Jeff Cottrill - Assistant Coach - Cowgirl Softball Coaches

Jeff Cottrill

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jeff.cottrill@okstate.edu
Phone:
(405) 744-7660

Jeff Cottrill is in his seventh season with the Oklahoma State softball program and his fifth as an assistant coach. The Cowgirls have made two trips to the Women’s College World Series with Cottrill on staff.

Additionally, OSU has appeared in the postseason every year with Cottrill.

He spent his first two years in Stillwater as the program’s director of operations and the next two years as the pitching coach before taking over the hitters in 2020.

During Cottrill’s time working specifically with the hitters, OSU has set single-season team records in runs scored, runs per game, home runs, runs batted in, runs batted in per game, total bases, total bases per game and slugging percentage.

From an individual standpoint, he coached record-setters Alysen Febrey, Sydney Pennington and Hayley Busby to All-America accolades and in the 2021 season, Febrey, Busby and Kiley Naomi turned in three of the top five single-season home run totals in Oklahoma State softball history. That same year, Pennington became OSU’s career home run queen.

Cottrill’s first two seasons as a collegiate coach were successes all around, as he helped steer the Oklahoma State pitching staff to an ERA under 3.00 in both campaigns.

In 2019, he helped manage and called pitches for Samantha Show throughout the year.

Under Cottrill’s eye, Show helped Oklahoma State knock off 11 top-15 opponents, set the program record for wins against ranked opponents, posted the school’s most wins since 1994, made the program’s first WCWS appearance since 2011 and finished with its highest ranking since 1998.

Cottrill was also responsible for coaching several Cowgirl arms, including Samantha Clakley and Logan Simunek. Clakley finished with a top-10 ERA among Big 12 pitchers for the second-straight year and Simunek was vital in getting Oklahoma State back to the World Series for the eighth time in school history.

OSU primarily used a three-man staff during Cottrill’s first season and all of them saw marked improvement under his guidance. Samantha Clakley, the team’s leader in innings pitched, was named a second-team All-Big 12 performer. Emmie Robertson, the team’s ERA leader, earned Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors during the year and led the Cowgirls with 86 strikeouts. And lastly, Logan Simunek tossed the first no-hitter by a Cowgirl since 2014.

During head coach Kenny Gajewski’s inaugural campaign in 2016, Cottrill stepped in to manage the team’s pitching staff when former OSU pitching coach Charlotte Morgan had to take a leave of absence for health-related issues.

Cottrill worked closely with the entirety of the Oklahoma State pitching staff over the next month. In that time, he helped spark a run of pitching that guided the Cowgirls back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.

Prior to his time at Oklahoma State, Cottrill worked closely with the Wichita Mustangs Softball Academy in Wichita, Kansas. He ran the team’s operations in both 2013 and 2014, while also coaching with the club for five years.

Cottrill earned his degree in business administration in 2008 from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas.