One of the nation’s top hitting instructors, Kelly Van Houten is in her second season as Head Coach of the UNC Wilmington softball program

Just the third coach in the 24-year history of fast-pitch softball at UNCW, Van Houten took the challenge of coaching one of the youngest squads in Division I last season and helped the squad surpassed its 2008 win total and nearly triple its CAA victory tally as it was in the running to capture a spot in the CAA Championship until the final day of the regular season. In addition, junior Morgan Walters and freshman Kelsey Eddinger were named Second-Team All-CAA and Eddinger was to the All-State team by North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association.

Van Houten made her way to the Port City after serving three years as an associate head coach under legendary skipper Bob Heck at Georgia State. As the program’s hitting instructor, she guided the Panthers to national rankings in numerous offensive categories during her final season with the program in 2008, including batting average (.323/6^th), runs per game (5.8/14^th) and slugging percentage (.475/17^th). She also played a key role in the development of back-to-back CAA Rookie-of-the-Year winners (Danielle Roddy and Catherine Lee) as well as the circuit’s first player to win both Player and Rookie-of-the-Year in the same season (Lee).

“Kelly is an outstanding coach who has had a positive impact on every program she has been involved with,” said Kelly Mehrtens, UNCW’s athletic director. ”She is a tireless worker who is well respected by both her peers and the student-athletes she works with. We’re extremely pleased to have her serve as head coach of our softball program.”

The energetic Van Houten got her start in coaching at Belmont, where she worked as a graduate assistant while earning her Master’s of Education in Sports Administration. Following her time in Nashville, Van Houten joined another Atlantic Sun institution, spending two years as an assistant coach at Campbell University, where she was responsible for overseeing the infielders as well as assisting with the Camels hitting and base running efforts.

A native of Raleigh, Van Houten was a standout at Furman, where she was a four-year letter winner (1998-01) at shortstop and still ranks among the Paladin’s career leaders in assists. She earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science as well as a B.S. in Health and Exercise Science from Furman in 2001.