By: by Scott Lipsky
KENNESAW, Ga. – As he sits in his office at the Bobbie Bailey Athletic Complex overlooking Bailey Park, the home of the Kennesaw State Owls softball team, Owls head coach Scott Whitlock can’t help but to recount some of the great memories he and his teams have made on that field.
“I remember when I first started here, and that field was just a grass field on the corner of campus. There was just a backstop, like something you’d see at a middle school, no benches, no bathrooms, no scoreboard, nothing,” Whitlock said. “Now today, 25 years later, I’m looking out at the same field from my office at the Bobbie Bailey Complex, home plate is in the same place as it always has been since I got here in 1985, and it’s really humbling to think back and realize what we’ve accomplished as a university and as an athletic department over the years that I’ve been here.”
Since Whitlock arrived on the Kennesaw State campus in 1985 as an assistant coach for softball and women’s basketball, the Owls athletic department has seen an incredible amount of growth, first moving from competition in the NAIA to NCAA Division II in the mid-1990’s and finally to Division I in 2005.
When most Owls fans think of what coach Whitlock has accomplished during that time, back-to-back Division II national championships, nine conference championships, six conference coach of the year awards and over 1,000 wins likely comes to mind first, but the Bostwick, Georgia, native, has played a big role in the growth of the department off of the field as well.
Throughout the 26 years he has been on campus, Whitlock has seen his responsibilities within the athletic department change dramatically, becoming the head coach of the then-slow pitch softball program starting with the 1987 season after one year as an assistant. Over time, he has also served as the Sports Information Director, as an Assistant and Associate Athletic Director and is currently the Interim Athletic Director.
Nevertheless, Whitlock initially came here to coach, and he immediately began establishing himself as one of the top young coaches in slow-pitch softball during his first four years in charge of the program, his teams going 153-15 at the NAIA level.
“I was still learning my craft as a coach, since I was very young, but we had some really good players, and that helped me to experience success early on here,” he commented.
It was in the spring of 1991 when the program transitioned from slow pitch to fast pitch, becoming one of the only colleges in Georgia to have a fast pitch program at that time. In fact, high schools in the state of Georgia didn’t start to sponsor fast pitch softball until several years later, putting Whitlock in the unique position of having to either recruit players from out of state who were familiar with the sport or converting slow pitch players to the closer cousin of baseball.
What resulted was a 1991 squad that had 16 players on it, 12 who had never played in a fast pitch game. While most would think that a team with as little experience as Whitlock’s had would struggle mightily in that situation, his squad had other ideas, going 41-11 and making it to nationals before eventually finishing fourth in the nation.
“That team was so driven because it was new and we had something to prove. I had something to prove as a coach, they had something to prove as athletes, and we were on this journey and we didn’t really know where it would end,” Whitlock said. “That was one of the most exciting teams I’ve coached, I really enjoyed everybody on that team.”
They would make the NAIA National Tournament four years in a row, from 1991-94 before moving up to NCAA Division II and winning the national championship in their first two years at their new level in 1995 and 1996, and Whitlock’s legacy began to be cemented in college softball lore.
Now, entering his 25th year, Whitlock is in the top-30 all-time in NCAA wins and is one of the longest tenured coaches in the nation. As he has when he transitioned to fast pitch, and up to NCAA Division II, he was quick to see success at the Division I level, leading the Owls to an Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title in 2007, winning A-Sun Coach of the Year honors in the process.
He can’t be grateful enough to everyone who has been there to help him get here every step of the way.
“It’s been an incredible ride, an unbelievable journey. When I look out from here and see home plate, the same place it’s always been, it’s pretty cool to think about the fact that every player I’ve ever coached, that’s gone through this program, has stood right there at home plate,” Whitlock said. “I know this is a player’s game and that I owe my entire professional career to the few hundred young women that have been willing to come here and go through this with me. I have a genuine respect and a genuine gratitude towards those people.”
