After a 1-17 season in the Big 12 and a 20-35 overall record, the Iowa State Administration decided to make a change. They hired Jamie Trachsel who had spent the past six seasons as the C0-Head Coach at North Dakota State (NDSU). Not only do we see that as an excellent hire, the assistant coaches Trachsel has brought in, only adds to idea that the Cyclones may climb up from the cellar of the conference standings. In the past few weeks she has added Brynne Dordel (NDSU Pitching Coach) and Randy Schneider (Wisconsin associate head coach).
Granted moving from the Summit League to the Big 12 is not comparing apples to apples, but Trachsel has shown that she can lead a team and even compete with some of the best in the country. Also, recruiting in Ames will be a much easier sell then Fargo with state of the art facilities and the fact you will be playing in one of the better conferences in the country. NDSU had won 30 or more games for 10-straight years including 41 in 2015. She also spearheaded the recruiting efforts for the Bison and displayed a good eye for talent, talent often overlooked by larger schools. As stated she now has better resources and facilities to help in her recruiting efforts. She has some talent to work with as well with two returning freshman pitchers Savannah Sanders and Emma Hylen. Both of which took some lumps last season, but both also showed a good amount of promise. There is a solid foundation there with the two. One thing we expect you will see as Trachsel starts to add players is more athleticism and more top talent from the heartland. She has a good grasp of what is happening in the Midwest and should land some strong players.
Brynne Dordel is young, but has had an impact in both her previous posts. Matter of fact in just a short time she has mentored three difference players to conference pitchers of the year awards. The good news is that she has two young talented pitchers to start working with right away in Ames. While at Ball State she worked with Nicole Steinbach who was named the 2013 MAC Freshman of the year. While at NDSU she helped develop Krista Menke who was the 2015 Summit League pitcher of the year and most recently the 2016 Summit League pitcher of the year Jacquelyn Sertic.
Randy Schneider will work on improving the Cylcones offensive production and brings a wealth of experience to this staff. He has also spent a lot of time evaluating talent nationally for the Badgers adding depth to this staff’s ability to recruit. Schneider also has head coaching experience spending seven seasons as the head coach at Valparaiso where in 2008 he was named the Horizon League Co-Coach of the Year.
We are not saying that next year the Cyclones will be knocking on the door of a Big 12 title, but we are saying that this staff has the potential to get the Cyclones headed in the right direction. They were last in all three major categories in 2016; Team Batting (.244), Team Pitching (11.70) and Team Fielding (.935). The good news is this staff has the expertise to address all three of these areas. Look for the biggest gains to be made in pitching and defense. Trachsel is known for coaching up the defense and being an exceptional scout. We do think that Dordel will have an immediate impact on the pitching staff as well. The offense may take more time as they lose two of their top three hitters. One thing this team lacks is power at the plate only hitting 32 all of last season and 11 of those are gone via graduation. Schneider will have his work cut out for him, but there should be some improvement.
Keep an eye on this team over the next few years.
