University of Memphis Athletics
Helen Peña Joins Softball Coaching Staff
Jul 24, 2017 | Softball
Peña comes to Memphis with five years of collegiate coaching experience
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - University of Memphis head softball coach Natalie Poole announces the addition of Helen Peña as an assistant coach Monday afternoon. Peña, a graduate of Cal Poly with five years of collegiate coaching experience, joins the Tigers after spending the last two seasons at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif.
"I want to thank Coach Poole and her staff for the opportunity to be a part of the Tiger family," said Peña. "I am very grateful and excited to join the growing success and culture that she has built here. I admire her coaching style and am eager to learn under her while working towards winning an AAC championship title."
Peña started her career with four seasons as a pitcher for Division I Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. While with Cal Poly, Peña helped lead her team to a pair of Big West Conference championships including the first-ever in program history in 2007. During the 2007 season, she collected a 1.75 ERA that ranked her third among all Big West pitchers.
In 2009, Peña and her Cal Poly squad broke into the top-25 for the first time in program history, ranking as high as No. 21 in the nation. She ended her career ranked in the top 10 in pitching categories including strikeouts, victories, shutouts, saves, earned run average, complete games, and innings pitched.
"We are excited to welcome Helen to our coaching staff as our new pitching coach," said Poole. "Helen's playing and coaching experience are two things that I like about her. She has had success in both environments, and I believe that she is going to be able to lead our pitching staff in a confident, experienced fashion."
After a season as the volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater, Peña was named an assistant coach at Cal State University Bakersfield in 2013 and assumed that role for two seasons. She helped develop and mentor Kelsey Monroe, the 2015 Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and Third-Team All-Region Pitcher while coaching her pitching her staff to the lowest team ERA and the most shutouts in the WAC.
Her most recent coaching stop was at Menlo College where her efforts helped Menlo break the single-season program record for most wins with 31 in 2017. The season before Menlo won just 11 contests.
With a 2.59 ERA in 2017, her staff at Menlo had the lowest combined ERA in 14 seasons. The pitching staff improved its ERA over five runs from the 2015 season.
Peña also recruited a pair of freshman All-Conference athletes as well as coached a total of eight All-Conference players and eight Scholar-Athletes in her time at Menlo.
"Her passion for the sport and the development of players, as well as focus on the mental game will challenge and benefit all of our players, not just our pitchers," added Poole.
