For almost an entire summer, the only person on the Syracuse softball coaching staff was Mike Bosch.

On June 3, 2015, Syracuse Athletics announced that long-time head coach Leigh Ross would resign. Two assistants also left the program. Only Bosch, who knew that he wanted to stay with the Orange, remained. Alone, he handled all of the program’s recruiting.

“It was a one man show,” Bosch said. “It was me and the road for the most part.”

Bosch went through stretches of 30 days where he’d be on the road meeting with recruits for 24 of them, but he knew that was what he had to do to grow the program. While the staff might’ve been at a disadvantage in numbers, Bosch was happy about Syracuse’s recruiting class. In August, he was officially named head coach after his interim tag was lifted.

A young Syracuse team went 1-3 in its first weekend of the season and travels to Atlanta for the Big 10-ACC Challenge beginning Friday. With two games each against Ohio State and Purdue, Syracuse will continue to mesh under its first-year head coach.

“I felt I was the right person for the position,” Bosch said. “I had done a lot of recruiting, knew a lot of our players and could move the program in a positive direction.”

Bosch reached out to different coaches across the country to get their thoughts on potential assistants for his staff. He spent the majority of his first week as head coach on the phone.

He said he mostly contacted coaches in the South Eastern Conference, including Florida’s Tim Walton, Alabama’s Pat Murphy and LSU’s Beth Torina.

Bosch added Alisa Goler, who was a star softball player at the University of Georgia, and Kristyn Sandberg, who was a graduate assistant the last three seasons at LSU after also playing her collegiate career at Georgia.

Goler and Sandberg, along with being college teammates, are both players on the Pennsylvania Rebellion of the National Pro Fastpitch softball league.

Senior pitcher Lindsey Larkin praised the staff’s positivity and open mindedness. She feels more comfortable in what she describes as a “teaching atmosphere” instead of a “scared atmosphere” that was present last season.

Fellow senior pitcher Jocelyn Cater said that the team underperformed the last two seasons and that the last coaching staff wasn’t necessarily maximizing the team’s potential.

“We have really really good players,” Cater said. “The best wasn’t being brought out of us, and I think the new coaching staff revamping the program definitely helped everybody because they believe in us again … we trust them a lot more, they know what they’re doing.”

The Orange, who didn’t make a conference tournament last season for the first time since 2004, are looking to revamp a program coming off a season in which it lost six more games than it won.

And with a brand new coaching staff, Syracuse has a better chance to flip the script.

“It’s really uplifting,” Larkin said. “I know all the seniors sat down and talked about it. We’re just really excited for this year.”

Published on February 17, 2016 at 9:55 pm

Contact Jack: jfupton@syr.edu