New softball head coach lays foundation for championship culture

Now serving as the 10th head coach of the UTA softball team, the stage is set for Kara Dill to hurdle new challenges and take UTA to the next level. 

Dill, who’s in the head coaching position for the first time in her nine-year coaching career, will have a chance to prove herself on the field Feb. 10, as her team will face Texas Tech University for its first game of the season. 

The former Texas A&M University assistant coach has already made strides in taking care of her players’ mental health and building a trustworthy team that she could surround herself and the players with moving forward.  

“I told them I want people who aren’t afraid to challenge me, who aren’t afraid to disagree,” Dill said. “At the end of the day, we’re all trying to win, so whoever has the best idea and the best way to get there, let’s do that.” 

Dill fell in love with the sport at an early age, she said. Growing up with her two older brothers, she not only watched and followed everything they did but also wanted to beat them, whether in basketball or baseball. 

After pitching and playing on both the defensive and offensive side of softball, Dill realized she was better at the sport compared to the others she had played. 

Dill’s mom was a teacher, and her dad was a coach. She eventually knew that she would follow a similar path. As part of the coaching staff at the University of Kentucky, Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University, Dill went to four straight College World Series between 2014 and 2017. 

“The more you’re in it, the more you learn about the nuances of it and the details of it,” Dill said. “Now, on the coaching side, there’s something new to learn every day about the sport, and I’ve just stayed loving it.”  

Jo Koons, assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, said the coaching team is laying the foundation to take the Mavericks to places they’ve never been before and that Dill is the right coach for this team because of her previous experience. The 10th head coach’s priority is building a championship culture and taking the steps they need to get there, Koons said. 

But it may seem like an uphill journey for Dill. The softball team is coming off of a 22-27 season, including losing both its games in the Sun Belt tournament. The Mavericks have not had a winning record since 2019, when they won the National Invitational Softball Championship.  

Koons said that she and Dill are both invested in their players on and off the field. Both coaches do that by having one-on-one meetings with players, checking in to see how they’re doing in class, their personal lives and how the athletes perform on the field. 

“I could sit here and talk about it all day, just the way she gives her whole heart to the people that are around her,” Koons said. 

Dill introduced herself to the team via Zoom before UTA publicly announced her hiring. Over the next few days, Dill individually called each player on the team to get to know them more and ask what the team was good at and what could be improved. 

“The more you invest in people, the more they’re willing to perform for you and the more free they feel and they’re able to perform at a higher level,” Koons said. 

Graduate third baseman Meagan Smith said her first interaction with Dill came at Texas A&M, where Dill was the pitching coach. Even though Smith didn’t have a lot of playing time, she would spend time with the pitchers when they needed more catchers, allowing the two to interact in the bullpen. 

Smith transferred to UTA before Dill left Texas A&M and said she remained with the school after finding out that Dill would take over for the former head coach Peejay Brun. 

The team recently hired a sports psychologist. Smith said Dill cares about the players’ mental health and likes being efficient in everything she’s doing. 

“She’s very intuitive about not just what we need as softball players, but what we need as people, and she’s very adamant about us finding places to go when we’re done with softball,” Smith said. 

Prior to coaching full-time, Dill said she was initially going to do psychology and switched to being a strength and conditioning coach. She loved understanding how the human body can be developed to perform at high levels. 

Coaching turned out to be two things that she loved in the psychology and strength and conditioning aspects. To her, that’s what coaching is, training the athletes’ bodies while teaching them certain skills and movement patterns, Dill said. 

“I never want to forget what it was like to be a Division I athlete,” she said. “I never want to forget what that daily grind is like so I can best help those athletes, but at the same time, it is that border and we talk about that as a staff all the time.”

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