All Star Team voting, Ontiveros was the only Montana player to earn recognition, named as honorable mention for her outfield defense.

REGARDLESS: Whatever Montana does moving forward, a couple of things need to be put on the negotiating table (regardless of who the coaches are). They are: 1 -- a focus on improving game opportunities to make Montana a top-level mid-major program, which includes aggressively scheduling major D1 opponents to come to Missoula as coach Pinkerton did; 2 -- Making a minor, but important improvement regarding complex facilities... especially the restrooms. The most derisive comments I heard from visiting fans were directed at the insulting bathroom facilities.

Which brings me to the final major Big Sky Statistic: Montana's average per-game attendance was more than DOUBLE the total of ALL the other Big Sky teams combined. I don't have accurate stats because several teams didn't bother to provide consistent paid attendance stats. Montana's final game of the season was attended by over 800 fans and its per-game average (despite a cold spring) was always near or over 300. What I'm saying is that Montana -- once again -- is loved and supported by its fans. It has the potential to become one of the top caliber D1 softball programs in the NCAA D1.... especially when fan support is considered as an important ingredient (which would also be a good recruiting tool) in its program success.

[Paytonlives]

2 and BBQ being outscored 22-1 in 2 tourney games


MM is gone

[alabamagrizzly]

2 and BBQ being outscored 22-1 in 2 tourney games


MM is gone

My head says it’s a no brainer but my gut tells me she’ll get one more year to right the ship…despite the ship following the same course as the Titanic.

[Griz til I die]

2 and BBQ being outscored 22-1 in 2 tourney games


MM is gone

My head says it’s a no brainer but my gut tells me she’ll get one more year to right the ship…despite the ship following the same course as the Titanic.

Ya I'm a little bit concerned we haven't heard anything yet

[OMGriz9501]

2 and BBQ being outscored 22-1 in 2 tourney games


MM is gone

My head says it’s a no brainer but my gut tells me she’ll get one more year to right the ship…despite the ship following the same course as the Titanic.

One more year to do what? Their record this year wasn’t terribly worse than the last few. It was only more noticeable because they started 0-22. Unless the incoming class is much much better…I would expect more of the same in 2024.

[Grizfan-24]

I honestly know nothing as to what the plans are for the program, at this point.

ASA travel ball season starts in earnest this coming weekend in California and tends to be the largest recruiting event in softball in the nation for the better part of a month. There will be well over a 1,000 games played in the Riverside/LA areas between middle school and upper level HS teams in June. Changing staffs mid-peak recruiting isn't a wise choice in any situation, and you'd need a clear course of action to have members of the current staff carry out those duties if they dismissed Mel. Just a really tight window to execute recruiting for the class of 2024 without significant impacts on transfer/hs recruiting windows that open in June.

Over the past few years, because of the number of programs involved in the NCAA tournament and how recruiting works w/ softball, there have been a lot of coaching movement even into July/August. I wouldn't suggest that the program is sticking with the status quo if we haven't heard anything into June, rather its just a lot of movement in such a tight window to execute a fire/hire.

[grizzlyjournal]

The GrizSB situation, to me, is not normal. For the following reasons:

1. Montana's elimination game stories were short and clipped... barely 4 inches in length with NO quotes from coaches or players. Evidently the coach was not contacted for an interview (which has been normal policy).
2. Beyond that, nothing. It's standard procedure at GoGriz to post a season-review story within a week or two -- in this case written by Joel Carlson -- that includes quotes from coaches and -- especially -- graduating seniors. Part of the "season wrapup" includes quotes from coaches regarding future plans. Again, nothing. No stories of this nature have been posted at GoGriz or 406 Sports.
3. There IS a story at GoGriz on seniors Kendall Curtis and Jaxie Klucewich who were named as members of the NCAA All-District All-Academic team. Oddly, a very short story with NO quotes from either player. That's unusual. I feel badly for the Kendall and Jaxie if they weren't contacted for interviews.

I've inquired with a couple of softball insiders re: the team situation but both said they are unaware of any developments.
Regardless of what happens, I don't think there'll be much negative short-term impact on the program... since it already logs paid attendance figures double the rest of the Big Sky teams combined and has the best field and facility, hands down -- in the Big Sky.