Asham quickly ascends coaching ranks

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This article was published 18/05/2022 (1473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a way, Megan Asham became the NCAA’s youngest head coach by accident.

After a standout career playing catcher for NCAA Div. II Minnesota State University Moorhead’s softball team, the Brandon product went to D’Youville University in Buffalo, N.Y., for their occupational therapy grad program.

Asham wanted to stay involved in the game in some capacity, so she went to D’Youville’s softball coach Ona Halladay prior to the 2019 season and asked if she could help. Asham was a volunteer assistant for one year before she was named the program’s interim head coach at the age of 24 when Halladay was promoted to the school’s Director of Athletics. D’Youville was making the jump from Div. III to Div. II in 2021, but Asham still managed to guide the program to the Small College World Series semifinals, leading to her interim tag quickly getting tossed out the window.

“They have a great occupational-therapy program, so that’s what I came here for. I don’t want to say the job fell into my lap, but it was presented, and I just took it and ran with it,” said Asham, now 25, who graduated with her master’s last weekend.

“I’m really grateful for my administration for taking that leap of faith. I had no head coach experience and they said ‘Take this Div. II program and run with it.’”

The hire may have raised some eyebrows at the time, but D’Youville is laughing now as the softball team has soared to new heights with Asham in charge. The Saints set seven program records this year, including the single-season mark for victories with a 26-12 record.

Asham was named the United States Collegiate Athletic Association softball coach of the year on Sunday.

“It’s a remarkable honour. They listed off the accolades, the records, the amount of wins we had, and the players of the year, but really, it’s the players doing that,” said Asham, who used to play softball for the Smitty’s Terminators in Winnipeg.

“I’m just telling them to go home when they get to third base… It was just as big of an achievement for them as it was for me.”

Halladay gives Asham a bit more credit than that.

“She knows the game better than a lot of people that I’ve met in my lifetime in coaching,” Halladay said.

“Not only that, she’s passionate. There’s no doubt about that. I felt that she had a lot of the skills that were needed to be successful, and she has shown that very quickly.”

It didn’t hurt that Asham has a Manitoba Baseball hall of famer for a father. Faron Asham has won countless awards in his 35-plus years coaching ball at the grassroots and high-performance level in western and northern Manitoba. One of his career highlights is coaching Team Manitoba’s baseball team to a silver medal at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. It was Manitoba’s first baseball medal since 1985. Growing up, Asham would tag along with her dad at the diamond.

“He used to make me watch MLB and say, ‘What would you do in this situation?’ And I’d be like ‘Dad, I’m 12. I just want to watch the Yankees play.’ But he’d be like ‘No, no, what would you do?’ Watching college softball he’d do the same thing,” Asham said.

“He definitely lets me do my thing now. But two games ago, I put a bunt down and he was in the stands and kind of looked at me and shook his head like he was saying ‘What are you doing?’ And then we scored on the next play. So, then I kind of gave a sign back to him like ‘I know what I’m doing. Be quiet!’ So, we’re a little bit different, but he supports all the decisions I make.”

Asham won the coach award on Sunday on the opening day of this week’s Small College World Series in DuBois, Pa. Faron was there to see his daughter receive the honour as he made the trip down to support the No. 2-seeded Saints this week. Faron has known for a while that Asham had a future in coaching if she ever wanted to pursue it.

“At the university level, you could really see the leadership attributes coming out and taking over,” Faron said.

“She just knew how to take control of a game while she was catching and pitch calling. Just knowing situational baseball, she really was head and shoulders above some of her teammates and colleagues and it has transferred over into the coaching world here.”

For Asham, who still plans to do some occupational therapy on the side, coaching hasn’t been all about softball.

“I’m definitely very proud to be Métis and educate others on what Métis is and the history of residential schools,” said Asham.

“In the U.S., no one knows our Canadian history so being able to educate others down here too, that’s been a really special thing for me to do.”

Asham and the Saints have a chance to end the season with a national championship as they meet top-ranked Florida National Thursday in the Small College World Series final.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31