Santo Back At State

Earlier this month, Vype did a Q&A with longtime Rose Hill softball coach, Kathy Santo, who surpassed 300 career victories last season. Rose Hill takes its 21-2 record to the state tournament this weekend.

VYPE: Last season, you won your 300th softball game as Rose Hill coach. In 22 seasons at Rose Hill, are there any specific wins which are especially memorable?

Kathy Santo: Of course every coach wants to win the big one, and we have one state title (1993), which was a very exciting time for the team and kids. Year to year, it’s different – we have such great kids at Rose Hill. Every year, it’s, wow, how can we do anything better than that. Then the next one comes in.

I feel like I’ve been very fortunate with the caliber of students and athletes who want to play softball and be involved in activities, taking responsibility and sacrificing their time to continue to build the program. Outside of the success with wins and losses, some of the other stuff shows better success. This year, I have my fourth alum to come through the program and come back to coach with me – Nicole Ringwall, who graduated in 2002 and now teaches first grade. It’s nice having someone in the building I can talk about the game with.

VYPE: You teach kindergartners during the day and coach high schoolers in the afternoon. Does the switch help preserve your sanity?

Kathy Santo: It’s really unique in the sense that kindergartners are so forgiving. They love you regardless of what happens during the day. High schoolers can be that way, too, but you have to put forth more of an effort to seek them out to communicate.

Over the years I’ve had several softball players be aides in the elementary school, and many of them go into teaching, which is a reward in itself.

VYPE: How many of your players have been your former students at the elementary school? How does this affect the dynamic between you and your players when they get to high school?

Kathy Santo: I haven’t had all of them in elementary school, since we have five to six classes at each grade level. It fluctuates from year to year. But I keep track of the kids through elementary school.

Some of the kids I have can’t wait to get up in high school and play there for me. Most don’t understand when they’re at the primary age that their school teacher also coaches at the high school and might eventually coach them – they don’t make the correlatcion. Then once they’re up in middle school, they make the correlation and realize that their kindergarten teacher could become their high school coach, even though there were 9-10 years in between.

VYPE: You can’t treat a high school kid like a child, nor a child like a high school kid. Are there any teaching principles which overlap?

Kathy Santo: I’ve always felt that a good coach must be a good teacher, just as in the classroom. It can be more difficult with athletes, teaching them your philosophy and what you want to get across. It takes time to make connections. Some you can mold easily and others are more difficult.

Relationships help, especially if you had them as a five-year-old, and you already know the family and their background. It all falls into place.

VYPE: You’ve been coaching prep softball for over two decades. Is 20 games each season enough? Are single-elimination tournaments in the postseason appropriate? Are there any changes in the game you’d like to see happen?

Kathy Santo: The game of softball itself has changed tremendously from what it was in the early 90s to now. In order to be competitive at the high school level, we could add more games, and this is an issue we’ve brougth forth through the KSHSAA – more games, tournaments throughout the season.

Last year, our regional was stacked, and it’s probably going to be that way this year. A double-elimination format for postseason might be good. I’d really like to see us play more games, though it’s tough with the rain and snow.

Overall, the game is so much more competitive. Slap-hitting was almost obselete in early the 90s. If you had one player who could slap and one great pitcher, you were doing really well. Some programs now have teams that are two or three pitchers deep.