Family Ties – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Softball
June 23, 2006
It is the end of an era in Ohio State softball as long-time assistant coach Belinda Quisenberry has stepped down from her post, effective this summer. She had been a mainstay in the OSU dugout, having assisted head coach Linda Kalafatis since her arrival in 1997. Before that, Quisenberry wore No. 20 for the Buckeyes and had the name `Cernava’ on the back of her scarlet and gray uniform from 1990-93.
During her playing days, she broke nearly every OSU pitching record, helping guide the Buckeyes to their first and only Big Ten title in 1990. Nearly all of those records have been broken since, something Quisenberry is proud of considering the current record holders are the pitchers she has coached during the last 10 years.
“As a player, statistics did not matter to me,” Quisenberry said as she reflected back on her days as a Buckeye. “I just played to win and win for my teammates. Now, as a coach, if I want anyone to break my records, I want it to be the players I coached. I’m so proud of them and their accomplishments.”
In an announcement made in early June, Quisenberry cited a desire to spend more time with her family as her reason for stepping down. She and her husband Mark, the video coordinator for the football team are the parents of a son, Bryce, born in October.
“I completely underestimated how much time I would want to spend with my family.” Quisenberry said. “This job is a lot of traveling, not just during the season, but during the summer for recruiting and during the fall as well. Mark has a huge time commitment with the football program in the fall and neither of us has family in the immediate area to help out with those late nights and long weekends.”
Since Quisenberry arrived in Columbus as a freshman in the fall of 1989, a lot has changed in the game of softball.
“Softball is much more competitive now,” Quisenberry said. “When I played there was much more disparity in the Big Ten from the top teams to the bottom teams. Now it’s very tough to win in the conference.” Not only has she seen changes with OSU and Big Ten softball, but she has also seen changes in her perspective of the sport. She said knowing what she knows now about the sport and what it takes to be successful, if given the opportunity to go back to her playing days she would have done a few things differently.
“I definitely know I would have been a different player and contributed more to my own development, and not just done what the coaches said,” Quisenberry said. “I would have asked more questions. (Current OSU pitcher) Courtney Pruner once told me she was afraid to ask questions because it may seem as though she is defying the coaches, but it’s not like that at all.”
Despite these changes, her passion for softball and the OSU program has been consistent.
“I’ll always be a big fan of softball and of the university,” Quisenberry said. “I plan on keeping in touch with my former players, former teammates and my former coaching staff. With Mark being part of the football program, it shouldn’t be too hard.”
Now that she is no longer coaching at Ohio State, Quisenberry is looking forward to raising a family and hopefully still being involved with softball.
“In the future, I’d like to get into teaching and coaching on the high school level, which is more conducive to having a family,” Quisenberry said. “If I don’t do that, I’d like to stay here at the university and use my undergraduate and/or graduate degree.”
She holds a bachelor’s in business-human resources from Ohio State and a master’s degree in counseling-education from the University of Akron.
Although Quisenberry will no longer be an official part of Ohio State softball, the impact she has made on the sport, both as a player and more recently, as a coach will not soon be forgotten.
“Belinda has been a great ambassador for the athletic department and I can honestly say that no one has meant more to Ohio State Softball than she has,” Kalafatis said. “She has been a tireless worker and has always stood for the right things. She makes me proud to be a Buckeye
No doubt the same sentiments echoed by her former teammates, players and colleagues.
By Betsy Bouillon, OSU Athletics Communications
