Softball Welcomes Dobson To Coaching Staff

July 3, 2002

NORMAN, Okla. - In keeping with the Sooners' national reputation as an offensive force, the Oklahoma softball program added one of the nation's top offensive minds as it announced the hiring of Howard Dobson as the new assistant coach on Wednesday. Sooner head coach Patty Gasso lured away the University of Houston's top assistant coach who led the Cougars' to national ranki ngs in batting average and scoring last year. As were his duties at UH, Dobson will be responsible for handling OU's outfielders and hitting instructing. Dobson replaces Tim Walton who was named Wichita State's head coach in June.

"Howard has done some great things at the University of Houston over the last two years and their teams have put up some good numbers offensively, so its a no-brainer for us to want him here," Gasso commented on her latest hire. "He will be a good fit for us as he has experienced success with coaching outfielders and he will also bring with him some new things that will allow us to continue growing. With his added talents complimenting our style of play, our program won't miss a beat."

The 29-year old Orange, Texas, native helped start up Houston's softball program two years ago. In the program's first year, Dobson helped guide the team to a fifth place finish in Conference USA. Dobson's 2002 offensive group ranked tied for 15th in the country in batting average with a .299 clip and placed tied for 30th in the country in scoring with a 4.65 per game average. The team led the league in hits (480), runs scored (279), slugging percentage (.448), RBI (244) and home runs (47), which narrowly missed breaking the conference record of 49. During his two years at Houston, Dobson coached 10 all-conference honorees, including the 2002 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.

"I'm really looking forward to getting started and I'm excited about what we can do here with the high caliber of athletes at Oklahoma," said Dobson. "I'm also looking forward to working with Coach Gasso and Coach (Melyssa) Lombardi and learning from them since they have such a great wealth of knowledge of the sport."

Prior to joining Houston's staff, Dobson served as an assistant at Southeastern Louisiana for two seasons. With his help, two Lady Lions garnered All-Region accolades.

Dobson began his softball coaching career at McNeese State as a volunteer assistant coach. At McNeese State, he worked with the Southland Conference's 1999 Hitter of the Year. He previously gained softball coaching experience as the head coach at Barbe High School in Louisiana where he led the team to the state 5A title and directed one of its players to Miss Softball Louisiana honors. While at Barbe, seven of his players went on to compete at the Division I level including at such nationally-reknowned programs as Louisiana State and Depaul.

Dobson has also gained valuable experience working at collegiate skills camps during the summer across the country and coaching on the international level. In the summer of 1999, his international team won the German Open with one of its player's capturing tournament Most Valuable Player honors.

A former all-conference performer at Panola Junior College, Dobson went on to finish his collegiate baseball career at McNeese State where he graduated with a degree in Health & Human Performance and English in 1998.

Dobson is married to the former Katharine Watts.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Softball Welcomes Dobson To Coaching Staff

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors