Mitchell joins softball staff

Alison Mitchell, previously the head coach at Central Washington, has joined Montana softball coach Melanie Meuchel's staff as an assistant.

Prior to getting the job at Central Washington in the fall of 2019, Mitchell coached in the Seattle area, at Eastside Catholic, Skyline High and Redmond High, which she guided to the Washington Class 3A state title in 2017.

She also spent more than a decade coaching for the Washington Ladyhawks, a travel-ball club that has sent multiple players to the Montana softball program over the years.

"You're always trying to find the right fit for your program, so I'm really excited that she's here," said Meuchel. "I've been able to follow her through a few different levels, so I was able to see her personality, how she interacted and taught, and her ability to click with student-athletes.

"She's been the same coach, the same individual everywhere she's been. She is determined to give everything she has to the student-athletes and has a knowledge for the game and a passion for the game. To be able to bring her in is a very good bonus for us."

Mitchell fills one of the assistant-coach vacancies Meuchel had on her staff this summer after both Sarah O'Brien and Magali Frezzotti moved on to different opportunities in the softball world.

"I've been very fortunate in the people I've gotten to work with. We've had excellent assistant coaches here," said Meuchel. "Alison is another addition to that but also having head coaching experience.

"Anytime you can bring in excellent people to surround yourself with, it only makes our program better. It only makes me better. We've had a couple players who have played for her, and just hearing how much they enjoyed having her as a coach is reassuring."

Mitchell becomes the first Montana assistant to have "collegiate head coach" on her resume. Her first day in the office was on Monday, just in time for the start of the Grizzlies' fall season next week.

"I remember when Griz softball became a reality and (coach Jamie Pinkerton) was starting the program. I remember wondering if I should apply to be an assistant coach," Mitchell said, "so it's always been appealing to me. I wouldn't have left Central Washington for any Division I team.

"It's been my dream to be a Division I softball coach since I graduated college. Coming here has been a dream of mine and a goal I've wanted to achieve since I got into this. I love this state. I have always wanted to live in Montana."

Two years ago, Mitchell, a special education teacher at Lake Washington High by day, was ready to give up on her dream of coaching at the collegiate level. She'd spent more than a decade with high school and travel-ball teams, but all her attempts to move up the professional ladder had ended in rejection.

When the Central Washington job opened in the fall of 2019, she decided she'd give it one more try, and if that didn't work out, then she'd put her post-graduate degrees in educational leadership to full use.

She applied, got a phone interview, then waited. And waited. Finally she reached out to them. "I just need to know one way or the other, whether you want me or don't want me," she told them.

They did, or at least they wanted to get her on campus for another interview. She nailed it. Central Washington offered her the job in early December, announced it on the 17th of that month and told her to be on campus by Jan. 1.

That would give her just over four weeks to meet her team and get the Wildcats ready to face Oklahoma Christian on Jan. 31, 2020, in Las Vegas. "It was a highly stressful time," she said.

Central Washington would win three of its first four in Las Vegas under its new coach and go 8-2 from mid-February to mid-March, when the season was shut down, along with the rest of the sports world, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Without the benefit of a fall schedule or any games before Feb. 27 this past season, Mitchell led Central Washington to the NCAA Division II national tournament in the spring.

She owned a house, lived not too far from her family, which she holds closer to her heart than anything. She had just led her program to its sixth trip to the NCAA tournament. And she had a vision of what she wanted Central Washington to become, something big. She was right where she wanted to be.

Until Meuchel called, which threw everything into a tizzy.

It wasn't with a job offer. Rather it was a feeling-out phone call, but it was enough, just the prospect of becoming a Division I coach, that the person who couldn't break into the college game now might have to choose between two desirable destinations.

Meuchel asked Mitchell that day, on their initial phone call, what her level of interest would be if discussions got more serious. "I'm a pretty honest person, pretty straightforward," Mitchell says. "I told her, 'That would be a dream come true.'

"That was my emotional reaction, my dreamer, but the realist in me said, you have these ties, you're starting to develop a program, you have a house, so think this through before you just jump at a chance."

