On Monday, May 23, Texas A&M Director of Athletics Ross Bjork announced that the university would not be renewing the contract of softball coach Jo Evans for the 2022-23 season.
“Coach Evans has been a tremendous ambassador to our university and softball program for the last 26 years, but we have decided that our softball program needs to go in a new direction,” Bjork said. “We are deeply appreciative of her efforts while building on our softball program’s winning tradition with three Women’s College World Series appearances. [Evans] is a first-class person, and we wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.”
Most recently, Evans achieved her 1,300th career win with a victory over Minnesota in the regional rounds in Norman, Okla., just the ninth coach in NCAA Division I softball history to do so, achieving it over a 37-year career. The Aggies then lost the regional championship to Oklahoma in a 20-0, run-rule victory for the Sooners.
Evans led A&M to three Women’s College World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2017, but the team has finished below .600 in three of its last four seasons. After a terrific 11-0 start to the 2021-22 season, the Aggies went 20-28 to finish off their campaign.
“The expectation for our softball program is competing for championships every year in Oklahoma City while hosting Regionals and Super Regionals in the best softball stadium in the country at Davis Diamond,” Bjork said. ”I have no doubt we will be able to move forward and bring in a championship-level head coach.”