Where the passion began

Lindsay Diehl is no longer the Clarke softball coach. But she’s still willing to defend the honor and pride she feels for the community of Osceola.

Diehl was officially named the new softball coach at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa on July 10.

Diehl, a two-year Warrior softball standout in her freshman and sophomore years of college, explained to the Sentinel-Tribune how finding her true passion for softball in Ottumwa helped lead her back to being a Warrior after a successful stint of nearly a decade (her second as Clarke’s head softball coach), as the Lady Indians’ leader and a trusted local educator.

Diehl is the owner of a 189-117 record in her second stint as head coach (statistics via Quik Stats Iowa, stats from first run as coach unavailable), four conference titles (2012-2014, 2017), a state title, a state-runner up spot, and numerous all-conference and all-state players.

(This interview was edited for clarity and space.)

Q: What was so exciting when you decided to come back to Clarke that made it such an easy decision? (Diehl was previously coach head coach of the Lady Indians for four years before heading to Iowa Central to be an assistant coach for five years.)

A: “I came back here when I decided to go back to school to be a teacher. The intent the whole time was I wanted to be in Osceola, I want to be at Clarke. I’m the kind of person that I’m not the person who’s really going to fight you, but if anyone wants to talk poorly of Clarke, I’m ready to get in a fist fight with somebody. I’m proud of where I’m from and had a lot of pride in the ability to get to coach back on the field that I had played on in high school. I coached with Tom Murr for a year and then took over as at the head coach and my best friend that I actually played softball with at Indian Hills Kari (Price now), she came on as my assistant coach at that time and we had a lot of fun. I didn’t know what  was doing. Looking back now, I had no idea what I was doing as a head coach. I’m completely different than I was then. You kind of coach the way you were coached. When I played through college I had some yellers and screamers and so I thought that was how you did it. It wasn’t until I went to Iowa Central and got to work with Rick Sandquist, who is just an awesome human and has the best character ever and he really taught me how to treat kids and how to run a program and I spent five years with him. He was my mentor.

When I came back here, I was ready to rock and roll. The mindset was, we’re winning a state championship here. That group of kids, Libby (Bemis), Carly (Robins), Kennedy (Crees), Devon (Carson), Kenzie (Otto), Brenna (Paul), all those kids and the kids right ahead of them ... all the kids in that group, they all pushed me to be who I was. They were like ‘when are we doing more open gym? When are we doing more of them? We want to play more.’ They really made this program alongside me by pushing me as much as I pushed them.”

Q: What was your experience like at Indian Hills that made you want to go back? 

A: “When I was in high school, I loved being a volleyball player, I loved being a basketball player. I loved being in track. I was a kid that threw at the state track meet and actually thought about going to college to do track and I loved softball when it was softball season. It wasn’t until I ended up at Indian Hills that I created this passion for softball. The culture at Indian Hills has always been, ‘winning is what we do.’ My mind just changed over there. The confidence level that we always played with and just knowing, I still say this to the kids I was coaching at Clarke: We could be down 18 runs and our mentality over there was, ‘let’s score 19.’ That’s what I tried to instill in kids here was that mentality that I learned at Indian Hills. When I was at Iowa Central, it drove me crazy to coach against Indian Hills because that mindset is still there. It was hard to go coach against them because there’s just a winning mentality and fight to the end and no matter what, we’re going. That is what I learned at Indian Hills.

I had a great coach. I loved coach Jeff Kelly when I played over there. I had a great experience. I had two of the best years of my playing career all through high school and all the way through college. Those were two of my favorite years I can pick out. I went on a run of hitting home runs and those friends that I made over there are still my friends now. I stay in touch with them and they’re all reaching out to me now.”

Q: What will your roles be there as far as furthering your education and coaching?

A: “ I have one class to finish up this fall and the I’ll be done with my masters. I first anticipated that maybe I would have to teach some classes. When I played over there, coach Kelly taught some classes and I know some of some other coaches had done that. About three years ago, the AD told me he worked it out so that head coaches just had to focus on their sport and not have to teach classes unless they choose to. It’s still an option.

I do love teaching. I do love that part of my job. I do love interacting with kids aright now I’m not looking into that because I have so much to figure out and get acclimated with what I’m doing over there. But I can definitely see myself wanting to teach a coaching class at some point or sports psychology. I love that kind of stuff. I think once I get comfortable, that’ll be something I’ll definitely look into. I get to coach softball, that’s all they need me to do.”

Q: How big a role did it play in your decision that you get to focus on softball?

A: “When I sat around and thought about all the things I did at Clarke, coach middle school volleyball, but I’m thinking about softball, I teach elementary P.E., but I’m thinking about softball. All the other things that I’m involved in and do here at Clarke, I focus on softball 12 months out of the year. I’m constantly working in and thinking about all these things I want to do, but sometimes there’s not enough time ... That was a huge determining factor. Just wow, think about all the things I could do if I just focus on being a softball coach.”

Q: What do you anticipate taking over from what you’ve learned from high school ball in heading back to college ball again?

A: “I think the one thing that played in my favor, coaching in general, was the relationships I’m able to make with kids. The one thing that played in my favor here (at Clarke) was that I was still recruiting. I always told college coaches that I’d run into that I was recruiting kindergartners … developing those relationships with kids from an early age to where I could be hard on them, but it was because they knew I loved them. I’m a little nervous to be honest going over here because the kids that are at Indian Hills, they didn’t pick Indian Hills because they wanted to play for me, and that’s what I remember at Iowa Central is you get on a kid in their freshman and sophomore year and you spend all this time getting to know them and you do have a relationship when they show up and I tried to start talking to everybody and developing those relationships.”

“That to me is the biggest part of coaching. When you develop a relationship with kids, they’ll run through a wall for you.”

Q: What types of memories will stick in your mind about your second time around at Clarke?

A: “There are so many different times that have flashed through my head …

Seeing all the things that Clarke kids have been able to achieve on the softball field, we have won numerous conference championships and been to the state tournament. I always say, I haven’t had children. I haven’t been married. Winning that state championship is something that’ll go down forever because that memory… my legs would’t even work after that game was over. I literally had to go and sit in the trainer’s room to get myself together before I could drive those kids home and celebrate with Osceola. That’s never going to go away. That group of kids, there was something special about them. They built this program.”

“I came at the time those kids were here because what drove those kids and the passion they had for softball was unlike anything else. It really was. Their parents were amazing and I had some tough times when I first showed up here because a lot of people had been putting a lot of time into softball and it took some time for us all to get on the same page but once we did, it was endless what they were capable of.”

Q: How will relationships being shorter with college kids make things different for you?

“That was the hard part because I do get to know them for so long here and I do get to have those relationships that carry on. I thought about that as soon as the game was over ...

“I am somebody that operates on passion and emotion and being a female coaching females, sometimes I think that that plays in my favor to those relationships. I’m able to offer and be a mom. I’m not trying to be anybody’s mom, but I am there to help guide them and stuff. I take that pretty serious.”

“Before I leave here, I’m planning to make sure Clarke kids are playing ball, organizing fall ball and trying to get all that going and still be a part of this program in whatever aspect that they’re going to let me. I want Clarke softball to continue to thrive and be known statewide that when they’re playing the Clarke Lady Indians, they’d better be ready to play.”