Virginia Tech announced yesterday that head softball coach Scot Thomas has been relieved of his duties.
https://twitter.com/HokiesSoftball/status/998945700573581313
Thomas had been the only head coach in the program's 23-year history leading the program to some historic highs. However, the Hokies had finished below .500 the past two years in addition to being around the bottom of the ACC during those two seasons.
Whit Babcock and Virginia Tech will perform a national search for Thomas's replacement with senior associate AD Chris Helms leading the search. Assistant Angela Tincher O'Brien has been named the interim head coach.
Thomas is a Blacksburg native who built the program from scratch, led the Hokies into one of the ACC's better softball stadiums (Tech Softball Park), and oversaw a smooth transition into the ACC that saw VT become one of the top softball programs in the conference early on in addition to having lots of success on the diamond.
During his tenure in Blacksburg, Scot Thomas led the Hokies to a berth in the 2008 Women's College World Series, 2 ACC Championships, 8 NCAA regional appearances, 2 conference Coach of the Year honors (1 ACC, 1 Atlantic 10) and a 794-568 record. The program's greatest moment under Thomas came in 2008 when Virginia Tech upset the United States national softball team in Oklahoma City ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
While the program had some strong performances in the ACC, the Hokies had started to trend in the wrong direction in recent years, leading to Whit Babcock's decision to make a coaching change. Given that the NCAA Softball Tournament is currently going on, don't be surprised if it's at least a couple of weeks before Virginia Tech hires a new head coach.
Photo Credit: Dave Knachel/Virginia Tech Athletics
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