Oklahoma State softball shuffles staff, promoting Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher to hitting coach
STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State softball coaching staff is getting a midterm makeover.
With the start of the season less than two months away, former Cowgirl All-American Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher will be promoted to hitting coach, OSU head coach Kenny Gajewski told The Oklahoman on Thursday night.
The move is in response to Gajewski’s recent decision to part ways with Whitney Cloer, who spent the last year in that role. The news of Cloer’s departure was first reported Thursday by Justin MacLeod of Dugout Digest.
“It’s tough making tough decisions, but that’s what OSU has hired me to do,” Gajewski told The Oklahoman when reached Thursday night. “I have and will always continue to do what I feel is best for this proud program, and most importantly, our amazing student-athletes. They deserve nothing less from me.”
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Shippy-Fletcher spent the previous three seasons as a volunteer assistant with the Cowgirls and was promoted to a full-time spot last summer when the NCAA allowed programs to add a fourth full-time coach.
The Cowgirls batted .324 as a team in Cloer’s lone season with the program, reaching a fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series.
“I decided that this hasn’t gone like I wanted it to or thought it would, and I decided to make a change now instead of a future move lingering over the season,” Gajewski told Dugout Digest. “There’s nothing incendiary, nothing that Whitney has done wrong — I just decided to make the change.”
Over the past three seasons, Shippy-Fletcher has assisted with hitting, baserunning and outfield defense. She also served as the first-base coach much of that time.
She is one of only two three-time All-Americans in OSU history, twice being named the Big 12 Player of the Year, in 2016 and 2018. Shippy-Fletcher finished her career with a .404 batting average, holding school records for runs, doubles, walks and on-base percentage.
She and husband Matt have a son, Luke, and a daughter, Hallie, who was born during the 2023 season.
Gajewski now must fill the final vacancy on his staff, at least for the upcoming season. That role that will include an emphasis on coaching outfielders.
Should he choose to stay in house, Gajewski has two qualified options in Stacie Pestrak and Madi Sue Simpson, both of whom have coaching experience at the Division I level.
Pestrak was a volunteer coach at Florida for two seasons when Gajewski was on head coach Tim Walton’s staff, and she followed Gajewski to OSU in 2015 as a full-time assistant. In 2020, she moved to the director of operations role, where she has remained since. She has coached outfield and been a first-base coach at times during her OSU tenure.
Simpson — known as Madi Sue Montgomery when she played at OSU — spent two seasons as a graduate assistant with the Cowgirls after her playing career ended in 2019. She was on the staff at Tulsa for the 2022-23 seasons before returning to OSU as video and analytics coordinator last summer.
She finished her playing career as Oklahoma State’s all-time leader with 244 games played, 244 games started, 740 at-bats and 203 runs batted in.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball to name Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher hitting coach
