Shane Showalter enters his second season as Governors head coach after serving three seasons (2013-15) as the program's assistant coach and being elevated to his current position, July 6, 2015. He replaced Stephanie Paris.
In his first season the Governors were voted the Ohio Valley Conference Team Sportsmanship Award – the first time the program had won the award – while also seeing two firsts in conference individual awards: Danielle Liermann became the first Governors player to be named OVC Freshman of the Year while also being selected first-team All-OVC in the same year. Liermann and redshirt freshman Kacy Acree also became the first pair of APSU players to be named to the All-OVC Newcomer Team in the same season.
On the field, Showalter's Govs saw their offense post top-five all-time marks for doubles, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and home runs. The team also posted its lowest strikeout total as a team since 2008, while defensively the team committed 17 fewer errors, a 19 percent improvement over the previous season.
Prior to coming to Austin Peay, Showalter, served as Colorado State-Pueblo’s head coach for 10 seasons and left CSU-Pueblo as the winningest coach in program history, gaining his 200th ThunderWolves victory in 2011 on his way to 244 career victories.
Under Showalter's direction, the CSU-Pueblo program became a consistent contender in the Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, finishing second in his last season while being named RMAC Coach of the Year. In his last six seasons, CSU-Pueblo qualified for the RMAC Tournament each season, finishing second twice (2006, 2007).
He coached an All-American, two RMAC Players of the Year and the league freshman of the year during his stay. Along the way he also mentored eight all-region, 44 all-league and 10 all-conference tournament selections.
In 2009, the program qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament for the first time in school history. The ThunderWolves earned an at-large bid that season and eventually played its way into the Central Regional Championship game on the way to earning the program's first-ever national tournament wins.
Off the field his team's success also carried into the classroom. While at CSU-Pueblo, the maintained a grade-point average better than 3.4.
Prior to serving as the ThunderWolves' head coach, Showalter held the same position at Division III Colorado College (1999-2002), a non-scholarship program in Colorado Springs. Before arriving at Colorado College, he was an assistant coach at his alma mater Adams State (Alamosa, Colo.) from 1996-98.
Off the softball field, he served as assistant grounds keeper from 1999-02 for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the Colorado Rockies Triple A affiliate.
Showalter earned both his bachelor's (Sports and Exercise Management) and master's (Exercise Physiology) at Adams State.
He has a daughter, Maison.
