Georgia Tech alum and former All-American Aileen Morales is the new head coach of the Georgia Tech softball team.
Former Georgia Tech star shortstop and All-American Aileen Morales has returned to Tech. The Columbus, Georgia native played at Tech from 2005 to 2008. She returns to her alma mater as the newest head coach of the softball program.
According to Georgia Tech, Morales remains the program leader in games played, starts, at-bats, and stolen bases. She’s also top 10 in several offensive categories. Following her career at Georgia Tech, Morales had a small professional career while entering the coaching ranks as a graduate assistant with the Yellow Jackets.
From 2008 to 2013, Morales was an assistant coach on the softball team before becoming a head coach at Young Harris College where she went 51-51 over her two years with the program. Following her two years at Young Harris she became the head coach at Radford where she spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons collecting a 62-54 record.
In a press release by the school, Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury said the following;
"“For nine seasons, Aileen was a major part of the most successful stretch in Georgia Tech softball history, first as a student-athlete, then as an assistant coach. I am confident that she is the right person to lead our program back to the national prominence that it has enjoyed for much of this millennium.”"
Young Harris (2014-2015):
Morales enters the job at Georgia Tech with a short but impressive track record, to say the least. With a career record of 113-105, Morales has worked with two programs. With Young Harris, Morales was the head coach of a program in only their fourth and fifth years of NCAA eligibility. Prior to her arrival, the Mountain Lions were 72-75 in their NCAA eligibility. After a difficult first season, going 20-33 overall, Morales turned around the program. In her second season, the Mountain Lions won 31 games, the then school record. She would leave for Radford following the 2015 season. Since she left Young Harris, the Mountain Lions have won 32 and 43 games. It’s safe to say that Morales helped build a strong foundation at Young Harris.
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Radford (2016-17):
When Morales took the Radford job, the Highlanders were coming off a dismal 12-37 season. In his first season as the Highlanders head coach, Morales made her presence known. Under her guidance, Radford saw their record improve by 33 games as the Highlanders went 35-26 in 2016.
In 2017, the Highlanders took a bit of a step back going 27-28 overall, which was a disappointing season following up their 35-26 campaign. However that being said, a team winning 27 games just two seasons after winning only 12 is quite impressive. Morales, the Highlanders’ also saw success in their conference tournament.
Going Forward:
With recent disappointment, Morales enters her toughest job so far. The former Yellow Jacket standout has been hired to create a winning culture at Tech once again and return the team to national prominence, something that the Jackets haven’t tasted in a while. While year one may be difficult to judge the program’s future under Morales, year two and three will give a true sense for Morales and the future of the program. With that being said, Morales and her staff which has yet to be named must go out and build a strong recruiting class to help set up future success.