Fans of Iowa University Women’s Softball will be happy to know rebuilding programs is a strength of new assistant coach Rick Dillinger. Dillinger, a 42-year high school coaching veteran, was announced last Thursday as the newest member of the Hawkeye Womens Softball coaching staff led by first-year head coach Renee Gillispie. Gillispie was one of the Dillingers’ first varsity players during his initial coaching stop at Danville High School. The pair improved the Bears win total by 28 games between Gillispie’s freshman and senior season (2-21 to 30-4). Some could make the argument that some of Dillinger best rebuilding jobs came during his recent stint at ADM’s softball coach. In his first summer as the Tigers head coach, Dillinger made a 21 win improvement, taking ADM from a 4-26 record in 2013 to a 25-11 mark in 2014. Dillinger told Raccoon Valley Radio during an interview last week that one of his favorite memories from his ADM tenure came at the beginning. “We won in the first week as many games as the team won the year before the whole season,” Dillinger said, “I thought that was such a neat feeling for the kids, to see their excitement.”

Dillinger made another considerable improvement this summer with the ADM softball team. After recording a tenure worst 19-17 record last summer, ADM made a 16-win improvement in 2018 with a 35-8 overall record. The noticeable improvement came despite graduating four seniors the previous summer and two upperclassmen returning to the Tigers squad. Dillinger joins the Iowa Women’s Softball program that posted a 21-32 overall record and won six of their 22 Big 10 Conference games this spring.