How Lindsay Leftwich is approaching an NC State softball turnaround

NC State was not the first school to reach out to Lindsay Leftwich about a vacant softball head coaching position. She was the top assistant at national powerhouse LSU, which made four College World Series appearances during her 12 seasons on staff with the Tigers. 

But when Leftwich arrived in Raleigh for an interview, she was immediately impressed. She could see herself leading the Wolfpack program — a difference in her view of the other head coaching jobs that have come to her attention during her career. 

“I never wanted to be the boss until I came to this interview,” Leftwich said last week. “It was just so easy to see what’s growing in Raleigh and what’s growing here at NC State. Some of the most special programs here at NC State are women’s sports. A program and an athletic culture that is pouring into female athletes isn’t the easiest thing to find around the country. It was so simple to think that I could find success here and I could really help build something.”

Leftwich earned the job in Raleigh and she was officially named as the Pack’s coach in June. From there she hit the ground running on the recruiting trail before she began to instill her vision in the program this past fall. 

The program won just 18 games a year ago — and logged its seventh straight complete season with a sub-.500 ACC record — after Jennifer Patrick-Swift was relieved of her duties when the Wolfpack had a 5-10 start last March. 

It left Leftwich with some work to do, and the main focus was to install her culture into the program. As a longtime assistant coach, Leftwich said she was always the coach to make sure things were going well for the team and was there to “love on them.”

So when she arrived in Raleigh, those traits were utilized to help set the team up for the 2024 campaign. The first step? Making progress one day at a time.

“From the moment we walked in we just talked about stacking good days,” Leftwich said. “If you stack little moment after little moment after little moment, hopefully that stacks into a great day and a great week and a great season.”

While that may seem like building off the positives on the field, which it does, it also includes working through the adversity that the team will face in softball. Leftwich said that it does not matter if something does not go someone’s way, but their response does. 

Previously, Leftwich said, the response was to “melt” and “struggle through something” on the field. She pushed the Wolfpack to get out of that mindset and wanted them to keep going, no matter what.

“As long as you have outs, you have hope,” Leftwich said. 

A key way Leftwich and her staff were able to earn the trust of the Wolfpack roster was through consistency, she noted. As Leftwich, a first-year head coach, worked to instill a winning culture in Raleigh, showing up with the same energy and enthusiasm at practice made headway with her team. 

But her culture — W.O.L.F. — has also helped NC State make strides towards what Leftwich has envisioned. It stands for work, ownership, love and fight, and Leftwich said the team builds everything around those four traits. 

So far, that has paid off with the team. Sophomore pitcher/utility Madison Inscoe was quick to bring it up. 

“That’s the biggest thing she’s taught us,” Inscoe said of W.O.L.F. “Outwork everybody, do what’s right, love — the greatest form of aggression — and then fight, burn the boats. We’ve learned a lot from her through that.”

The coaching staff’s vision has not only taught the Wolfpack lessons on the softball field, but it has also helped improve the team’s morale in the process. 

“They definitely instill a lot of confidence in us, and I think that definitely allows us all to have trust in each other,” sophomore catcher Amanda Hasler said. “There’s just this unspoken loyalty that we have amongst each other and I think that brings us all very tightly knit.”

Fight is a key ingredient to Leftwich’s acronym. She has instilled it in her team, and it was a constant theme as she and her players spoke about this season’s squad. 

The team likely will not “melt” or give up on the field, even if a game is not going their way. Instead, Leftwich wants those that attend their games to see a team that does not quit. 

“I think you’re going to see our kids play differently than maybe they ever have before,” Leftwich said. “When people come to watch us play, I want them to leave thinking, ‘Dang, they play hard. They fight to the end and they play hard.’”

This is not Leftwich’s first rodeo of trying to build a program with a new mindset. She was Beth Torina’s top assistant at Florida International — and later LSU — when they took over a program that had not had a winning season in 10 years. They ended up leading the Golden Panthers to their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2010.

Leftwich is aware of what needs to be done to right the ship, and so far it has paid off early in her first season with the Wolfpack.

NC State has won seven straight games, which is the longest winning streak since the Pack won eight in a row during the 2021 season. Ironically, the eighth win came over then-No. 15/16 LSU, while Leftwich was in the dugout with the Tigers. 

Though the team is not going to measure itself by its record this season, rather by the squads competitive spirit on the field, Leftwich has the best start of any NC State softball coach in their first season at the helm with an 8-3 mark. 

But for Leftwich, the Wolfpack will be motivated by its passion for the game and one another on the field each and every day. That, in turn, will lead to positive results, both on and off the field.

“I think my team and our team as a staff will be driven by love,” Leftwich said. “You fight hardest for the things that you love, and the more that we can get them to love what they’re doing and love each other, I think it overflows into everything you do. I hope that is what people say about us when they’re done watching us play.”