SAN JOSE, Calif. – A familiar face is returning to the San Jose State softball dugout in 2020-21. Leticia Olivarez, who spent two seasons on the Spartans' coaching staff in 2017 and 2018, has been hired as an assistant coach. SJSU head coach Tammy Lohmann made the announcement on Monday.
"I am excited to welcome back to the Spartan Family our new pitching coach Letty Olivarez," Lohmann said. "Her wealth of knowledge and experience in pitcher development, as well as her experience in the Mountain West Conference and NCAA postseason truly sets her apart in our game. Her passion for the game and our student athletes, along with her connections recruiting both locally and nationally, will not only evaluate our pitching staff, but our program as a whole."
Olivarez will resume her role as the Spartans' pitching coach. In her initial two seasons with the program, she played an integral part in SJSU's unprecedented success, helping lead the Spartans to back-to-back 30-win seasons and their first-ever Mountain West championship title in 2017.
Olivarez immediately made an impact when she arrived in San Jose, improving the team's ERA from a 5.24 in 2016 to a 3.00 in her first season and a 3.30 in 2018.
In 2017, 'Letty' helped guide senior pitcher Katelyn Linford to a record-breaking year that saw her become just the fourth Spartan in program history to earn All-America honors. Linford, also an all-region and first team all-conference selection, was 24-8 on the season, tossed the program's first no-hitter in 12 seasons and led SJSU to their first-ever postseason win in the NCAA Regional.
"I am extremely excited to be home in the Bay Area and to be welcomed back as a Spartan," Olivarez said. "I am thankful for Coach Lohmann for giving me this opportunity to be a part of her new journey as a head coach, and to work alongside her as she elevates the Spartan softball program to new heights. I cannot wait to be reunited with the student-athletes I have formally coached and to meet the rest of the team. I am looking forward to being back in the Mountain West and bringing home another conference title."
Olivarez rejoins the Spartans after spending the last two seasons as the pitching coach at Texas Tech University. In 2019, the Red Raiders had one of their best seasons in program history as they spent a record-14 weeks in the nation's top-25, picked up 42 wins and was ranked No. 19 at season's end after falling in the final game of the 2019 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. Olivarez's work with the team's ace, Erin Edmoundson, helped the sophomore earn second team all-region honors after a 19-3 mark in the circle.
In 2016, Olivarez served as the co-head coach for Arizona State. The Sun Devils were ranked in the top-25 throughout the entirety of the season and made a postseason appearance in the 2016 NCAA Regional. Four ASU players earned NFCA All-West Region honors while three earned a spot on the All-Pac-12 team. Additionally, two more players were named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman squad and two more were all-defense award winners.
Olivarez began her professional coaching career in 2014 as an assistant at Stanford University after working with the program as a volunteer coach the previous two seasons. In her three years in Palo Alto, Stanford made two regional appearances and she helped coach a pair of NFCA All-Americans, nine all-region performers and 13 all-conference honorees.
After a successful stint with the Cardinal, she joined the CSUN coaching staff where she helped lead the program to their first Big West Championship in nearly two decades and their first regional appearance in eight years in 2015. Among the four all-region players Letty helped guide was freshman pitcher Zoe Conley, who earned First Team All-NFCA honors and became the first Matador pitcher to do so in 18 years. Conley finished the year with a 1.58 ERA and struck out 129 while going 19-5 in the circle. She became the first player in program history to be named the conference's freshman pitcher of the year, and was one of 25 finalists for the NFCA Freshman of the Year Award.
Olivarez played collegiately for the Wisconsin Badgers where she was an All-Big Ten performer as a senior. She twice tied the single-game school record of 17 strikeouts and became the first player in program history to hit back-to-back leadoff home runs in a series vs. Illinois. She spent one season upon graduation as a student assistant coach for the Badgers in 2011 before making her way to the South Bay.
Olivarez graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BA in Legal Studies and Sociology, and earned her Master's of Business Administration from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. She lives in San Carlos, Calif., with her fiancé Jim Davenport, a former third baseman for the Seattle Mariners Triple A affiliate. Together they have a three-year old daughter, Neveah Blaze Davenport.