Mike Larabee will bring his many years of D1 softball experience to Central after being hired as the new head coach.

After going to the NCAA Regional Tournament in 2014, Central struggled in 2015. The team failed to make the GNAC playoffs even though they were the preseason favorite to win the conference.

After the 2015 season, head coach Mallory Holtman-Fletcher retired in June in order to spend more time with her family.

Larabee stood out to Athletics Director Dennis Francois because of his northwest ties, but also his many years of collegiate softball experience.

“[Larabee’s a] D1 type coach. He was at the D1 level for a number of years,” Francois said. “He knows what it takes to be successful at that level. His passion and enthusiasm comes through pretty loud and clear.”

Central softball only lost two players from last year’s squad, and though Larabee did not personally recruit anyone on the team, he feels confident with the players he has.

Larabee believes that in order to put together a winning team, it all starts on the pitcher’s mound, followed by the defense up the middle with strong catching, middle infielders and centerfield.

“You’ve got your pitching, you got your hitting, you got your defense,” Larabee said. “If I had to pick two out of three, I would always take pitching and defense, and hopefully get the timely hit.”

Before taking over Central’s softball team, Larabee was the head coach at the University of Arkansas (UA), a member of the historic Southeastern Conference (SEC).

“A lot of student-athletes want to play in the SEC because it’s the best softball conference in the country right now,” Larabee said. “It’s a bloodbath every weekend, every team potentially in the top-25.”

College softball is shown on the ESPN networks, which gave UA the chance to be on television about five or six times a year.

Larabee loved having ESPN at the games. The exposure is a good tool for recruiting players by showing off the university and their faculties. The only part he did not like was the distracting mid-game interviews.

“The nice thing now is that being at Central, I don’t feel like I have to go out and get commitments from ninth graders,” Larabee said. “It was kind of getting out of control.”

After a tough first few years with the Razorbacks, Larabee made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2012 and 2013.

Larabee resigned after a 16-37 season at UA that included a 1-23 record in SEC play. Overall, he had a 149-181 overall record with a 38-114 mark in conference play.

“I know how tough the sport of softball is in the SEC,” Francois said. “You don’t get 10 years to prove yourself.”

Before taking over the Razorbacks, Larabee turned around a struggling Wright State University (WSU) program.

It took Larabee about four years to get the program where he wanted it.

“I just played in the state finals at Kentlake High School, I would’ve taken my entire Kentlake team over every kid in our program at Wright State,” Larabee said.

After having an overall record of 25-35 in 2007, WSU came in as a seven-seed in the Horizon League Tournament and ended up winning the tournament in four games.

“You just gotta get hot at the right time and we did,” Larabee said.

In 2008 WSU finished 33-26, which was the first winning season for them since 2001. In 2009, they finished with 34 wins—the second highest in school history.

Before WSU, Larabee was an assistant coach for three years at the University of Illinois.

Larabee coached softball for two years at Kentridge High School, and four years at Kentlake High School putting up a 145-25 record overall.

Larabee was also an assistant coach in the Pan America Games where he was the first base coach and worked with the outfielders.

“You don’t do a whole lot of coaching, your basically coaching some of the best players in the country,” Larabee said. “You’re basically managing.”

He said the Pan America Games helped him learn a lot by being around other coaches, and from picking the brains of the players.

Larabee will coach his first regular season game as a Wildcat Feb. 5 in Las Vegas with a double-header against Regis University and California State University Monterey Bay.