Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Pete D'Amour was having a pretty good week anyway when he landed the Virginia Tech softball coaching position.
But two days after the announcement, he received some more good news when he proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Anna, and she said yes. Not that he was worried about her response.
"Not at all," he said, laughing. "I can recruit."
Whit Babcock and the rest of the administrative staff in the Virginia Tech Athletics Department certainly love to hear that, as they officially welcomed D'Amour to Blacksburg at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
D'Amour takes over the reins of a Tech softball program with a solid foundation, one built under previous head coach Scot Thomas, and now he is tasked with returning the program to past glory and subsequently taking the program to another level. This past season represented some slippage in the program, as the Hokies suffered a second straight losing campaign, and they missed on an NCAA regional appearance for the third consecutive year.
In D'Amour, Babcock hired someone with head coaching experience and someone whom he knew. D'Amour spent the past two seasons at Kennesaw State as the head coach, and the Owls won 79 games in that span, culminating in a conference championship and an NCAA regional appearance a few weeks ago. Prior to that, he spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Missouri, a span that overlapped with Babcock's tenure as executive AD in Columbia.
But D'Amour didn't take this job just because of his ties with Babcock. In fact, he made that quite apparent Thursday.
Virginia Tech was his dream job – and had been for quite some time.
"I remember going into his office [at Missouri] because I knew he was from Harrisonburg, and I'm like, 'Man, Virginia Tech would be a good one,'" D'Amour said. "The kids would come into my office at Kennesaw and ask me, 'How long you staying?' I'd say, 'I don't know, but I'd leave for Virginia Tech.'"
He followed up by ticking off his reasons for wanting the job.
"It's closer to home, the facilities, the administration, a good conference, the team coming back … I like the area," he said. "I couldn't find a negative when I was looking at the job."
The position certainly moves him closer to his Monrovia, Maryland roots, and it brings him closer to his folks, who live in Martinsburg, West Virginia – a 3.5-hour drive from Blacksburg. He also likes the rural nature of the New River Valley, preferring mountains and greenery over sitting in the choking traffic of the Atlanta suburbs.
From a softball perspective, he inherits a good situation. Tech just finished a beautiful new softball facility that allows for hitting and infield practice during inclement weather, and the roster features some talent.
Sure, Tech went 23-30 this past season, including 7-16 in ACC play, but it lost 10 games by just a run. The Hokies pitched well and played solid defense, but they struggled at the plate, hitting .242 as a team. Not one player hit above .300, and only one hit better than .280.
The Hokies return most of a young roster from a season ago – they tied for the most newcomers in the ACC with 11. The returning group includes All-ACC pitcher Carrie Eberle, who led Tech with a 1.72 ERA and also at the plate, with eight home runs and a .362 on-base percentage. Also, rising sophomore pitchers Keely Rochard and Jordan Dailshowed a lot of promise as freshmen.
"Right now, you see good pitching and good defense," D'Amour said. "Those two things win a lot of games for you right off the bat. I don't see this as a major rebuild. I think the team hit .240 last year. If we could, at the bare minimum, hit .280, that could be an extra 10 wins. I don't see it as we're in the cellar. This is a good job. There are some good players here."
Some may ding the hiring of D'Amour for his lack of Power 5 head coaching experience, but that would be a short-sighted view. He started at the bottom at Missouri in 2007, working as a batting practice pitching coach for two seasons while finishing up work on his undergraduate degree before being promoted to assistant coach in 2009. In 2015, he was promoted to associate coach. During his time in Columbia, he primarily worked with the pitchers and catchers, and he mentored 11 All-Americans and three conference Pitchers of the Year.
From this perspective, he has proven chops – and is ready for the challenge.
"I did 95 percent of the recruiting at Missouri," he said. "Nobody knows that. I was pretty much the face of the program since I was the recruiting coordinator. I was the associate head coach at Missouri. We played Auburn 2-1, lost to them last year. Neck and neck in regionals this year.
"I've seen both sides of the spectrum. I've been in the SEC and I've been in the ASUN [Atlantic Sun]. How big the stage is doesn't bother me? When you're on the field, it's softball. I'll prepare the ACC kids just like I did the Kennesaw kids. I'm not too worried about it."
Nor should anyone else. His experiences give him the credibility he needs and his enthusiasm for Virginia Tech comes forth when he speaks.
D'Amour's stay in Blacksburg on Thursday wasn't long. Following the news conference, he hopped in a car and drove to a softball tournament in Chattanooga, Tennessee – eager to sell the positives of the place where he always wanted to be.