Toledo, Ohio - First-year University of Toledo head coach Joe Abraham's approach to leading a team is a bit unorthodox, to say the least. Abraham doesn't believe in naming captains, he isn't a big fan in setting preseason goals, he thinks a player's batting average is almost as unimportant as the type of socks she's wearing, and he'll gladly sit someone who's batting a thousand if she isn't passing biology.
 
Abraham has been around the game long enough to know that the only individual mark that matters when putting together a team is each player's character. "You need to be dedicated to doing things right," says Abraham.
 
A former head coach at Hillsdale College, Abraham now takes the reigns of a Toledo program that's fresh off a 30-win campaign, captured a share of the 2018 MAC West Division title and celebrated four players being named to all-conference squad, all while earning a 3.349 team GPA.
 
The lingering question nine months later is "Can the Rockets keep the momentum going?" All eyes will be on Abraham to see how he keeps things moving forward in year one.
 
"I know this is a cliché but it's really more of a process than a result," Abraham said. "We don't go out and say 'Hey we need to win 40 games this year.' You just have to play one game at a time. We don't talk a lot about goals either. We go over expectations quite a bit, not really win/loss expectations, but how we do things on the field, how we do things off the field, and how we do things in practice. What we as coaches constantly preach is to go out there and constantly try to do your best and the goals will take care of themselves. It's a cliché, but it's true."
 
Abraham and the Midnight Blue and Gold will focus on building the foundation of a healthy culture while upping everyone's production rates. There are offensive gaps that need to be filled while everyone learns to work together but the Rockets are taking these challenges in stride, starting with hitting.
 
Hitting production
The Rockets will look to senior Katie Cozy and sophomore Kylie Norwood to repeat the dominant performances they had last year following the loss of big bats Ashley Rausch (graduation) and conference Freshman of the Year Bailey Curry (transfer).
 
Norwood is Toledo's top returner and is coming off an impressive freshman year in which she compiled the team's third-highest batting average (.306), recorded the second-most hits (56), led the team in runs (39), brought in the third-most runners (21) and recorded a .410 OBP. She's joined by Cozy, whose slash line read .263/.303/.450 at the end of the year. She also paced the lineup in doubles (14), and recorded the third-most RBIs (22).
 
Also returning are seniors Megan Choate (.244/.374/.457) and Kaitlyn Bergman (.223/.340/.446). Collectively, these four were responsible for 41 percent of the team's total bags (256-616). Even so, Abraham and his staff will be looking for the entire lineup to increase its production.
 
"We need everyone to pick it up a notch from where they were offensively," Abraham said. "We're not really looking so much at batting average; we're more interested in advanced statistics. We need some people to improve because once you get past four or five hitters there wasn't a whole lot of offensive production last year besides from people who aren't here anymore. We need some people who didn't hit all that well last year to pick it up, and I think that's going to happen."
 
Abraham will look for players like juniors Morgan Paaverud and Samantha Golden to improve their hitting stats early on and contribute to the lineup. Paaverud hit just .160 (8-for-50) last year but she produced 11 RBIs, two homers, 15 total bases and a .276 OBP. Golden had a .143 batting average (8-for-56), brought in seven runners, hit two doubles and one triple, and recorded a .246 OBP. If the two can both dial in their swings, Golden and Paaverud could easily become real threats for the Rockets.
 
In the circle
Toledo returns one of the most dynamic rotations in the conference in seniors Kailey Minarchick and Heather Webb. The two combined for a 34-20 record, 2.53 ERA, and five MAC Player of the Week awards in 2018. Minarchick was also named first-team All-MAC and earned a spot on the conference's all-tournament team. Abraham isn't worried about them repeating last year's success.
 
"Both Kailey and Heather have looked excellent in the preseason," Abraham said. "They both had really good years last year. We need them to repeat those years, and preferably get even better. Heather has really good command. She's hard to hit because she has excellent movement and control. Kailey's just a bulldog. She's gotten better and better. She just has the heart of a competitor and gets the job done. They're both confident at this point, so when you take those two and you add in the rest of our staff, we're in pretty good shape pitching-wise."
 
Minarchick and Webb will be joined by sophomore Erin Hunt, a transfer from Hillsdale. Hunt threw 164.2 innings with a 20-8 record, two saves, 197 strikeouts and a 1.83 ERA in her first year of college ball. She was also named to the GMAC First Team after leading the Chargers to their first conference championship.
 
