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Head coach Kyla Holas embarks on her eighth season at the helm of the Cougar softball program she began constructing from scratch in 2001. In the program's first seven seasons, Houston has proven to be a mainstay at the top of the Conference USA standings on the way to national recognition with six consecutive winning seasons, two NCAA Regional appearances in 2004 and 2007 and a Conference USA championship in 2007. Under the direction of Holas, Houston has become a successful program that has registered 35 or more wins in five of the last six seasons and is coming off its second consecutive 40+ win. The Cougars have reached at least 30 victories six consecutive times and emerged as one of the top programs in Conference USA, reaching the final day of the C-USA Tournament in each of the last three seasons and clenching the tournament last season. In fact, the only season in which Houston failed to reach the 30-win plateau was 2001, the program's inaugural season. "Recruiting quality student-athletes on and off the field has been the key to keeping us at the top of Conference USA on our way to gaining national recognition," Holas said. "Each season we have been able to address our needs and improve our talent with each class that comes into our program." Holas has taken Houston from a 22-win season during that inaugural year to an NCAA Regional caliber team, proven by three Top-25 wins over No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 11 Michigan and No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette last season. The Cougars received votes in the Top-25 on four separate occasions last season, up from three times in 2006. Holas is only five games away from picking up her 250th career victory in just seven accomplished seasons. Despite the program still being young, excellence has not only been established, but is expected. "We have preached tradition and high expectations from day one of this program. We are now at a point where winning conference and competing post-season is expected. That is a big step up and shows how much growth the program has made in eight years." Holas has committed herself to building a winning tradition at Houston. Her staff and players have all bought into this philosophy and bring all of the necessary key ingredients to producing a winning program. In 2004, Holas picked up her 100th and 101st career victories, sweeping a doubleheader at No. 15 Texas A&M. Houston rolled to a 39-25 mark, not only making its first NCAA Regional appearance, but also picked up the program's first postseason win with a 1-0 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. In 2005 she reached her 200th career victory in the Conference USA Tournament against East Carolina. Last season Holas posted a 44-18 record, took home its first C-USA Championship title and advanced to the NCAA Regional. The team put up a 2-2 record at the NCAA College Station Regional defeating No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette and stunning No. 7 Texas A&M in the first match-up of a three game series. "Our philosphy and approach is to build a program that is consistantly a top-25 ranked program in the nation. In order to accomplish that we make sure to continue practicing the little everyday things and then by raising our expectations once we meet a goal. Moving up is the only direction for this program and its athletes." That philosophy towards winning is one that Holas learned as a three-time NCAA All-America pitcher at Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) after leading the Ragin' Cajuns to a third-place finish at the 1993 Women's College World Series. She received WCWS All-Tournament Team honors and was a two-time finalist (1993-94) for the prestigious Honda Broderick Cup, a national award given to the top female student-athlete at the NCAA level. Holas racked up a career 104-20 record, in addition to compiling a .301 career batting average, en route to setting seven school records. Her .839 winning percentage is still in the Top 15 of NCAA history. In 1999, Holas was inducted into the Louisiana-Lafayette Athletics Hall of Fame. In six seasons at Houston, Holas has produced five National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-South Region awards, including three-time selection Kristen Glowacz to go along with 22 Conference USA honors, including 2007 Coach of the Year. Glowacz was also named to the C-USA All-Decade team in 2005. The Cougars have placed at least one member on the All-Conference USA First Team and NFCA All-South Region Second Team in each of the last five seasons. Houston also has racked up 12 Conference USA All-Freshmen standouts and two Freshmen of the Year, including 2006 winner Elaina Nordstrom. The Cougars garnered a C-USA Co-MVP from Glowacz in 2005 and a C-USA Player of the Year from Jessica Valis in 2007 in addition to Angel Shamblin's two-time C-USA Pitcher of the Year award (2006 and 2007). To get to the top, Holas doesn't let anything get overlooked. Her dynamic personality, work ethic and past accomplishments as a player and coach make the program's sky-high outlook seem very realistic. "Success comes by being obsessive about details," Holas said. "The little things are what separates the All-Americans from everyone else." Since coming to Houston, Holas has worked endlessly to build a program focused on winning with high academic standards, something that is paramount to the student-athletes on the Cougar squad. The academic standards Holas has set for her team have also been a staple of the program as a program-record eight players earned recognition on the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll for the 2001-02 academic year. Six student-athletes were honored during 2006-07 as Katie Bush became a two-time honoree of the Academic Medal while Jessica Valis picked up her second C-USA Academic Honor Roll selection. Bush also became the team's second honoree of the ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District VI First Team accolades from the College Sports Information Directors of America in May 2007. Amber King received the NFCA Academic All-America Scholar-Athlete Award in 2003 after winning a C-USA Academic Medal in 2002. Holas came to the Cougar program from Florida, where she was responsible for developing the pitchers and catchers for three seasons. She guided the Gators through its inaugural season threw a tough Southeastern Conference. While at Florida, Holas was instrumental in the development of Chelsey Sakizzie, who won 1998 SEC Player of the Year in addition to Louisville Slugger All-America Third-Team honors. She coached five other players to SEC accolades. Before going to Florida, Holas spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Illinois. While working in DeKalb, Ill., Holas tutored the Husky pitchers and coordinated the academics for the team. She coached the 1996 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year, pitcher Angie Zuspann, as the Huskies reached the NCAA Regionals for only the second time since 1988. A native of Pasadena, Texas, Holas now lives in Pearland, Texas, with her husband, John, and their sons, Payton (10) and Jase (1) and daughter Brenan (6). |
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