Wells' success runs deep to days at Southeast

Linda Wells has just begun the 2005 softball season as head coach at Arizona State University with the same kind of enthusiasm as she has in her previous 33 years as a coach with the Sun Devils and before that at the University of Minnesota.

This time, however, it is her last season.

"I just have such a love and passion for sport and for competition," said Wells, who is a 1972 Southeast Missouri State University graduate.

Wells, who was born in Washington, Mo., and raised in nearby Pacific, credits her time at Southeast with helping her develop the traits which has made her one of the most successful coaches in NCAA Division I history.

"Girls at that time went to college either to become teachers or nurses," Wells said. "A friend of mine and a couple of cousins who lived next door went to Southeast Missouri, and I decided that would be a good place for me to go."

Wells played five different sports at Southeast at a time when women's sports were not affiliated with the NCAA. She played volleyball and field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter and tennis and softball in the spring.

"The physical education department at Cape was just excellent," Wells said. "It was a very challenging time with so many different activity classes. As an example, I was not a swimmer at all before I went to Cape and when I left there I was a certified water safety instructor. I can't speak more highly of the education I received there.

"I left Cape fully confident that I could teach or coach anything I attemped. I attribute a lot of what I have accomplished to the instructors I had at Cape."

After graduating in 1972, Wells did some student teaching at the public schools in the St. Louis area.

"I knew I wasn't cut out to do that," Wells said.

She went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, and it wasn't long before she realized what she was cut out to do.

She was there during the time of Title IX, and she would begin her coaching career at Minnesota in 1973.

"I always loved to play sports," said Wells, who was at one-time the player-coach for the Chicago Ravens and St. Louis Hummers of the Women's International Professional Softball League. "And I realized from the start that coaching was the perfect fit for me. It was something I had a passion for."

Wells became head women's coach for basketball (1973 to 1977), volleyball (1974 to 1981) and softball (1974 to 1988) for the Golden Gophers and led all three sports to national championship competition.

She had an overall record of 351-264-1 in softball during her 15-year tenure at Minnesota but decided in 1989 to move from the cold Midwest to balmy Arizona.

"Weather was certainly a big factor in my moving," Wells said. "I had some great years in Minnesota, but the weather in Arizona is so much more conducive to softball. And I also wanted a different experience in coaching. I am a risk taker."

The risk paid off in a big way for Wells, who is starting her 15th and final season as the head coach of the Sun Devils.

Wells opened the 2005 season with 884 career victories, which ranks seventh among active coaches in NCAA Division I. Her team is off to a 3-0 start this season.

She has led the Sun Devils to 10 NCAA Regional appearances, including trips to the NCAA World Series in 1999 and 2002.

But the numbers do not tell the entire Wells legacy.

"Linda has done a tremendous job as a coach spanning over 30 years of her career," Arizona State athletic director Gene Smith said. "She has touched numerous student-athletes during that time and had a positive impact on our history at Arizona State. She will leave her mark as the school's all-time career leader in wins, which is quite an achievement in itself. Linda will be sorely missed."

Stacey Farnworth has gotten to know Wells very well in recent years, first as a player after transferring from the University of Utah, then as a graduate assistant, then as a member of Wells' Greek Olympic team and now as a full-time assistant coach.

"The greatest thing I have done in softball is transfer to ASU, and that is because of coach Wells," Farnworth said. "Besides my parents, she has had the biggest influence on my life. She was really like everybody's mom on the team besides our coach. I called her my 'Arizona Mom.'

"As a coach, I learn more and more from her every day. She knows everything there is to know about the sport. She is a great recruiter and she knows how to get the best out of her players.

"But more than anything, her success has come because of the way she treats people. She is such a caring person. I respect her so much, and I've learned through some recruiting I have done now how much she is respected throughout the softball world. She is such an inspiration to me. I just hope we can do well as a team this year. She deserves to go out on top."

Wells, who received the 2002 Southeast Missouri State Alumni Merit Award for alumni who have brought distinction to themselves and the university, believes she is ready for the next chapter in her life.

"Thirty-four years is enough," said Wells, who will continue to live in Arizona but plans to spend more time now in Missouri, where her parents and other family still reside.

"I will be 55 this year, and I had originally planned to get out at 50," she added. "But my teams the last few years have been so good. I went a few years longer.

"It has been a great career for me and my reward beyond the wins has been the relationships with peer coaches, staff and players. I look at all the people who have touched my life in a positive way through the years. I would like to hope that I was able to do the same thing for a player or two myself."