Coaching fits Delene Colburn like a glove

They'll try, just like they used to back when she was a player, when they saw her name on the roster and assumed they knew how it should be said, so why bother asking for confirmation?

She gave public address announcers 220 games during her career to try to get it right, those four years when she was a Montana softball player. And her name gave them fits.

It's just six letters, half of them e's. But it was never that simple. They came up with every variation she might have expected, then a few more she hadn't even considered.

Delene Colburn thought those days were over back in 2018, when she and some teammates packed up their belongings at their home on Virginia Drive and went their separate ways, their careers complete, unexpected champions.

She was one of the Original Six, the first half dozen players to sign on in November 2013 to play for a program that had zero history, just a head coach, an assistant coach and their shared dream of what the Grizzlies might become.

They played their exhibition games in the fall of 2014 at Frenchtown High School, when Grizzly Softball Field was still under construction.

She was there for game No. 1, an 8-0 loss to New Mexico State in February 2015, when seven freshmen were in the starting lineup.

She was there the next year, in 2016, when Montana and Weber State met in Missoula on the final day of the regular season, when her grand slam in the bottom of the fourth tied the game at 7-7 in front of an electrified crowd of 758.

The Grizzlies were playing for a Big Sky Conference title in just their second year, and Missoula had become a college softball town. Weber State would pull out a 9-7 victory, but the message was clear: Montana was coming.

That led to 2017, when Colburn was all-region and the Grizzlies shocked everyone by going to Ogden, Utah, and winning the Big Sky Conference tournament. Three games, three wins, outscoring their opponents 19-6. It was off to the NCAA tournament in Year 3.

Improbable? Yes. Impossible? Never. It's the ethos that they created together, through those first years of the program, when everything was new and could be molded just so. "When I was playing, we didn't have a word for it. Now it's Montana Tough. Being gritty, being fearless," Colburn says.

When her career concluded the next season, when she was done compiling offensive numbers that might never be touched, she packed up and headed back to Washington, to home.

The elementary education major had fallen in love with Missoula, had tried to get a teaching job in the area, but so did everyone else. So, she pointed her car toward Auburn and Gildo Rey Elementary School.

The bat, the one she wielded like a maestro expertly handles their baton, was set aside but not forgotten. Pity the bros in the coed leagues in Tacoma. Girl is coming up! Everyone move in! If only someone could have warned them, but that would have ruined the fun.

"I was like, nice, thank you. Then I'd hit it over their head," says Colburn, who had 254 hits in her career as a Grizzly, 58 more than any other player in program history, 57 doubles, 45 home runs, 198 RBI, 75 clear of the field.

"When I'd come up to bat again, they would be like, hey, move back, she can hit. That was always fun."

She coached basketball for a year. She helped her sister coach a middle-school softball team. She coached select ball with the Washington Acers. It wasn't her scratching a sporting itch as much as it was putting her passion for teaching, for instructing, into a different type of classroom, one she knew well.

"I loved working camps when I was a player, and I've always loved teaching and seeing their light bulbs turn on once it starts to connect," she says.

Last spring, her mind started wandering, to coaching but in a bigger way, maybe at the college level, full time. She reached out to Melanie Meuchel, Montana's head coach who was an assistant at Montana when Colburn signed, her head coach as a senior.

She wasn't looking to coach at Montana, she was just looking for a door, anywhere, that might be cracked open. She asked Meuchel if she knew of any opportunities that might be out there, that she could look into.

Little did she know Meuchel at the time was carrying a heavy load, down a full-time assistant last season, just her, assistant Alison Mitchell and volunteer assistant Dennis Meuchel covering all the bases a Division I softball program needs to cover.

But Meuchel would rather be shorthanded than invite the wrong person into a program she views as a family. Now the greatest Grizzly of them all was wondering if Meuchel knew of any leads, any openings. Her patience, of waiting out an entire season without a second assistant, was going to be rewarded.

"She reached out with a question, and I immediately jumped on it," says Meuchel. "I knew this could be a perfect fit for us and also a great start to a coaching career for her. I'm thankful she showed interest in coaching."

It was only a matter of time before a former player stayed with the sport after graduation and joined the program as a coach. But it needed to be a while. There needed to be a separation between eras, for enough players to come and go before a former Grizzly could comfortably coach current Grizzlies.

That it's one of the freshmen from the very first team in 2015? One of the Original Six? A player who started the first 220 games in program history, who played a major role in laying down the foundation that the 2023 team will use to pursue its own championship goals this season? It's storybook.

"I think every player has pride for their program, but that group of 15 freshmen who came in that first year, they went through the growing pains of a very new program," says Meuchel.

"Everything she does, nothing is taken for granted. She knows where the program came from, how far it has come and how special it was from Year 1."

