Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
Candi Letts, ISU’s new softball head coach, comes to Pocatello with 18 years of head coaching experience.
In her first head coaching gig, Letts built Colorado State into a national power in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), arguably the best conference in all of softball at the time.
In 1997, Letts led the Rams to a school record 51 wins, including an 18-game win streak, earning a conference title and a berth in the NCAA Regionals, the first in school history. That season, Letts was awarded WAC Coach of the Year, as the Rams were just one out away from going to the Women’s College World Series.
Letts also has head coaching experience at Ole Miss, Utah State and most recently, Farleigh Dickinson University, where she spent the last three seasons.
Letts attributes her success in Fort Collins to recruiting. She sees parallels between the program she coached at Colorado State and her new softball team here in Pocatello.
“Fort Collins is a great place to live,” Letts said. “It is the most similar situation I’ve had and it is such a good feel because we succeeded quite a bit at Colorado State. It was a great ride; I loved my players. The players here are very similar to what I had at Colorado State.”
Letts said Pocatello has a similar feel to when she lived in Fort Collins.
“Once [the players] get there they adapt to the smaller community. It has beautiful surroundings. We’re here in our little nutshell, but it is a really good nutshell. The campus and the classes they take are really a plus. There really is no negative to coming to ISU. It is easy to fit in here.”
Under former head coach Julie Wright, ISU won three consecutive regular season titles. Letts plans on continuing that success.
“The program has done really well, Julie Wright did a fantastic job and we definitely want to keep it going and add to what’s already been here,” Letts said. “We have different personalities. We go about it in a different way.”
Letts said the lifeline to a successful program starts with recruiting. Devoted heavily to northern and southern California, Letts also recruits in Idaho and in the Las Vegas area.
“Ladies can identify that Idaho State is a really good softball program,” Letts said. “It gives them an opportunity to come somewhere where they may not have thought about.”
In her time at Ole Miss, Letts struggled to find softball players at the same caliber as those on the west coast. Letts said it is much easier to recruit on the west coast.
“It was a challenge,” Letts said. “Mississippi did not play fast pitch as much as they play slow pitch in high school, so Mississippi does not have as strong a bed of softball players. It is just not a softball haven. That’s why even today their softball program hasn’t really taken that step. It is a different culture and that to me was the biggest challenge.”
In her time in Oxford, Letts learned a lot about herself, as the deep-south forced her outside her comfort zone.
“What I learned about myself down there was you have to dive in a little harder, you have to dig a little deeper, you have to do even more then what you were doing. You can’t think you’ve done enough, you have to keep going,” Letts said.
Over the years, Letts has learned that coaches do not determine success; players do.
“Put the game back on the players and make them have ownership. While it is still important that the coach establishes what they want, the coach can’t do all the work. Make the young ladies buy into what they are doing.”
Letts said that the biggest thing is demanding responsibility. Instead of the coach telling the players what they need to do to succeed, Letts gives the players a platform to succeed upon.
“Give them a platform with what they know they have to do and allow them to succeed within that platform,” Letts explained. “It’s really not about the coach; it’s about the players.”
Letts has seen the game evolve over the last 20 years. Players today are coming in with more knowledge about the game by taking private hitting or pitching lessons. Letts has learned to adapt her coaching style accordingly.
“When I first started coaching and doing what I did, it was good, I loved it, and that’s what I needed then,” Letts recalls. “But you have to evolve with the kids. The young student athletes are different than they were 15 years ago. They still want the same things but you have to go about it and relate to the kids in a different way. Coaching kids 20 years ago is not the same as it is today.”
The ability to connect with the student-athletes on a communication level is what Letts identifies as the most important thing.
Letts comes into Pocatello ready to take over a Bengal squad that won 34 games last season. Despite the Bengal’s success in the regular season and hosting the conference tournament the last three seasons, ISU did not win the tournament during any of those seasons.
Letts hopes to change that this season describing it as a barrier that this team can overcome.
