Megan Koumelis has big shoes to fill. As the new head coach for the City College softball team, she is replacing former coach Tim Kiernan who had been in the role for 40 years.
Koumelis has been the assistant softball coach since 2016, and before that she was a Panther herself, having played at City College from 2012-13.
“Because I’m a former Panther, I want to be able to get back to a program that did so much for me and I just want to help facilitate what I went through with my student athletes that I’m working with day-to-day,” she says.
Growing up in Davis, Koumelis has played softball since she was a child with her passion for the sport coming from her family, she says. Koumelis played as both catcher and outfielder during her early years in the sport, but later focused solely on being an outfielder. After her time at City College, she transferred to Southern Oregon University in Ashland and played softball for the university.
Koumelis says she feels a lot of pressure following in Kiernan’s footsteps, but is determined to do her best following Kieran’s departure.
“He obviously did such an amazing job for this program and really didn’t even just build the foundation,” she says. “He went beyond building a strong foundation, so I think it really motivates me to continue on that historical success and do everything I possibly can to make him proud and our program proud.”
Softball player Kaylen Galaviz says, “Since I have been at Sac City, Coach Koumelis has always been a safe place for me as well as the rest of the team,” Galaviz says. “You can go to her with anything, softball-related or not. When you get to the college level, a lot of girls decide to give up the sport, but Coach Koumelis reminds us everyday why we fell in love with the sport and what pushed us to make it to this level.”
Fellow player Faith McCarrell describes Koumelis as “by far one of the best coaches I have had the privilege of playing for. In previous years, I have played for coaches that could be negative at times which would make me play with the fear of making a mistake,” she says. “Coach Koumelis has always made it a point that softball is a game of failure and our mistakes are something to learn from. If you ask me, there was no other option. Coach Koumelis is the best person for this job.”
During her first season as head coach, Koumelis hopes to bring home a championship win. But beyond that her main goal is to “continue building a positive cohesive team culture that our student athletes feel willing to push themselves every day, and get better every single day.”
But, she says, there are lots of “little goals that they have to set and attain before we get to that long-term goal.”
