Prior to overseeing one of her final practices in 36 seasons as Missouri State’s head softball coach, Holly Hesse smiled at the surroundings from the first base dugout at Killian Stadium.
“This is my favorite part of every day, being out here on a beautiful, warm, sunny day,” Hesse said on April 30. “Interacting with the players and watching them learn and develop, hearing what’s going on in their lives. I’ll miss it all.”
Missouri State concludes its home season with a three-game series, May 3-5 at Killian against Indiana State. It will be a time of celebration and reflection for Hesse and many former players who are expected to attend. But it also will be a time of competition — just as it has since Hesse arrived as the Bears’ head coach in 1989.
The Bears (16-29 overall, 12-12 in the MVC) are playing their best ball of the season. Rocked by injuries to key players and a difficult non-conference schedule, they have won six of their last seven games and are looking to improve their seed for next week’s Missouri Valley Conference tourney.
There’s definitely motivation among the players to make Hesse’s finale a grand one.
“Being Holly’s last year, it’s extremely special to see that we can have the not so great preseason and come alive in conference,” senior Olivia Krehbiel said. “It’s great to see what our team is doing for Holly and our seven seniors.
“She’s really been about making for the entire team and not just her.”
36 years coaching in one place
Whether that final game occurs at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Illinois State or in the NCAA Tournament, Hesse is sure to have mixed feelings.
“It will be both a sad and joyful time,” she said. “It’s a long time to do something and 36 years is a long time at one place. I love Missouri State and I have loved just about every minute of my coaching career.”
It’s been quite a coaching ride for Hesse, who has guided the Bears to six NCAA Tournament appearances, the most-recent in 2022.
“Holly always told us, ‘Once I get a team to win a ring, that’s when I’ll retire,'” Mueller said. “Well, we won a ring a couple of years ago and she didn’t want to retire. I couldn’t blame her for that at all.
“Knowing this is her last year and us seven seniors, too, we want that ring.”
Holly Hesse went from the pitcher's circle to the coach's box
Hesse said she knew the fit was right when she came to Missouri State, hired by the iconic Senior Women’s Administrator Dr. Mary Jo Wynn. A 1982 Creighton University graduate, Hesse came to Missouri State after two years as an assistant coach at her alma mater, where she was a standout pitcher.
Before her two years coaching in Omaha, Hesse served as an assistant coach for two seasons each at Iowa State and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she earned her master’s degree in sport management in 1984. Hesse also coached for two seasons at Waukon (Iowa) High, her prep alma mater.
Hesse was a standout pitcher at Creighton, where she became the school’s first 20-game winner and helped the Jays to three consecutive College World Series appearances including the inaugural NCAA World Series in 1982.
“Mary Jo Wynn — what a great leader and pioneer she was in terms of Title IX and the success Missouri State softball already had with the ’74 (AIAW) national championship and the success that (coaches) Reba Sims and Kay Hunter had,” Hesse said of why she came to Missouri State. “They laid a good foundation for the program.
“Just the opportunity to come into an athletics department that had people like (volleyball coach) Linda Dollar and (women’s basketball coach) Cheryl Burnett. Just to have the opportunity to watch them coach and watch them compete and learn from them early in my career, it was a real gift.”
Changing NCAA landscape makes for a good time to step away
During Hesse's time leading the program, Missouri State reached the NCAA Tournament in 1996-98, 2006, 2011 and 2022. The 2006 team went 40-17 and swept to the regular-season league title.
Hesse, 919-886-2 at Missouri State, said the decision to announce last fall that the 2024 season would be her last was not a difficult one, despite having a 31-win season the spring before.
“I just felt it was best for the program,” Hesse said. “I wanted it to be a smooth transition for the players and the program. (Associate head coach) Kasey Griffith has a lot of experience and hopefully she will be the one who steps in and takes over.
“It’s time for a younger, more energetic head coach. For me personally, it’s 36 years on the field. That’s a long time. It’s time for me to slow down a little bit and play more golf, pickleball and bridge.”
Hesse said that while she will miss many things, the changing landscape of college athletics is not among those things. College sports have changed dramatically, just in the last few years.
“With the NIL, transfer portal, the conference realignments …. it’s harder and harder,” Hesse said. “It’s really a headache that I don’t want to deal with.”
The 2018 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee said she’s tried to make this season more about her players than her own goodbye. Riding off into the sunset of one more NCAA Tournament would be sweet.
A postseason run is certainly possible
With the Bears’ recent play, Hesse believes that can happen. In 2023 Southern Illinois went from a No. 6 seed to the Valley championship with four wins in four days.
“I don’t think there’s been too much of a difference,” senior Annie Mueller said of Hesse’s approach to the season. “She’s been the same coach, fighting to the very end and not really any care-free attitude about her. She wants it just as bad as she ever has.”
Hesse said she gets emotional when talking about what she hopes her legacy will be.
“What I really want my legacy to be is that I led with love, that I coached with class and that I did the right things the right way,” she said. “And that I helped a lot of young women become strong, powerful, kind human beings.”
Missouri State softball weekend at Killian Stadium
- May 3 - 5 p.m. vs. Indiana State (pre-game recognition for long-time assistant coach Beth Perine, who retired in 2023)
- May 4 - 2 p.m. vs. Indiana State (pre-game ceremony for retiring head coach Holly Hesse. Special giveaways during the game)
- May 5 - noon vs. Indiana State (pre-game Senior Day ceremony)
