The UA announced Tuesday that four-time All-American and two-time national champion Caitlin Lowe is joining the Arizona softball coaching staff.
Lowe, who played center field at Arizona from 2004 to 2007, will be a volunteer assistant coach for the Wildcats and coach the outfielders and slappers. Last year, Lowe served as the director of operations for the Wildcat softball team.
“We are very excited that Caitlin will be a member of our coaching staff with primary duties working with the Arizona outfielders, slappers and base running,” head coach Mike Candrea said in a press release. “We feel that Caitlin brings a great background as a player and will excel in working with our players on a day-to-day basis.”
Lowe’s addition means that all members of Candrea’s coaching staff are former UA players.
The other members of Candrea’s coaching staff are Stacey Iveson, who played for Arizona from 1986 to 1989, Alicia Hollowell, a UA player from 2003 to 2006, and graduate assistant Jessica Spigner, who was on the 2012 team.
Lowe was the 2012 National Pro Fastpitch Mizuno Player of the Year, endorses Under Armour and won the 2013 championship with the USSSA Pride. She will still play professionally during the summers.
Lowe replaced Mark Blair as the volunteer coach. Blair will take over Lowe’s former duties as director of operations.
“Mark is a former educator and brings a wealth of experience to our program,” Candrea said in a press release.
This is the third year in a row the UA’s coaching staff has been shaken up. In 2011, Iveson left Yavapai College, where she won two NJCAA national championships to replace Teresa Wilson.
Iveson had previously coached at the UA from 1995 to 2001.
Then in 2012, longtime UA assistant coach Larry Ray left the program and was replaced by Hollowell, who had been the director of operations for a season.
Candrea said last year that he created the non-coaching position of director of operations for Hollowell, before she was promoted to assistant coach.
“It’s very exciting for me,” Lowe said last year on coming back to Arizona. “When I first got back here, [it was] like I was coming home again. It’s just really exciting to be part of the program and to get to work with coach [Candrea], Alicia and [assistant coach] Stacy [Iveson] — you know, great softball minds, so it’s a great opportunity for me.”
Lowe is considered one of the top slap hitters ever. In the UA record books, she is second in batting average at .446, fourth in hits with 351, fourth in triples with 12, seventh in runs scored with 242 and first in stolen bases with 156.
In 2007, Lowe won the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award, which is awarded each year to a senior who displays excellence “in the community, the classroom, character and in competition.” She also won the Adidas Golden Shoe award for best base stealer in the country in 2007.
“It’s kind of just nice to be able to be around the office, kind of pick coach’s [Candrea] brain,” Lowe said last year.
Lowe was inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Fame last year.
The Wildcats begin their fall exhibition schedule on Oct. 11, when they host the Arizona Fall Invitational.
— Follow James Kelley @JamesKelley520
