The most successful head coach in
Cal Poly softball program history, three-time Big West Conference
Coach of the Year selection Jenny Condon enters her ninth season in
2013. Condon, who directed Cal Poly to Big West titles and NCAA
Tournament appearances in 2007 and 2009, enters the 2013 season
with a .534 (213-186) overall winning percentage and a .580 (94-68)
winning percentage in Big West contests.
The Big West’s representative to the NFCA Division I Head
Coaches Committee, Condon became the 11th Big West coach to earn
200 victories at a member institution as Cal Poly capped the 2011
season with a 6-5 victory against conference champion Pacific.
Under Condon, Cal Poly has finished in the top half of the Big West
standings during six of the previous eight seasons.
Individually, Condon has helped produce 33 All-Big West selections
at Cal Poly, six NFCA All-West Region selections and one
All-America selection.
Despite the program’s 23-24 overall finish in 2010, Cal
Poly’s 12-9 Big West mark kept the Mustangs within the
top-three programs in the conference standings for the
sixth-successive season. Led by designated player Anna Cahn’s
selection as Big West Field Player of the Year, five Mustangs
earned all-conference praise in 2010.
The 2009 season proved to be the finest effort in Cal Poly’s
19-year Division I tenure as the Mustangs established single-season
program records for overall winning percentage (.774), conference
winning percentage (.857), conference victories (18), fewest
conference defeats (three) and fewest overall defeats (12) en route
to capturing a second Big West title and a berth in the NCAA
Tournament. The Mustangs, who also made program history by rising
as high as No. 21 in the USA Today/NFCA poll, produced their first
NCAA Tournament victories at the Division I level and reached the
championship round of the Stanford regional. Behind Cahn’s
Big West Pitcher of the Year honor, a program-record nine Mustangs
garnered all-conference praise.
Setting the table for an historic 2009 campaign was a solid 2008
effort as the Mustangs finished 24-22 overall and in third place in
the Big West standings with a 12-9 mark. In between opening the
season with a 5-1 victory against eventual Women’s College
World Series runner-up Texas A&M and winning six of their final
eight contests, Cal Poly posted eight victories against programs
that qualified for the previous season’s NCAA Tournament and
defended Bob Janssen Field with a 14-3 (.824) home mark. All-Big
West first team selection Melissa Pura headlined a group of seven
total Mustangs who garnered all-conference praise.
Prior to the 2009 campaign, Cal Poly’s 2007 season ranked as
the most-notable year in program history. Aside from capturing the
program’s first Big West title and securing its first NCAA
Tournament berth at the Division I level, Cal Poly established
then-single-season records for total victories (39) and overall
(.696) and conference (.778) winning percentage. After dealing
defeats to No. 12 Washington, No. 6 Northwestern and No. 9
Stanford, Cal Poly opened Big West play with eight-straight
victories. The Mustangs, who led the conference race wire-to-wire,
closed the regular season by winning five of their final six games
and a 3-2 victory against Pacific on May 11 not only secured the
Big West crown, but also provided Condon her 100th career victory.
Headlined by Big West Player of the Year selection Lisa Modglin
– who also doubled as Cal Poly’s first NFCA All-America
pick in nine years – Cal Poly placed eight Mustangs on the
2007 all-conference team.
A standout player in the collegiate and international arenas,
Condon’s influence at Cal Poly was felt instantly as her
inaugural 2005 squad posted a 35-16 mark. The Mustangs went 15-6 in
Big West play and the second-place finish was, at the time, the
best showing in program history. Cal Poly’s 27-23 record in
2006 was backed by an 11-7 Big West mark that guaranteed a
third-place finish. The record solidified the program’s first
back-to-back winning campaigns since the 1996 (23-19) and 1997
(37-17) seasons.
Condon’s sides have been especially adept in defending Bob
Janssen Field, having racked up an 84-63 (.571) home record under
her guidance. Included in that mark is a program-record 19-game
home winning streak from May 9 2008 to May 2, 2009.
Condon began her coaching career at UNLV in 1994, assisting the
Rebels to a third-place finish at the 1995 WCWS. She relocated to
Northwestern in 1997 before beginning a two-year stint with Oregon
State in 1998. The following season, the Beavers recorded a
school-record 47 wins and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the
first time in program history. Head coach Kirk Walker’s staff
earned Speedline/NFCA Pacific Region Coaching Staff of the Year
honors.
Condon spent the 2000 campaign with UNLV before returning to
Corvallis in 2001. She served four additional seasons at Oregon
State until accepting the Cal Poly head coaching position on Aug.
25, 2004.
Condon competed collegiately at Iowa State and completed a prolific
career in 1990. A 1989 NFCA All-America second team selection,
four-time All-Big Eight honoree and three-time academic
all-conference pick, Condon remains Iowa State’s all-time
leader for hits (216), runs (120), triples (24) and batting average
(.351). The outfielder was inducted into the Iowa State Hall of
Fame in 2003. A native of Edina, Minn., Condon earned a bachelor's
degree in education from Iowa State in 1991 with a minor in
health.
Condon began a two-year stint with USA Softball in 1994 by helping
the Americans capture the 1994 International Softball Federation
World Championship in St. John's, Newfoundland. A year later, the
United States won the Pan-American Games gold medal in Mar del
Plata, Argentina.
Additionally, Condon played on three National Women's Fastpitch
League championship teams with the California Commotion and was
named an ASA All-American four times – twice with the
Commotion and twice more with MCM Sports. She earned gold medals in
softball at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1994 and 1995 and in team
handball at the 1993 competition.