Kirin Kumar is ready to lead the Ohio State softball program: 'It's very exciting'

COLUMBUS — Ohio State has one of the most successful and most profitable athletic departments in the country, primarily due to the success and history of the football program.

Several other programs on campus have had success, though. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have mad deep runs in March Madness. The women’s ice hockey program has won two national championships in the past three seasons. Ty Tucker had a national championship doubles team in men’s tennis last season, Tom Ryan had a national champion wrestler this past season, and so on.

The Buckeyes’ spring sports have struggled, however. So much so that new athletic director Ross Bjork, who arrived in Columbus in March, has already hired new baseball and softball coaches. Bjork chose Justin Haire to lead the Buckeyes baseball program. Haire is an Ohio native and had high levels of success at mid-major program Campbell.

As for the softball program, Bjork tabbed former Miami (Ohio) head coach Kirin Kumar to be Ohio State’s next head coach. Kumar led the RedHawks to four MAC regular season titles, three MAC Championships and four appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

Kumar can’t bring her MAC hardware to Columbus, but she can bring the same excitement and enthusiasm that helped her win at Miami (Ohio).

“I bring enthusiasm, passion,” Kumar told Lettermen Row. “So he [Bjork] wanted that to come, he wanted excitement for Ohio State softball. Everyone knows right now that softball is one of the premier sports in college athletics, especially for women. You’ve got women’s basketball, obviously, here ice hockey is tremendous. We want to be like them. So that’s what we want, and we want the country to talk about Ohio State softball.”

Kumar will also look to bring that passion to the recruiting trail. After spending the past four seasons at Miami (Ohio), Kumar is looking forward to recruiting with the “Block O” on her shirt and the support of Ohio State behind her.

“It’s very exciting, because now you can pull from the entire country, but also I’m not going to lose who I am to find the people that want to be here,” Kumar said.

“I don’t want people to come here just because it’s Ohio State. I want you to come here because you want to put us on the map, you want to do big things at Ohio State softball. So I think in this region, people know. People know what it is to be part of Buckeye Nation. So being able to pull that and then trying to show them what Buckeye Nation is, that’s what we want to do. So I’m excited for that.”

The previous coaching staff at Ohio State put too much of emphasis on recruiting California at times and neglected the state of Ohio.

Kumar plans to prioritize the state of Ohio first, particularly for pitching, then fill out the rest of the roster with players from the rest of the Midwest.

“I think the pitching in Ohio is tremendous,” Kumar said. “I think great pitchers are leaving the states, and I would like to keep them here. They should want to put their state school on the map. They should want to do this and say, ‘I took Ohio State to levels it’s never been at.’ The pitching is tremendous here. I want to keep those great pitchers here in the state.

“I think you can get a good core group from Ohio. I do not, at this time, think an entire class can be from there, but I do think it can be from the entire region. And when I talk about the region, I mean within a tank of gas. Buckeye Nation is across the country. It’s not just in this area, and that’s what’s really special.” 

Kumar and her coaching staff have already done a good job of retaining several key players from last year’s roster, including shortstop Kami Kortokrax.

She also brought with her two of Miami (Ohio)’s top freshman in infielder Sam Bewick, the MAC Freshman of the Year, and outfielder Hadley Parisien, a first-team All MAC selection as a freshman last season.