Jenny Fuller was named the 13th head softball coach at Northwestern State in July 2024.
Her first season was one of growth, both for her and her players, as she guided the youngest team in the country with 17 of the 18 players on the team classified as freshmen or sophomores.
Despite the overwhelming youth of the 2025 team, Fuller guided the Demons to a handful of notable and historic milestones.
On March 2, the Demons defeated No. 20 ranked Mississippi State in Starkville 5-0 for NSU’s first win over a ranked opponent since defeating Cal State Fullerton 4-1 in 2004. The win snapped a streak of 49 straight losses to ranked teams.
The first signature win of Fuller’s tenure at NSU was made possible by the performance of one of the 12 freshmen on the team, pitcher Brooklynn Stohler, who threw her first career shutout in the win.
Stohler went on to throw 155.0 innings in her first season, the sixth most by a freshman in NSU history and just the fifth pitcher in the past 10 seasons to toss more than 150.0 innings in a season.
A pair of sophomores made their mark under Fuller’s guidance as Sophia Livers earned a spot on the SLC All-Defensive Team for her work in center field and Aly Delafield produced the highest batting average (.398) in SLC play by a Demon since 2015. Livers had the the most putouts without an error by an outfielder in conference play and her 110 total putouts on the year are the most by an NSU outfielder in program history. Delafield finished one hit shy of being the third player since 2015, and the first since Kellye Kincannon and Brittany Jones, to hit .400 in conference play.
The first markers of success for the Demons in Fuller’s first season were just the latest in a long list of production and awards in Fuller’s career.
She spent the three seasons prior to her arrival in Natchitoches at Pittsburg State where she won more than 100 games, produced four all-Americans, six academic all-Americans, seven all-region players and 18 all-conference players during her tenure.
In 2024 the Gorillas claimed a share of the MIAA regular season crown for just the second time in program history, coming 30 years after their first title, and set a program record with 53 wins, including an impressive 23-3 mark in conference play. Fuller, along with her staff, were named the MIAA Coach of the Year following the historic season.
Fuller increased Pittsburg State’s win total by 10 from the previous season in her first year (2022), led them to their first winning season in six years the next and became the first head coach to win 50 games in a season. The Gorillas also hosted an NCAA Division II National Tournament regional for the first time in program history in 2024.
The Gorillas led the conference in six offensive categories on the year, including ranking fifth nationally with a .348 team batting average and 11th nationally with a .409 on-base percentage. Gorilla pitchers also led the league in strikeouts and ranked in the top five in the conference in four other categories.
PSU produced a pair individual award winners on the season with Heather Arnett, a consensus first-team all-American, being named Regional Player of the Year and MIAA Co-Player of the Year. Fuller used her expertise as a pitcher at Baylor for former NSU assistant Glenn Moore to guide freshman Ava Laurent to a 19-1 record, 8.3 strikeout/7 rate and MIAA Freshman of the Year honors as well.
In her three seasons at PSU, the Gorillas batted over .300 each year, improving by nearly 50 points from year one to year three. They also saw notable decreases in team ERA from the pitching staff, dropping by nearly three full runs per game with a 66-point drop in opponent batting average.
The team records set at Pittsburg State were just the latest in a list of program records established under Fuller’s direction.
Prior to her time with the Gorillas, she spent three seasons at Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D., where 17 different single game, season or career records were broken by players under her guidance.
In 2020, the Wolves won their first 10 games of the season and had a program-best 15-4 record before the season was canceled due to Covid-19.
In her first season there, Northern State finished with the second highest team batting average in program history at the time, and the first average over .300 in two decades.
Fuller’s first head coaching job came at NAIA-member Cardinal Stritch in Milwaukee, Wis., in 2016. There she compiled a 59-36 record in two seasons including a 30-13 mark in her first season.
She began her coaching career as an assistant and pitching coach at her junior college alma mater McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. She helped coach a pair of first-team all-conference pitchers and six other all-conference players. McLennan advanced to the 2011 NJCAA National Championship and in 2014 won the Region V North Conference title with a record of 46-8.
As a player for the Highlanders, Fuller was an NFCA First-Team All-American and NJCAA Second-Team All-American during her two seasons. She tallied a 29-6 record with a 0.97 ERA and 285 strikeouts during her sophomore season to earn Region V Pitcher of the Year honors.
In her final two playing seasons at Baylor, Fuller set a top 10 mark for single-season winning percentage with an 11-3 record during 2008 and has the second highest career winning percentage in program history at .813.
Fuller earned her associate degree in arts and business from McLennan and a bachelor of science in education and master of science in sport management from Baylor.
Jenny and her husband, Brad, have a daughter, Emma.
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Coaching Records
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| Year |
School |
Position |
Record |
Postseason |
| 2025 |
Northwestern State |
Head Coach |
7-43 |
 |
| 2024 |
Pittsburg State |
Head Coach |
53-8 |
NCAA DII Regional |
| 2023 |
Pittsburg State |
Head Coach |
27-21 |
 |
| 2022 |
Pittsburg State |
Head Coach |
25-26 |
 |
| 2021 |
Northern State |
Head Coach |
23-20 |
NSIC Tournament |
| 2020 |
Northern State |
Head Coach |
15-4 |
 |
| 2019 |
Northern State |
Head Coach |
18-34 |
 |
| 2018 |
Northern State |
Head Coach |
29-22 |
NSIC Tournament |
| 2017 |
Cardinal Stritch |
Head Coach |
29-23 |
 |
| 2016 |
Cardinal Stritch |
Head Coach |
30-13 |
 |
| 2015 |
UT Dallas |
Assistant Coach |
23-19 |
ASC Tournament |
| 2014 |
McLennan CC |
Assistant Coach |
46-10 |
Region V Tournament |
| 2013 |
McLennan CC |
Assistant Coach |
 |
 |
| 2012 |
McLennan CC |
Assistant Coach |
 |
 |
| 2011 |
McLennan CC |
Assistant Coach |
 |
 |
| 2010 |
McLennan CC |
Assistant Coach |
 |
 |
| Â |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Cardinal Stritch Totals |
 |
 |
59-36 (.621) |
 |
| Northern State Totals |
 |
 |
85-80 (.515) |
 |
| Pittsburg State Totals |
 |
 |
105-55 (.656) |
 |
| Northwestern State Totals |
 |
 |
7-43 (.140) |
 |
| Career Totals |
 |
 |
256-214 (.545) |
 |
