Ohio State coach fired: Taking a closer look at Kelly Kovach Schoenly's coaching career

The Ohio State Buckeyes will have a new voice in their softball dugout in 2025 as the school announced the firing of coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly on Monday, less than a week after losing in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Schoenly had coached the Buckeyes for the previous 12 seasons.

Ohio State went 367-226-1 (155-113-1 Big Ten) with five NCAA Tournament appearances under Schoenly.

"On behalf of the department, I want to thank Kelly for her leadership of the program and for the positive impact, both on and off the field, on the many student-athletes who wore the Scarlet and Gray during her tenure," Ohio State executive associate athletic director Mike Penner said in a statement.

Let's look at her coaching career and discuss how she has done as a college softball coach.

What was Kelly Kovach Schoenly done as a college softball coach?

Kelly Kovach Schoenly has a significant amount of experience coaching college softball. She holds a 524-349-2 (59.3%) career record.

Schoenly began her career as an assistant coach immediately after pitching for the Michigan Wolverines. She stayed with her alma mater from 1996-1998 before becoming an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions. Schoenly remained with the Nittany Lions for seven seasons before landing her first head coaching gig with the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks in 2007.

She found success relatively early as she led the program to a pair of MAC Tournament championships in 2009 and 2012. In six seasons with Miami, Schoenly had a 188-153-1 record, becoming the winningest coach in the program's history.

She left Miami but stayed in the state as she took over the Ohio State Buckeyes ahead of the 2013 season. She won at least 30 games in each of her first seven seasons, making four NCAA regional appearances, before going 9-9 in 2020, with the season halted by COVID-19. The Buckeyes made the NCAA Tournament just once (in 2022) in the past four seasons.

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