Jaxie Klucewich knew who Colburn was from years ago, when the Missoula native was living in Eagle, Idaho, and watching the program she dreamed of joining.

She fell in love with the sport before Montana ever had a program, then eyed it all taking place from a distance, building into a championship program, one memorable player leading the way with her glove, her bat, her love of the game and of competing.

"I knew who she was. She was known as the stud shortstop," says Klucewich, now a senior on the team. "I followed Griz Softball. I always did, because that was the school I wanted to go to."

There is a process of establishing credibility a new coach needs to go through when joining a program for the first time. The jury? The players. And they have questions. Who is this person? What have they done? Do they know what they are doing, do they know anything about Grizzly Softball?

Colburn? Yeah, she got to pretty much skip that step. She was William Forrester stepping foot into the classroom at Mailor-Callow, pointing to his photo on the wall and telling the assembly, "I'm that one." As if he even needed to say anything at all. They already knew.

Now she was here, in their midst.

"It's just different," says Klucewich. "She was a former player and had such a big impact on the softball team. We all have a big level of respect for her because we all know how she played and how good she was.

"She knows what it was like to be on a championship team, so she knows what it takes to get there."

For Klucewich, the connection is even greater, more personal. There have only been two shortstops in program history. Four years of Delene Colburn. Four years of Maygen McGrath. Both were all-region performers.

Now, in Year 9 of the program, she takes over the position, literally playing on the very patch of artificial turf at Grizzly Softball Field that Colburn played on. It's hallowed ground.

"She works with infield, so I spend a lot of time with her. She's been awesome. With her experience as a shortstop, she has so much to give. She knows the game so well," says Klucewich.

"It's big shoes to fill. It's nice to have her guide me. I remember her and remember her name, so it's cool to have her as a coach."

It's been a process of discovery for Colburn since she was hired in July, since she arrived back in Missoula in August. Four years is a long time in the growth of a Division I program.

There are new lockers at the indoor facility. No longer do players have to check their gear in and out every single day. There is a new pitching machine that can throw whatever kind of pitch a batter desires to work on.

"Now you can see a screwball, a drop ball. It's made the girls more developed softball players," says Colburn, who got a thrill last fall every time she spotted her new players unknowingly carrying on the very traditions that she and her teammates established long ago.

"They keep some of our traditions alive that we started back in 2015, which is pretty neat to see. It makes me smile that they are still doing some of the things we were doing."

And there were the eye-opening moments when she learned first-hand what coaches do, the time they put in behind the scenes, the work that gets done that players never see.

Colburn admits she was guilty. As a player, she saw her coaches for a few hours every day and thought they had the greatest job in the world. Then the curtain got pulled back.

"There is a lot more that goes into this job than what I thought, a lot more behind the scenes, a lot more hours you put in. Much respect to the coaches I had now that I know," she says.

But the work never offsets the reason she was drawn to coaching. The latter always wins in the end, no matter how long the day.

"Giving back to the sport that has given me so much inspires me. I get to wake up every single day and teach them the knowledge that was taught to me and continue passing it along. Then having Mel and Alison being so veteran in the coaching world that I just learn so much from them every day.

"It's just been really enjoyable."

Her players jokingly call her Teacher Del when she resorts to classroom mode, like she's back at the front of the room at the chalkboard. She loves it, all of it, being back around a team, the fun times, the challenges faced, doing it together. It's what made her such an exceptional teammate.

It's what Meuchel was hoping to get in her new assistant coach. She hasn't been disappointed.

"Delene has come in and been herself, and that's probably the biggest thing I was hoping for, is that she could be herself, because I know she is a great teacher. I know she understands the game," said Meuchel. "She jumped in with both feet and got to work.

"She knows there are expectations in our program, that if you're going to put your foot forward, be the best person you can be, the best version you can be. She just has so much pride in this program, and it wears off on a lot of people. She brings an energy and a passion for people."

There will be some sacrifices, this return to the Montana softball team, particularly hearing public address announcers give her name another season's worth of attempts. Some will nail it, some won't. And that's fine.

It didn't impact even the slightest her four years as a Grizzly. They were the best. And that's what she wants to give to these Grizzlies. And the next group and the next.

"I keep telling myself the girls deserve the best coaches, the best coaching staff, so that's why I try to bring the energy and show up every single day for them, because they deserve it. They deserve a good four years," she says.

She admits there are days when the grind wears her down, affects her attitude. Which makes her no different than every other coach out there. And like the best of them, it's a return to the field, to them, to be around the players and in their presence, that makes her world just right all over again.

"Once you show up to practice, their attitude, their excitement just fuels you," she says. "This team has extreme potential. That's what I love about it. They come every day with the energy, the grit, the attitude of, let's be the best. If you think it, you can achieve it, so set your standards high."

The Grizzlies? They're in good hands.

University of Montana Athletics

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