{"id":23683,"date":"2019-09-15T04:44:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T11:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/?p=23683"},"modified":"2019-09-15T04:50:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T11:50:08","slug":"francis-legacy-transcends-wins-and-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/2019\/09\/15\/francis-legacy-transcends-wins-and-losses\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis legacy transcends wins and losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite more than 500 victories and 15 seasons of unparalleled success on the softball diamond, Leah Francis looks back on her coaching career and sees friends, lifelong relationships and the personal growth of her players.<\/p>\n

Francis, who guided the Bulldogs to 15 consecutive NWAC Championship Tournament appearances and built the Bulldogs into a perennial power, stepped down as head coach following the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest reasons for me retiring was due to the fact that I have a full-time day job,\u201d said Francis, who is the Director of Finance and Operations for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which oversees high school sports in the state. \u201cIt just got a little bit hard to continue to manage both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt like it was a good time for me to take a step back and spend a little time maybe pursuing some personal interests and hobbies, and just kind of take a breath a little bit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Francis posted a 542-152 mark (a .781 winning percentage) in her 15 seasons at BC. In 2019, the Bulldogs posted a 42-7 overall record and finished seventh at the NWAC Championships, winning a pair of tournament games.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs finished 8-30 and last in the NWAC North Region in 2004, but improved to 30-13 and a first-place finish in region the following year in Francis\u2019 first season at the helm. They went on to win nine Northern Region titles under Francis, along with four runner-up finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in terms of the on-field success, we were lucky in that we were successful right out of the gate, winning the conference our very first year,\u201d Francis said. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t changed much, but I think the development and growth of the overall programs, what we offered the players, not just on the ballfield, but the community service side of things, really grew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the field, Francis\u2019 teams participated in a wide range of community service projects each year, including adopting a family over purchasing holiday gifts for them, working with Food Bank Farm to provide produce to feed the hungry, and home and yard maintenance at the Greenwood Senior Center.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big part of my philosophy as a coach,\u201d Francis said. \u201cIt was extremely important to me and it\u2019s extremely powerful in what it does, not only for the people that we\u2019re serving in our community, but also the different things that it can teach our student-athletes in terms of giving back, service, and helping those less fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Eggers, athletic director at BC, said Francis\u2019 commitment to her players was what made her special.<\/p>\n

\"BC
Community service was an integral part of Francis’ coaching philosophy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe truly cared about every one of her student-athletes,\u201d Eggers said. \u201cYes, the wins and losses were great and she was competitive, but she truly cared outside the softball field about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate professional,\u201d he said. \u201cJust everything she did and how she did it. The way she carried herself, the way she had her student-athletes perform and carry themselves \u2013 professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

The softball program under Francis gained the respect of opposing coaches and players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just appreciated Leah\u2019s level of professionalism,\u201d said Shelly Pflugrath, the former head softball coach at Wenatchee Valley College. \u201cYou knew they were going to be well-prepared and play hard. You knew she was going to be engaged in what was happening and competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played, to some extent, old school softball,\u201d Pflugrath said. \u201cPeople started falling in love with the home run, and her teams certainly had plenty of that, but they\u2019re going to steal bases, they\u2019re going to throw to the right cutoff. I just appreciate people who love to play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis and her staff bookended her coaching career with NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year awards. In 2019, Francis and assistant coaches Sarah Hyatt, Danielle Orvella and Michelle Fusco won the award. Francis and her staff also won in her first season in 2005, as well in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"BC
Leah Francis notched her 500th BC coaching victory at the 2018 NWAC Championships<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the 2018 NWAC Championships, the Bulldogs defeated Centralia 19-11 to give Francis her 500th victory at BC. Her players won numerous post-season awards, including the only softball All-Americans in school history.<\/p>\n

Francis, who played on the University of Washington\u2019s 1996 national runner-up team and in the College World Series the following two seasons, said she keeps in touch with many of her former players and assistant coaches, as well as opposing players and coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually went out to dinner the other night with a couple of players from my first year\u2019s team,\u201d Francis said. \u201cThey\u2019re still best of friends. It\u2019s great to see that 15 years later, that these two that were connected through our sport at our school have maintained such a strong bond. I see that constantly with our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the sport, and being a coach and a player, and going out and winning ballgames,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about building relationships. I think that\u2019s really the most impactful part of what this sport does and what we\u2019ve been able to do within our program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite more than 500 victories and 15 seasons of unparalleled success on the softball diamond, Leah Francis looks back on her coaching career and sees friends, lifelong relationships and the personal growth of her players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":22555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,6,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-softball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23688,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23683\/revisions\/23688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}