UNT restarts softball program BY BILL SPINKS HERALD DEMOCRAT DENTON -- North Texas athletics director Rick Villarreal has had experience before in establishing softball programs while AD at Southern Mississippi. He put that expertise to use in building one at his current school. Villarreal announced Wednesday that North Texas is reviving its dormant varsity softball program, and also announced the hiring of Stacey Segal as the nascent team's new head coach. "We're adding to our athletic family," Villarreal said. "When Southern Mississippi added softball, it added a new dimension to us." Segal has spent the last four years as head coach at Navarro College, where she built a 136-49-1 record and led the school to three consecutive Texas Eastern Athletic Conference championships, as well as NJCAA Region XIV championships and trips to the NJCAA national tournament the last two years. Also, during her last three seasons at Navarro, Segal's teams were named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association spring academic teams of the year and were ranked in the Top 10 by maintaining a 3.33 grade-point average. Villarreal said Segal came in with high recommendations from other coaches and administrators, and cited her recruiting ability, hard work, and dedication. "We wanted someone young and energetic who meshed well with the rest of our staff," Villarreal said. "We wanted somebody willing to work with our staff." North Texas had previously sponsored softball as a varsity sport as a member of the Southland Conference, before dropping it in 1988. Segal will have a year to recruit and add staff. She said the Lady Eagles will begin play in the fall of 2003, and will join the Sun Belt Conference as full-fledged members in 2004. In the meantime, Segal said, she wants to begin recruiting immediately. She plans to recruit as many players out of high school as she can, in order to have established players for four years; but that she will also add junior-college players to jump-start her team's experience and leadership. "We want to win from day one," Segal said. "I anticipate getting ahead during the first NCAA signing period in November." Segal was a member of the Texas A&M softball team from 1990-93, and went to the NCAA regionals each of her first three years there. She graduated from A&M in 1993 and in 2000 she added a Master of Education degree from the University of Texas at Tyler. "I feel very honored," Segal said of her selection as UNT coach. "It's like a dream come true for me. I had dreamed of playing at the Division I level, and that came true for me." With the addition of softball, UNT will sponsor 16 combined men's and women's varsity sports in 2004, satisfying one of the new NCAA criteria for membership in Division I-A to go into effect then. "Right now we meet every requirement except the 15,000 (football home attendance figure)," Villarreal said. "We've made that public, and now it's in the students' and fans' court."
