By SARAH OTTO
Staff Reporter
Erika Rothbauer, NWOSU head softball coach, feels at home at Northwestern.
She is originally from Louisville, Ky., but said, “This is a welcoming community and it is easy to feel at home here.” Rothbauer’s favorite thing about NWOSU is the school spirit on campus. She said, “I love that the school population is spirited about Ranger athletics.”
Her decision to coach at Northwestern came to her without question. She said, “Having learned about the softball team’s success last season and visiting with athletic administrators about the development of the departments, coming here to lead this team was an easy decision.”
Rothbauer talked about her playing and coaching career at the Division II level and said, “I truly appreciate the vision and direction this department is going.”
She started out her college softball career at Ohio University in Athens, where she played for a year. She then transferred to Northern Kentucky, where she played for three years. She graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English. She also received her Master of Arts in English from Ohio State University.
While she was in college and also graduate school, she coached a number of amateur traveling teams in Kentucky and Ohio. She said, “My first collegiate job was an assistant coach at University of North Alabama. After that, I was the head coach at Texas A&M University-Kingsville for four seasons before I came to NWOSU.”