Michigan softball coach Carol Hutchins realized during her career that while winning is important, molding and preparing the young women she coached for their futures was her greatest priority.
Hutchins, 65, announced her retirement Wednesday after 38 seasons, her 1,707 victories a record in the sport. She leaves as the winningest coach — male or female — in any sport in school history.
Hutchins led the Wolverines to the 2005 national championship and her teams won 22 Big Ten regular-season titles and 10 Big Ten Tournament championships.
“You learn at some point in your coaching career when you’ve done it for 40 years that you always thought you were just here to win games,
” Hutchins told The Detroit News in 2021 when she was honored as one of the News’ Michiganians of the Year. “And then you realize you’re really here to grow people up.
“And I certainly grew up myself. But watching them grow into strong, powerful women is, without a doubt, my greatest joy when they come back as former athletes as alums,
as doctors and lawyers and educators and Olympians. I’m a part of their life for life, they’re a part of mine. They’ve impacted me every bit as much as I’ve impacted them.”
Bonnie Tholl, who played for Hutchins and has been on the staff for 29 years, is now Michigan’s softball fourth head coach.
Hutchins arrived in Ann Arbor in 1983 as an assistant to Bob DeCarolis and then was elevated to head coach in 1985. Those who have played for her don’t talk so much about the wins, but about what she has meant to them throughout their lives since graduating.
“It’s hard for me to imagine Michigan softball without Hutch,” Jennie Ritter, who helped lead Michigan to the 2005 national title and finished her career with six of the program’s pitching records, said Wednesday. “You have this vision she’s immortal, that she’s going to be there forever.
“How grateful we all were the last 38 teams to be able to be coached by her, because nobody’s going to be able to be coached by her again.
It’s crazy to think that, which makes my heart hurt. When you talk about legend and GOAT, there’s nobody else who personifies that. And it’s so much beyond what she did between the lines. It’s about everything else she did.”
Hutchins is “Hutch” to everyone who knows her. She is a proud Michigan State graduate and lettered in basketball and softball (1976-79) for the Spartans.
Hutchins coached her final Big Ten Tournament this spring at MSU and noted the 1976 AIAW national softball championship she helped win commemorated on the left-field wall.
She has been a trailblazer for Title IX and for demanding equality for women college athletes. She has pushed for more female representation in college coaching, not just in softball, and has gained respect and recognition across the country for her advocacy.
But softball is her love. While Hutchins has always enjoyed winning, she found that unique sweet spot of being supportive of her colleagues while often competing against them. Bettering the sport and improving the landscape for women college athletes have always been her goals.
“I’m excited for her and for her next chapter, but this is a big day-to-day loss in our sport,” Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle, one of Hutchins’ close friends, said Wednesday. “How many coaches are known by one name? She’s like Oprah.”
Revelle said she and Hutchins had extensive conversations about her future the last 10 days, often speaking several times a day. Ironically, Hutchins coached against Revelle in the Big Ten championship game this year and lost to her good friend.
“It’s been really emotional,” Revelle said. “This has been a person, a friend, a colleague who has walked with me every step of the way of my journey as a head coach. As soon as I got the job at Nebraska, she called me Day 1, and said, ‘I’m here for you,’ and it’s always been that way.”
Nebraska head coach Rhonda Revelle.
Hutchins got into coaching at Indiana on Gayle Blevins’ staff. Blevins would then move to Iowa, where she coached from 1988-2010,
when she retired after 31 seasons as the then-second all-time winningest coach in the sport. She and Hutchins have always been close.
“It goes way beyond softball with Hutch,” Blevins said. “I think about 38 years at Michigan and all the women who have been impacted by her, and that’s not just the women she’s coached.
It’s women who have been in the profession, but also in other lines of work. There are so many people she has impacted. Michigan was very fortunate to have her as their coach for as long as they have and to have such a special person.”
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