Shanon Hays
	Position: Head Coach Experience: 3rd Season e-mail: shanon.hays@ttu.edu

E-mail Coach Hays at: Shanon Hays

After inheriting a squad that was only 15-42 in 2009, Hays led the Red Raiders to back-to-back 30-plus win seasons, including a 42-16 campaign in 2011 that marked the highest winning percentage in school history.

Prior to Hays' arrival, Tech had only advanced to the postseason twice in program history with its last trip being in 2001, which was also its most-previous season with a winning record. Tech's 80-34 record under Hays is one win shy of its previous four seasons combined as the Red Raiders won 81 games from 2006-09.

Most importantly, though, the Red Raiders have been in the postseason each season, advancing to the NCAA Stanford Regional in 2010 and the Tucson Regional in 2011. Tech fell in the regional finale each year as eventual College World Series participant Hawaii ended the squad's run in 2010 while host Arizona dropped the Red Raiders in 2011.

No Tech squad had previously advanced to a regional in consecutive seasons, nor had any team previously appeared in the top 25 rankings. The Red Raiders changed that on Feb. 15, 2011 as they appeared in the top 25 of both polls, breaking a drought that lasted over a decade. Tech, which had not been ranked previously in either poll since the end of the 1999 season, climbed as high as No. 19 throughout the year, the highest ranking in school history.

Under Hays, Tech has consistently produced one of the top lineups in the nation as the Red Raiders spent most of the 2011 season with the highest batting average in the nation before ending the year fourth overall. The squad's 7.17 runs per game ranked fourth as well in scoring nationally, while its .533 slugging percentage was just inside the top 10 nationally in ninth.

With that type of production up and down the lineup, the Red Raiders have snapped 13 single-season offensive marks in the school record book, including the previous highs for batting average, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, and RBI.

While playing in a conference dominated by pitching, Tech has only been shutout six times under Hays as the Red Raiders have been among the Big 12 leaders in most offensive categories as well. Four players - Cydney Allen, Emily Bledsoe, Logan Hall, and Mikey Kenney - have been honored on either the All-Big 12 second team or on the NFCA postseason awards lists following each season.

Academics have also shined under Hays as the Red Raiders have placed 10 on the Academic All-Big 12 squads over the past two seasons. Holley Gentsch, meanwhile, was honored with the highest scholastic honor in program history, earning a spot on the Capital One Academic All-America second team.

Tech's transformation should come as little surprise after Hays' work at Lubbock Christian. Following his appointment as the program's first head softball coach in 2006, Hays worked for a full academic year in preparation for LCU's first season in 2008.

The Lady Chaps did not disappoint in their inaugural season, compiling a 60-9 record and claiming the NAIA National Championship, earning Hays NAIA National Coach of the Year honors. Hays wrapped his two-year tenure at LCU with a 114-16 overall record after advancing to the national championship again in 2009.

Known as a top-flight recruiter and motivator, Hays was named the Sooner Athletic Conference Coach of the Year both seasons and produced five NFCA and NAIA first team All-Americans during his tenure.

Hays turned to softball after a successful career as a basketball coach that included two seasons on the Texas Tech bench as an assistant coach from 1999-2001 under James Dickey. He is the first person at Texas Tech to coach two completely different sports (one men's and now one women's).

Prior to accepting the softball position at LCU, Hays was the associate head men's basketball coach at the University of Houston in 2005-06. Working under head coach Tom Penders, Hays found his knack as a recruiter, helping sign one of the nation's top 15 recruiting classes in only his first season where the Cougars won 18 games and advanced to a national tournament for the first time in three years.

Hays began his collegiate coaching career as the head men's basketball coach at Frank Phillips College in 1995-96 where he earned Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) Coach of the Year honors after the Plainsmen recorded a 19-9 record.

After a year, Hays moved to Abilene Christian University, amassing a 58-26 record from 1996-99. He led the Wildcats to the NCAA Division II "Sweet 16" in 1998-99, the furthest ACU had advanced in the national tournament since the late 1960s.

Following his two-year stint at Tech, Hays returned to ACU as the school's athletic director for an academic year. He returned to coaching the next year at Midland College, leading the Chaparrals to a 30-7 record and a third-place finish at the NJCAA National Tournament in his only season at the school. Midland claimed both the Region V and WJCAC championships, earning Hays WJCAC and Region V Coach of the Year honors.

In each coaching stop, Hays left as the winningest head coach in school history according to winning percentage. He ended his collegiate basketball tenure with a 107-42 record as a head coach.

Hays began playing fastpitch softball as a youth, along with baseball and basketball, because his father, the legendary Texas Tech and LCU baseball coach Larry Hays, also played fastpitch softball. Hays, the elder, whose 1,509 career wins were good enough for fourth on the all-time collegiate baseball list, retired as Tech's all-time winningest coach prior to the 2009 season.

In a rare twist, Larry Hays succeeded his son at LCU for one season prior to Daren Hays, Shanon's brother and former Tech assistant baseball coach and director of operations, accepted the position to lead the Lady Chaps beginning with the 2011 season.

Shanon Hays began and ended his college career at LCU, graduating with his degree in Education in 1991 after also matriculating at Texas Tech and competing from 1988 - 1990 for his father on the Red Raiders' baseball team. He competed for LCU prior to that in both baseball and on the basketball teams.

He graduated from Lubbock Monterey High School in 1986 and makes his home in Lubbock with his wife, Tina, two sons, Hunter, Heath, and daughter, Hampton.