Softball coach Samantha Ricketts signs contract extension with Mississippi State
From Mississippi State Media Relations
Mississippi State head softball coach Samantha Ricketts has signed a four-year contract extension through the 2028 season, the maximum allowable under state law, Director of Athletics Zac Selmon announced on Monday.
Ricketts will enter her sixth season as the head coach and 11th overall in Starkville in 2025. She is the second-longest-tenured head coach currently employed by the Bulldogs and will move into a tie for the third-longest-tenured head coach in MSU softball history.
Under her leadership, Mississippi State softball has witnessed historic improvements on the diamond. In her first five years, she has guided the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Super Regional and highest ranking in program history. Her career winning percentage is the highest of any head coach in program history.
“I am grateful to Zac Selmon for the opportunity to continue leading the Mississippi State softball program,” Ricketts said. “I have been blessed to work with some incredible young women and work with a great support staff that have helped this program grow over the last few years. I’m excited to keep building on that progress and see what the future holds for this program.”
In 2024, Ricketts took an MSU team that was projected to finish last in the SEC Preseason Coaches’ Poll and coached them to the program’s highest SEC win total in 12 years and its best finish in the league standings since the SEC switched to a 24-game schedule. The Bulldogs won a school-record 14 games against ranked opponents that year and claimed 15 run-rule victories, which was also a program record, on their way to climbing as high as No. 11 in the Softball America poll.
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Additionally, seven Bulldogs have gone on to professional careers since she took over as head coach. Mississippi State now boasts 26 professional players with the addition of Madisyn Kennedy, Brylie St. Clair and Aspen Wesley in 2024. Of those, 14 were coached by Samantha Ricketts as the head coach or an assistant, and she has mentored seven of Sate’s 13 draft picks.
Multiple Bulldogs have earned NFCA All-Region honors in all but one season that she has spent in Starkville. She has seen the Bulldogs collect nine All-American honors and guided Mia Davidson to NFCA Catcher of the Year recognition in 2022.
MSU has become of the nation’s elite offensive teams under Ricketts’ watch. The top five single-season home run totals in program history have all come under her watch, and she has coached eight of the top 11 players in MSU history in career home runs along with seven of the top 10 individual season totals on record.
Since Ricketts arrived as an assistant, MSU has drawn three top-10 recruiting classes, including the No. 10 class in the nation as recently as 2023. She has expanded the Bulldogs’ recruiting reach, signing the first student-athletes in program history from the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.
