MeanGreenSports.com Feature: The Kee To Turning A Program Around

Tracey Kee will be entering her third season at North Texas as one of the winningest active coaches in NCAA Division I, boasting a career record of 734-415-1. Hired in August 2013, she became the fourth Mean Green softball head coach in the current era. In her two years, Kee has led the program to record heights and several program records and firsts.

Most notably, Kee took the Mean Green to the most wins in the program’s 11-year history with 31 in 2014. The following year, North Texas upset No. 7 Baylor on the road in Waco, the highest ranked team that the Mean Green have defeated in program history and just their second-ever top-25 win.

The Mean Green have seen four different players earned All-Conference honors under Kee, including Kat Strunk, a two-time honoree and the 2014 C-USA Newcomer of the Year, the first specialty award in program history.

In 2015, Taylor Schoblocher earned Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball National Player of the Week honors, the program’s first national award.

As a team, under Kee, the Mean Green have set several records, including the most conference wins (14), most runs scored (272), most RBI (242), highest batting average (.279), highest fielding percentage (.978) and fewest errors committed (30).

In 2014, Ashley Kirk broke the single-season wins record with 22 victories and single-season strikeout record with 214. In 2015, Schoblocher set the single-season marks for on-base percentage (.477) and slugging percentage (.833) and finished with the second-best single-season batting average (.389) and second-most home runs (17) and total bases (120).

Off the field, North Texas softball graduates Lauren Poole and Madison Thompson were awarded the Jim Castaneda Postgraduate Scholarship in consecutive years, the first and second North Texas athletes to receive the honor in school’s first two years of conference membership.

Prior to North Texas, Kee compiled a 684-362 record in 16 seasons as the East Carolina head coach, and guided the Pirates to four NCAA Tournament appearances including three in her last five years. Kee and her staff were also named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association Mideast Region Coaching Staff of the Year honoree twice.

She also captured nine league championships, with back-to-back C-USA Tournament titles in 2010 and 2011. From 2009 to 2011, no Conference USA program won more games than East Carolina's 125.

ECU recorded 41 victories in 2011 to become only the fourth team in C-USA history to win 40 or more games in three-straight seasons. Kee's clubs have reached the 40-victory plateau 12 of her 16 seasons. Four times her teams have tallied 50 or more wins, including the 2000 group she directed to a school-record 60 victories. Personally, she reached the 650-win threshold as a head coach in 2011.

ECU won its first C-USA titles in 2010, claiming both the regular season and tournament titles before repeating as tournament champions in 2011.

In just her first season as head coach in 1997, Kee's team posted a 49-24 record, and she was named Big South Coach of the Year. Two seasons later, in 1999, East Carolina won 50 games and made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Under Kee's tutelage, many players have earned all-conference and all-region honors. During her time in the Big South, she led 11 all-conference players, two Rookie of the Year selections, the league's tournament MVP, Denise Reagan, in 1999 and the two-time league player-of-the-year in Polonius (1998 and 1999).

The accolades continued in Conference USA as Kee's players received 12 first-team selections and 15 second-team honors. Additionally, 14 student-athletes have been named to the all-rookie team with two named the league's freshman of the year.

In 2009, Kee led Toni Paisley to Conference USA Female Athlete of the Year honors, becoming just the second softball selection in league history. Kee also helped Paisley to three-straight C-USA Pitcher of the Year awards from 2009-11 and to Louisville Slugger/NFCA Third-Team All-America honors in 2010. Six players have also received all-region recognition under Kee since joining C-USA.

Kee played her high school ball at Saint Gertrude in Richmond, Va., from 1983-86 before a stellar career for East Carolina from 1987-1990. In 2009, she was inducted into the St. Gertrude Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2014, she was inducted into the Central Virginia ASA Hall of Fame.

She graduated from ECU in May 1990 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and, in 1995, earned her master's degree from ECU in exercise and sport science with a concentration in physical education.