28 years after her time as an Eagle, Luers-Gillispie stands out as UCF Head Coach
–By: Tom Garland, Kirkwood News Service
“Whenever I get back to Iowa I still have to drive around Kirkwood’s campus, just to let all the nostalgia settle in.”
These are the words of Renee Luers-Gillispie. When she left Kirkwood in 1981 after earning her associate’s of arts degree, she was the ninth ranked softball pitcher nationally in the NJCAA.
Now, twenty-eight years later, she is the head softball coach for the University of Central Florida and continues to reminisce about her glory days as a college softball player.
“Our team at Kirkwood went to two national tournaments my freshman and sophomore year, and that is when I was able to be seen and get a softball scholarship at West Texas State [now West Texas A&M],” Luers-Gillispie said.
At West Texas A&M, she set nine career pitching records, including most wins, most strikeouts and most saves. She went on to be inducted into the West Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. Her first head coaching position followed at Joliet Junior College in Illinois.
“I think the time I put in at Kirkwood was a huge reason I ended up at Joliet. Even today we recruit tons of junior college players; they’re able to get their start and it helps our program out tremendously,” Luers-Gillispie said, “All the benefits that Kirkwood gave me as a student athlete is a major reason I recruit so many players from the junior college level.”
She spent two seasons at Joliet before moving on to be the head coach for Bradley University from 1993 to 1995. Following her three seasons there, Luers-Gillispie moved on to take the head coaching position at Texas Tech.
“They had basically just reinstated the program at Texas Tech, so that helped me learn a lot about what it takes to build a program from the ground up,” Luers-Gillispie said. After spending four seasons in Lubbock, she had finally found her home.
She has since spent the last eight years as the head coach for the University of Central Florida, but when she signed on, the program didn’t even exist.
“Building a program from scratch starts with administrations and their expectations. We’ve had some fantastic recruits, but I really had a lot of commitment out of their administration at UCF from the start,” Luers-Gillispie said.
“They told me they would give me a year to recruit and they said they were going to have a field up for our first season. They kept their word. Our facilities here are more than I could ever ask for,” Luers-Gillispie added.
During her time at UCF, Luers-Gillispie has led her team to an Atlantic Sun Championship in 2005 and, in 2008, a Conference USA Championship.
Despite all her success, and the long road it took to get there, Luers-Gillispie says that Kirkwood will always have a special place in her memories and would recommend the experience to any new college students.
“We just had such a great group of girls that I played with,” Luers-Gillispie said, “The biggest reason I feel like I’m proud of going to Kirkwood was the experiences I had with the staff. Kids that are looking for the right college can’t find a better place to start than Kirkwood.”