In his first season at the helm, softball head coach Shawn Rychcik has already changed the aurora around the program. He is turning a desolate team into a confident bunch that believes it can compete with anyone in the country.
This season, the Wolfpack is holding a 23-18-1 record and is at .500 in Atlantic Coast Conference competition. State is also leading the conference in home runs this season.
When Rychcik arrived in Raleigh after serving as Boston University’s head coach, he planned on building a program that revolved around fast base runners and players that are self-motivated.
During his time in Boston, Rychcik learned that it’s better to rest his players rather than use all of the allotted time toward preparation on the field. He adapted this strategy to State and this, according to Rychcik, has led to positive results for the Wolfpack.
Rychcik never had a losing season in his eight years as a head coach.
Senior outfielder Catlin Dent, who was recently named an ACC Player of the Week, said Rychcik has brought out the best in her and the rest of the team by being a great motivator.
“He’s just very motivational and very uplifting,” Dent said. “He keeps calm and we all know that he believes in us. In practice he pushes us to the next level. He has definitely just been that inspiration, that motivator that we’ve needed.”
Dent’s batting average increased from .213 last season to .298 in the 2013 campaign. She’s also hit 10 home runs through this season after hitting a career-high of four in 2012.
“He just has always took me off to the side and talked to me and motivated me in a way that he believes in me and saw the potential that I’ve had in playing,” Dent said. “He’s always uplifted me and encouraged me.”
He was also considered one of the best fast-pitch men’s softball players in the world. Over a 23-year career, Rychick won three International Softball Congress World titles and was named the United States Olympic Committee men’s fast-pitch player of the year twice.
“I loved it. I played college baseball,” Rychick said. “I had the opportunity to play and make the national team. I grew up with the sport. My dad played it, so I grew up with it my whole life.”
Rychcik said men’s fast-pitch softball is more difficult than playing baseball. Men do play on the same sized diamond, but the pitching mound and fences are sometimes further than a traditional softball field.
“I watched a double-play in baseball yesterday take 10 minutes to turn,” Rychcik said. “People are waiting and waiting. You get a one-hop hit in softball and you can’t even turn a double-play.
“The pitching is 15 feet closer. Reaction time as a hitter is one-third of a second less. There are a lot of things that happen a lot quicker in the game of fast-pitch and you have to be perfect.”
The top pitching speeds in men’s fast-pitch is up to 87 miles per hour.
Now that he has moved from the America East conference, where he won four conference titles, to a power conference, he believes State has the resources and notoriety to become a prominent program in the ACC.
“Nobody asks who’s in your conference or misunderstands you for Boston College, so that’s kind of a little perk of the whole thing,” Rychcik said. “Just bigger and better.”
