Legendary Clay softball coach reaches 600 career victories

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Brenda Radabaugh is in select company.
The Clay softball coach recently reached 600 career victories after the Eagles defeated Defiance, 8-3, on May 3.
She is just the eighth coach in Ohio history to achieve that milestone, a sign of what she’s accomplished in 32 years of coaching, 24 at Clay, in addition to her first eight seasons leading the Fighting Irish at Central Catholic.
When she won her 600th game, Radabaugh had a 447-172 record with the Eagles and a 153-58 mark with the Irish. (Her career winning percentage is a remarkable .723.) She started coaching at Central Catholic in 1992 and began her career at Clay in 2001.
League, sectional and district titles are commonplace with Radabaugh, and the Eagles have twice advanced to the regional finals but have never gotten to the Final Four.
Radabaugh's teams have won 14 league championships, including a City League crown at Central in 2000, and the other 13 at Clay (Great Lakes League 2001-03; CL 2006-07, 2009-10 and Three Rivers Athletic Conference 2013-17, 2019). She has also led eight teams to Division I district titles (Central ’98; Clay ’99, ’02, ’09, 2013-14, ’16, ’19). The ’09 and ’13 Eagles advanced to the regional finals.
Those who know her describe Radabaugh is more than a coach. She’s a mentor, a friend, an aunt, someone her players can trust. She is adored by her players — past and present — and earned that admiration doing things the right way while competing against some of the best in Northwest Ohio.
Radabaugh has had a bevy of players play softball collegiately, like Honnah Susor (Wright State) and Haley Dominique (Ball State).
It’s been a perfect storm of factors — great players, a supportive community and stellar coaches — which has contributed to tremendous success for the last quarter of a century.
Kim Rector, an assistant coach to Radabaugh, talked about the reason for the program’s success.
“I think our kids believe in us, and we believe in them. We have good relationships; we build on their confidence. We are both retired teachers, we understand what it takes, that they need to believe in one another and be a good teammate and cheer for the other person,” Rector said. “They have to be as excited for (their teammates’) experience as much as for themselves.
“Our parents have definitely bought into the program, and we have the support of them. There are so many travel teams blooming everywhere, and our parents don’t mind taking the kids all over the place. The more they play, the better they’re getting, and we’re fortunate to have a good community, a good administration and a booster club that has been very supportive of us,” Rector said.
Rector has been Radabaugh’s co-pilot for her 24-year run leading the program.
“We’ve had other assistant coaches with us, and we’ve worked well together. I think we complement each other well – we like to bounce ideas off each other, come up with new ideas, watch current videos, and we try to stay with the times,” Rector said. “I think we do a good job to help them become the best they can be.”
Rector, who recently retired from teaching at the junior high in the Erie-Mason (Michigan) School District, talked about how the two became friends.
“I got her roped in to help coach volleyball at Erie-Mason,” said Rector. “And she roped me in to help coach softball at Clay. For 30 years, I’ve coached volleyball, swimming and diving and softball. I always love being involved, and I was fortunate to get a chance to coach with Brenda.
“I love to see hard work pay off, kids grow to be better people, learn how to be a good teammate and develop life-long skills that they need. I really enjoy going there. It’s just a lot of fun. I have a passion for the game, a love for the game that I want to share with others,” she said.
Rector talked about some of the memorable victories the team has had throughout the years. “The 600th win was special,” she said. “There was the team, other people that came as well as former players,” she said. "
She also referenced the 2019 victory over perennial power Springfield in a district final where Tiffany Stevens robbed a Blue Devil of a home run and the Eagles also had to come back late to win the game.
“A difficult year was 2020. We had such a great team with six seniors but didn’t get to have a season. I remember the big milestones, beating Anthony Wayne for the 300th win; the 400th win was at Pickerington North,” said Rector. “It’s been a fun experience – we just get to have fun together. We’ve been fortunate to have some of our former players come back and be assistant coaches, and it’s great to see them have that love for the game. Now they’re coaching, that’s what it’s all about.
“We’ve had awesome kids, awesome teams. We’ve been blessed," she said. .”