"As a freshman at Hillsdale last year, Erin often dominated," Abraham said. "She pitched us through the conference tournament. We went 4-0 and she threw all four games and only gave up one run in all four of those games to get us to the NCAA Tournament. She then threw another shutout through the first round, so by the end of the year she was really in peak form. She has looked really good this year. Of course, it's a jump from D-II to D-I but she's able to make that jump. She may not dominate like she did in D-II, but she's going to be really good."
 
Coaching Staff
Joining Toledo's coaching staff this season are assistant coaches Jim "Z" Zoltowski, Ryan Schalk and Paige McMenemy. All three are entering their first season coaching at a Division I program but you wouldn't guess that by how Abraham assesses their character.
 
Zoltowski, an assistant under Abraham for three years at Hillsdale from 2016-18, is Abraham's right-hand man and brings invaluable perspective to the program
 
"Z has the experience and the perspective to step back and quietly come to me and say, 'Hey Joe we need this,' or 'We're missing that,'" Abraham said. "He gives me a lot of heads-up type things and that's beyond invaluable. Sometimes I think about how if Z wasn't here we wouldn't have known this or wouldn't have done that and how bad the situation could've been. He puts out a lot of fires, and off the field he's even more valuable than he is on the field. It's a huge thing for us to have him on the staff."
 
Schalk comes from Alverno College where he was the head coach in 2018. He guided the program to 14 wins, with six in the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC).
 
"Ryan is in his early 30s and he's already been coaching college softball for 10 years between Muskegon Community College, Grand Valley State and Alverno," said Abraham. "I worked a lot of summer camps with him for the past six or so years. Whether he's at tournaments recruiting or working camps, he's completely into the game and into coaching so that's why I targeted him. That's the type of coach I want: ambitious, wants to move up the ladder, completely into it, devoted to the game. That's Ryan."
 
McMenemy, UT's pitching coach, is a 2018 graduate of Ashland University who split her collegiate playing career between Ashland and the University of Akron. McMenemy's coaching history includes a combined six years of private pitching and hitting instruction, along with five years as a head travel softball coach.
 
"Paige just started here in the last month or so. She's fresh out of Ashland but I've known her almost 10 years now because we're both from Columbus," said Abraham. "I know her through travel ball. What I saw from her was a really good demeanor; she's a real go-getter. So I targeted her as someone we wanted in our program and she's just been fantastic."
 
2019 Schedule
The Rockets' schedule features a plethora of talented opponents from around the eastern half of the country. The Rockets face contests against four top-50 NCAA programs, including a March 2 contest vs. defending national champion Florida State and an April 3 matchup against Big Ten power Michigan. Despite all of the big name powerhouses on UT's schedule, Abraham wants his team to focus on taking care of business one weekend at a time.
 
"The priority is always conference play but you can't play two games at once so right now we're looking at our Northern Iowa trip." Abraham said. "Those non-conference games for any D-I school are more than half of your schedule so they're huge. We have a tough schedule with Michigan, Florida State, Central Florida, Indiana, Northwestern, and so on. It's going to test our team as we move into conference play."
 
The Rockets start the year with five-straight road tournaments, the first of which is a five-game weekend at Northern Iowa (Feb. 8-10). Toledo will spend two weekends in the Sunshine State as well, playing in the UCF (March 1-3) and USF (March 8-10) tournaments. UT and No. 1 FSU faceoff in Toledo's fourth game of the UCF tournament.
 
UT then returns to Toledo for the home opener against Kent State on March 22. In addition to the five tournaments, the Midnight Blue and Gold will play 14 home contests and 12 away contests this year. Notable games include the I-75 rivalry series against Bowling Green on March 29-30, and an April 3 road game against the No. 19 Wolverines. Rocket fans will also be treated to six Mid-American Conference home games to close out the regular season before the MAC tournament kicks off on May 8.
 
"I'm excited to get going and start playing. It feels like we've been practicing forever," Abraham said. "The players seem to be pretty excited. We have brand new Nike uniforms which are really, really cool, and we've got a lot of returning players who seem to be really excited, as well. Their excitement makes our coaches excited and ready to go. We're ready to just leave today and go play ball."