In searching for the ideal replacements of former coaches Craig Nicholson and Nadalie Walsh, athletic director Bill Scholl has two very different roles to fill.
On one hand, it’s finding a coach to take over Ball State’s softball program — a perennial contender in the Mid-American Conference for the last five seasons.
On the other lies a gymnastics program that has yet to reach the peak of a long rebuilding process.
The process for finding those replacements is quite similar though.
“My tendency has been to explore the marketplace,” Scholl said. “Not to just decide ahead of that if our coach leaves, this is who I want. You can have a list in advance, but you can’t be talking to people.
“I think it’s generally going to be a one to three week period of time to get through the paper work and the proper notifications and actually sitting down to do the due diligence with the candidate. I would say you could see an announcement anywhere from the end of this week, to two to three weeks down the road.”
In regard to the Ball State softball program, Scholl said players will miss former coach Craig Nicholson both as a mentor and as a person.
“They’re all student athletes that he has developed and recruited, and they love him,” he said. “They really loved him as a coach and as an individual. From that standpoint, it’s certainly a very large loss. With that being said though, there’s nobody that’s irreplaceable, and I think that Craig would be the first to tell you that he’s not irreplaceable.”
After winning three of the last four regular season Mid-American Conference titles, the softball program has become very well established.
Scholl called it one of the “model programs” in the country.
“Because of that, it will be a very attractive position,” he said. “My phone is ringing, and there are a lot of very valid coaches who are interested in this position. I’ve met with the team, both in person and over the phone, and I assured them that there is no intention to back down from the success level that Craig [Nicholson] established. In fact, I’d love to push it further.”
The situation with gymnastics is different because the team has not reached the same level of success. It is headed in the right direction though.
Scholl said Walsh’s work in turning the program around has caused some interest in that position as well.
“It hasn’t yet achieved the kind of ‘wins and loss’ success that softball has, but Nadalie did a great job of getting that program back on solid footing, and the university has done a great job of providing resources for the program with a practice facility that is now as good as any in the country,” he said. “So again, I think because of Nadalie leaving it in much better shape than when she got it, it’s going to be an attractive position, and again, we’ve got people calling.”
