For more than two decades, three-time Big South Coach of the Year Kathy Riley built Longwood softball into the dynasty of the Big South and led the program to unprecedented heights in the history of the university.
After announcing her retirement from Longwood in June of 2020, Riley’s legacy places her not only among the best to ever coach in Farmville, but among the most prominent and visible flag-bearers Longwood University has ever seen.
Riley thrust Longwood University onto the national stage through the success of her softball program, taking the Lancers to five NCAA Regionals in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 with Big South Championships in each of those years. Longwood reached 30 wins 16 times, including all seven years as a member of the Big South, as well as three 40-win seasons. She was named Big South Coach of the Year three times, earning that peer-selected honor in 2015, 2016 and 2019.
With a career record of 812-488-1 in her 27 years as a head coach, Riley concluded her career as one of the most decorated and respected coaches in all of college softball. She spent 23 of those years at the helm of Longwood's program, amassing seven conference titles and a 722-400-1 record with the Lancers without a single season below .500 on her resume.
Longwood softball produced some of the most decorated players in school history during Riley's tenure, with two Lancers earning All-America honors in Megan Baltzell and Brooke Short, three earning Big South Player or Pitcher of the Year in Baltzell, Short and Elizabeth McCarthy, and nearly two dozen receiving All-Big South recognition. Five Lancers were named MVP of the Big South Championship, and the program hauled in 44 All-Big South recognitions – all the most of any conference team since the Lancers joined in 2013.
Those postseason successes put Longwood University on the map, drawing unprecedented television coverage for a varsity athletics program and galvanizing both the Longwood and Farmville communities. But Longwood did more than simply show up at the NCAA Regionals under Riley, twice advancing Cinderella-style to the pod's championship game with title bouts against James Madison in 2016 and Tennessee in 2017, both of which were ranked in the top 10 in the nation at the time.
All the while, Longwood softball achieved parallel excellence off the field under Riley, leading the Big South in Academic Progress Rate score in six of the past nine cohort cycles. Twice during that span, the program achieved perfect APR scores of 1,000, including the 2017 report that included three Big South championship teams.
Riley recruited and mentored some of the most decorated student-athletes to ever come through Longwood, from All-Americans and Big South Players of the Year Megan Baltzell and Brooke Short to two-time Big South Pitcher of the Year Elizabeth 'Biz' McCarthy, and the recently enshrined Big South All-Decade selections Jordan Clark, Karleigh Donovan, Sydney Gay and Emily Murphy.
In the Lancer's seven-plus seasons in the Big South under Riley, the program amassed three Big South Player of the Year awards (Short in 2013 and Baltzell in 2015 and 2016), two Big South Pitcher of the Year accolades (McCarthy in 2015 and 2016) and five Big South Tournament MVP selections (Libby Morris in 2013 and 2015, Gay in 2016, McCarthy in 2017 and Donovan in 2019). Those awards are in addition to the 44 All-Big South recognitions Longwood softball has earned since 2013, more than any other Big South program.
Meanwhile, Riley was named Big South Coach of the Year three times in 2015, 2016 and 2019, all years in which the Lancers won the Big South title. In each of her seven full seasons in the Big South, Riley led Longwood to three regular-season titles and never finished lower than third place in the final standings. Twice the Lancers amassed 20-4 league records, and since their inaugural season in the Big South the program has won 45 of 53 series (85 percent) against Big South foes.
Even leading up to the announcement of her retirement, Riley's prominence among her coaching peers continued to expand, as she was selected to the Big South All-Decade Team. That honor came for her work from 2010-19, which was Longwood's first decade as a member of the Big South. Six of her former players also shared the Big South All-Decade Team spotlight with her, more than any other team from that era.
But Longwood's success under Riley went well beyond the Big South era. She became head coach of the then-Division II Lancers in the fall of 1997 and shepherded the program through the transition to Division I. Beginning in her debut season in 1998, Riley immediately elevated the Lancers into a CVAC contender and secured CVAC championships in 2002 and 2003 to put an exclamation point at the end of the university's Division II era.
Riley's winning ways translated immediately at the Division I level when her program made the quickest adjustment of any Lancer team to the highest level of college athletics. In 2005, Longwood's first year playing a full Division I schedule, Riley's Lancers rattled off 32 wins including a doubleheader sweep of Commonwealth giant Virginia and in-state victories over James Madison, Norfolk State and Radford.
That Division I debut was the first of 15 consecutive winning seasons at the D-I level for Riley, giving her the top coaching resume of any Lancer coach in the school's 16-year D-I era.
Prior to Longwood, Riley served as head coach at Mount Olive from 1993-97, gaining CVAC Coach of the Year honors in 1997 and 1995. She coached volleyball as well and was the 1994 CVAC Coach of the Year in that sport. Before that, Riley coached basketball and softball at Goldsboro (N.C.) High School for one year following eight years with the Houston (Texas) Flames AAU women's basketball team that won two National AAU Championships.
In addition to her coaching accomplishments, Riley enjoyed enjoyed quite a remarkable individual career in athletics. She was the 1981 Broderick Cup National Softball Player of the Year at East Carolina University, leading ECU to a No. 1 national ranking while garnering 1st-team All-America honors. Riley later played on the gold medal-winning team at the 1990 Olympic Sports Festival.
Riley is a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), and was inducted into the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Softball Hall of Fame on November 12, 1999. She received the 2000 USSSA DeBeer-Richard H. Pollak Memorial Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year award as well. Riley has played on five national champion softball teams during the summer months, gaining All-America honors seven times.
In basketball, Riley was a Street & Smith magazine preseason All-American and North Carolina Athlete of the Year in 1981. ECU was a top-20 program that year while advancing to the NCAA Tournament. She scored over 1,800 career points while at ECU and Middle Tennessee State University, and earned tryouts for the 1980 United States Olympic Women's Basketball Team and the 1978 Pan American Games team. Riley was a finalist for the 1980 Olympic team, and later played professionally with the Houston Shamrocks of the Women's American Basketball Association during 1983-84.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Riley earned her Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from East Carolina in 1981 after a transfer from Middle Tennessee State in 1979. She earned her Master of Education degree in physical education: psychology/sociology from North Texas State University in 1982.