It wasn't long after that Meuchel called again, this time with an offer to become a Grizzly.

"I gave it a lot of thought. I wasn't willing to just jump anywhere," she said. "It had to be the right fit, and this was my ideal fit."

Her excitement at reaching her goal of becoming a Division I coach would only be tempered by having to tell the players she'd sold on her vision of what Central Washington could be that she was leaving them.

"It was heartbreaking for me because I was invested," Mitchell said. "I was in it for the long haul and making a lot of long-term plans for where I wanted to take the program. And then this kind of happened.

"There were a lot of tears shed, because I value relationships, and those were relationships that I worked really hard to develop. It wasn't easy to say goodbye. I care about that program and want them to have nothing but success.

"They are a group of very resilient women on that team, way stronger than I could have asked for."

While she moved up in level, from Division II to Division I, she takes a step down in title, from head coach to assistant.

"I know both roles, and I think that makes it easier for me," she said. "I know what it's like to be her and the pressures you face and the decisions you have to make and the roles you have to play.

"The role I need to play is to make Mel's life easier. I'm going to be there for her and support her. I'm going to do all the things that she needs to get done and wear whatever hat she needs me to wear."

Meuchel still has an assistant-coach vacancy that needs to be filled.

"I don't care what level you're at, if you want to have a strong program, you've got to have a strong staff," said Mitchell. "A staff becomes a family. It's a very close-knit group. You get success within a team by showing that it's all of us on the same page and in this together."

Mitchell was born in Seattle, raised in Issaquah and graduated from Eastside Catholic, where she played golf, basketball and softball. Two knee injuries in high school limited her to intramural sports at Washington State, from which she earned a degree in criminal justice in 2004.

"I thought my career path was going to take me to being a forensic scientist," she said. "Things didn't work out according to what I thought my plans were going to be."

She got by on part-time jobs and started working at Eastside Catholic in the special education department. One day the school's athletic director asked her if she'd be interested in doing some coaching.

She was and she did, as an assistant coach for the varsity softball and basketball teams.

Then the parents of one of Eastside Catholic's softball players asked Mitchell if she'd be interested in helping out with their daughter's team at Washington Ladyhawks, a team that was coached by two older males.

Those two coaches, who turned the team's outfielders over to her that first day, would become her mentors. They asked her to come back. And there was a tournament coming up, and could she be there? She went to a practice to see what it was all about and it changed her life.

"I loved the level of competition, the passion of the players, the drive of the players," Mitchell said. "This was the sport they wanted to pursue. I'm super passionate about young women setting a high goal and pushing themselves to try to reach that goal. And I love being a part of that and helping them with that."

In addition to coaching at the high school level in the spring, her summers and falls were given to the Ladyhawks. She became not just the coach of the U16 team, she was the recruiting coordinator as well.

"That's where I started meeting a lot of college coaches," she says, and when her dream of moving up in the softball world was born. "I loved connecting with coaches like Mel. The softball world is so open and willing to share information. They just want to see the game get better and grow."

The Ladyhawks were sending players to the top collegiate conferences around the country. During her time at Redmond High, eight players off those teams would go on to earn college scholarships.

She wanted to break into the college game but found nothing but roadblocks. Then, when she had all but given up on the idea, Central Washington opened its doors and welcomed her in.

Because CWU wasn't able to host any camps this summer, Mitchell found herself in Missoula in July, at Meuchel's invitation, to work Montana's elite camps, alongside O'Brien and Frezzotti, then still on the coaching staff.

It was after she'd returned to Ellensburg that she saw the news that O'Brien was on the move, then Frezzotti.

She wanted to inquire, but she kept her distance. "I knew what Coach Mel was going through, with balancing recruiting, finishing up the summer, now assistant coaches leaving. She just had a lot of stuff going on."

Then Meuchel called, just to get a feel for Mitchell's interest. Then she called again, this time with an offer.

She asked for a little time, thought about it the entire drive from Ellensburg to Missoula to work Montana's youth camps in early August.

"When I got into town, I told her, 'I'm all in,'" Mitchell said. "There was a lot of excitement about it, and I'm still pumped about it."

University of Montana Athletics

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