Feb. 20, 2009
By Matt Swiss
Staff Writer - www.gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island softball team ended its 2008 campaign with a 14-38 record. However, under the direction of first-year softball head coach Erin Layton, the Rhody faithful have a reason to believe that the 2009 season will be far better.
Layton took over as the Rhode Island softball head coach on August 18, 2008 and since that time she has worked tirelessly to bring the Rhody softball program to the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
"I feel like we need to make the people at this university excited about Rhode Island softball," Layton said. "We're going to make our professors excited, we're going to make our support staff excited and we are going to be the kids that work the hardest all the time."
Friday afternoon's doubleheader against Albany and South Florida marks Layton's debut as Rhody's head coach.
Layton comes to Rhode Island from Marist College, where she led the Red Foxes to back-to-back trips to the league championship tournament, while recording a total of 44 victories in just two seasons. In addition, Layton spent two years as head coach at St. Francis University, one year at the College of St. Elizabeth, and served as an assistant coach at Furman University and at Brown University.
"This is by far the best opportunity that I've had," she said. "Everything is better; the number of scholarships, the size of our budget and the resources that are available are all more than I have ever had."
In addition to coaching her players on the field, Layton stresses the importance of success in the classroom off the field.
"I want to set our student-athletes up for success after softball," Layton said. "What they've done inside the classroom this past fall was off the charts. We had a very high team GPA and they understand the commitment we require in the classroom."
Before she began coaching at Brown University, Layton studied at the University of Connecticut, where she earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education and a master's degree in sports management. She shined on the field as well, earning First Team All-Big East honors as a junior and a senior.
As a former catcher, Layton understands that last year's 5.82 team earned run average must come down for the Rams to win this season.
"We have worked a lot on our defensive concepts," Layton said. "We're going to stop a secondary runner from getting into scoring position to put us in a better position to lower our earned run average. We're going to look for opportunities to create outs on a ball that's been put into play. Instead of just getting safety outs, we're going for the lead out."
Layton stresses three main points to her players that will help them to improve from the 14-38 record they compiled last year.
"Teams that go to regionals and qualify for postseason play have at least five everyday players that hit above .300, they make one error or less a game, and they have a team [earned run average] of less than 3.00," Layton said. "The Atlantic 10 is the strongest conference in the Northeast for Softball but I feel like right now they don't want [the turn-around process] to take very long, and you can tell that by their approach to practice."
In addition to stressing upon her students' school work, the new opportunities that are available to her and her expectations for the upcoming season, Layton mentioned the importance of having an assistant coach.
"It's a great position to have a full-time assistant," she said. "That's an opportunity I've never had before. Coach [Jordan] Stevens is going to work with our pitchers and you worry about a pitching staff because in softball, you're going to go as the pitching staff goes and we're young. We have a sophomore and we have three freshmen."
Rhody opens its 2009 home campaign on March 29 as it takes on St. Bonaventure University.
