Ehren Earleywine Hometown: Jefferson City, Mo. High School: Jefferson City High School Last College: Westminster College Position: Head Coach

In three years, Tiger Head Coach Ehren Earleywine has guided the Missouri softball team to a Big 12 Conference title, back-to-back NCAA Regional Tournament crowns, an NCAA Super Regional victory over the No. 1 ranked program in the nation and the program's first Women's College World Series (WCWS) trip in 15 seasons. Batting averages, ERA's and fielding percentages have all improved dramatically, while Tiger players are earning national recognition on a now annual basis. Missouri's top-ranked softball squad has Earleywine to credit for its rise to national prominence.

Named Missouri's head coach in August of 2006, Earleywine's rapid success was rewarded with a contract extension which will have the Tiger skipper coaching through the 2013 campaign. In his three years at Missouri, Earleywine has managed a 137-53 record, amassing the second most wins of the Tiger's eight all-time softball coaches and becoming the fastest Missouri softball coach to reach 100 victories. Since beginning his head coaching career in 2003 at Georgia Tech, Earleywine has turned in a 72 percent winning percentage, good enough for 13th best of active Division I coaches, and is averaging 47 wins per season. He is the fifth fastest coach to reach 100 wins in NCAA Division I softball history.

Missouri's 2009 softball season will likely be recorded as the best in the program's 35 year history. A year in which the Tigers managed a program-high 50 wins, claimed the Big 12 crown for the first time since 1997, knocked off No. 1 seeded UCLA in their second-ever best-of-three NCAA Super Regional appearance, advanced to the WCWS for just the fourth time in program history, were honored with two All-Americans for the first time in eight years and finished the season with the squads' highest ever end of year ranking, eighth. For their part, Missouri's coaching staff was named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Midwest Staff of the Year.

In just three years, the 2007 Big 12 Coach of the Year, became the first Missouri softball coach to lead his squad to back-to-back NCAA Regional titles, doing so in 2008 and again at home in Columbia, Mo., in 2009. Since taking the reins, Missouri's batting averages have increased 32 points, while the team ERA has dropped from a 3.23 in 2007 to a 1.47 in 2009, the Tiger's best end of the year ERA since 1998. Averaging .313 on the year, Missouri's bats were hotter in 2009 than they had been since 1997, with six women hitting above .300 and two batting above .400 on the year. Combining for 333 RBI in 2009, it marked Missouri's highest total in program history. With Earleywine at the helm, the Tigers have stolen a total of 367 bases and managed an 82 percent success rate on stolen bags since 2007.

In addition to the success Missouri has seen on the field, Earleywine's squad has received record marks in the classroom, finishing the 2008 campaign with a combined 3.36 grade-point average, the highest GPA since the creation of the program in 1975.

Prior to his career at Missouri, Earleywine spent five seasons at Georgia Tech, of which he served as head coach for the final three. Earleywine's teams made five consecutive appearances in the NCAA Regional Tournament, finishing runner-up on three occasions. The Ramblin' Wreck claimed Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season and tournament titles in 2005 and to his credit, Earleywine was named the 2005 ACC Coach of the Year.

Among his accomplishments, Earleywine's squads broke every offensive record in school history, setting eight ACC records along the way. In 2006, Georgia Tech displayed the top offensive season for any program in ACC history. The Ramblin' Wreck broke league single season records in home runs (75), RBI (385), doubles (99), runs scored (428), slugging percentage (.495) and total bases (903). Nationally, Tech led the country for the second straight season with 138 stolen bases and turned the most double plays of anyone in the NCAA with a school record 40. Tech was third in the nation in total bases, fourth in runs per game (6.11), fifth in home runs and tallied the sixth-best walk total (249) in NCAA history.

Named the top assistant coach at Georgia Tech in 2002, Earleywine served as the hitting and infield coach. During his two seasons as assistant coach, the Ramblin' Wreck hitters broke 16 school records and two conference records.

A 1994 graduate of Westminster College, Earleywine played baseball at Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State) for one year before transferring to the Fulton, Mo., school for the remainder of his collegiate career. Earleywine served as an assistant coach at Westminster through the 1997 campaign under the guidance of former Major League Baseball outfielder and former Tiger, Phil Bradley, then took the reigns as head coach until 1999. Following his time at Westminster, Earleywine was named assistant baseball coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2000, remaining there until 2002 before taking the Head Assistant Coaching position at Georgia Tech.

A standout in men's major fastpitch softball, Earleywine was a four-time member of Team USA (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003) including being named captain for his final two seasons with the national team.

In 2002, Team USA captured its first-ever gold medal in the Pan Am Qualifier, where Earleywine hit .429. During his career, Earleywine collected four medals, one gold, two silver and one bronze. At the 2003 Pan Am Games, hosted by the Dominican Republic, Earleywine helped lead Team USA to a silver medal, doing so again in the 1999 Pan Am Games held in Winnipeg, Canada. Earleywine and his team earned bronze in Valencia, Venezuela, at the 1998 Pan Am Qualifier.

A six-time American Softball Association (ASA) All-American, Earleywine was an All-World selection in 1999 by the International Softball Congress (ISC). As a member of the Decatur Pride, Earleywine's team earned the ASA Softball National Championship title in 1999 taking World Championship honors in 2001 with the ISC.

Earleywine is a graduate of Jefferson City High School and is married to Linn, Mo., native Lisa. The two have two children, six-year old son Connor and four-year old daughter, Duran.