Coaches

Brady Tigert

Brady Tigert is entering his second season as Head Softball Coach at Catawba College in the spring of 2024.


Tigert helped Catawba Softball to its largest turnaround in program history, with a 21-win improvement from 2022 to 2023. Under Tigert, Riley Tucker became just the second player to earn All-America recognition in program history, leading the conference with a .468 batting average and a program-record .842 slugging percentage.


Hired as the third head softball coach in Catawba College history in June of 2022, Tigert most recently coached at Wesleyan College in the spring of 2022 where he led the Wolves to their most wins in program history as well as the program's first winning season. Tigert led Wesleyan to a 24-16 record and the USA South Tournament Championship series in his first year at the helm.


Prior to Wesleyan, Tigert spent 13 seasons as the head coach at Midwestern State in Texas. In his tenure, Tigert compiled 486 wins, a .655 winning percentage, and was awarded the Lone Star Conference Coach of the year six times (2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011). The Mustangs finished above .500 in all thirteen seasons with Tigert as head coach highlighted by a 54-win season in 2011 where MSU finished as National Runner-Up in the NCAA Tournament. MSU led all of collegiate softball with 108 wins spanning the 2010 and 2011 seasons. The 54 victories also stood as the LSC standard of single season success.


MSU advanced to regional postseason play in nine of Tigert's 13 years, claimed its first NCAA II postseason victory in 2007.


In 2004, Tigert led Midwestern State to an LSC North Championship and postseason appearance in its inaugural season with a 31-16 record.


The 2005 campaign proved to be just as successful with MSU advancing to the LSC Championship game before making its second NCAA appearance.


Tigert guided Midwestern State to the program's first LSC regular season and tournament titles in 2006 and 2007 after posting back-to-back 44-win campaigns. MSU took home its first LSC crown on Apr. 30, 2006 in Irving, defeating Abilene Christian by a score of 5-1 to punch its ticket to a third-straight NCAA Tournament.


After a one-year absence from postseason play in 2012, Midwestern made back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament the next two seasons, advancing all the way to the South Central Regional final before bowing out to top-ranked West Texas A&M in 2014.


Tigert, who constructed a 486-256 (.655) record since starting the MSU program, carries a 620-326 (.655) mark through 17 collegiate seasons. Prior to Midwestern State, Tigert led Texas A&M-Kingsville to a 110-54 record in three seasons (2001-03). While there, he led the 2002 Javelinas to a 46-18 record and a trip to the NCAA II South Central Regional finals.


Tigert’s father, John, was one of the most successful high school coaches in the state of New Mexico where in 20 seasons as head coach at Carlsbad High School, his squads won 11 state championships and were runners-up on four other occasions.


Tigert’s other coaching experience includes stints as head coach at Ryan High School in Denton, Texas (1999); as assistant coach at the University of Oregon (1997); as a head coach at Artesia (New Mexico) High School (1996) and as an assistant coach at New Mexico State University for three seasons (1993-95).