University of North Carolina Athletics
How She Got Here: Firnbach Joins UNC Staff For 2015 Season
December 10, 2014 | Softball
There has been a new face in the dugout and out on the practice field this fall, as Mary Jo (MJ) Firnbach joined the North Carolina softball coaching staff as associate head coach back in August. She brings with her over 20 years of coaching experience, a career that began as soon as she graduated from Southern Illinois University.
After a stellar four-year career with the Saluki's that would eventually see her inducted into the school's Athletics Hall of Fame, Firnbach would return for her master's degree in 1991.
“I ended up doing community health education as my undergrad but the more I was around athletics and I got my masters degree in sports psychology I figured that would really help and decided that was the route I wanted to take. “
Through her degree she would serve as a research assistant with the softball team for two years before taking an assistant coaching job at Michigan.
“It's a small world and actually one of my former friends and cohorts at Southern Illinois had become the throwing coach at Michigan so she was in the track area and said softball is looking for another assistant and I'm like that sounds interesting so I just put my information in and push came to shove and I ended up getting the job.”
After two years at Michigan that saw the Wolverines win the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships along with an NIT title and an appearance in the College World Series, Firnbach would take an assistant coaching job at Illinois State University for three years.
“Being a first assistant, she worked me really really hard there and I loved it and it was the only way I would have really learned how this business works” said Firnbach on her time at Illinois State. “I thought maybe I was ready to pursue being a head coach so I through my name out there to a variety of locations, Syracuse being one of them, figuring I probably won't get a call, they're starting a brand new program, this will be my first head job I'm sure that wont be an opportunity.”
As luck would have it though, the senior woman administrator at Syracuse was a Michigan alumnus and Firnbach's time spent in Ann Arbor stood out on her resume and brought her to the forefront. After interviewing for the position, she became the first head softball coach in program history at Syracuse University.
“It was great. It was challenging, starting a program from scratch that's an outdoor sport in one of the coldest places to live and has six months of snow a year.”
“It was very challenging but Syracuse is a phenomenal institution, it's a private school so that added different challenges in how scholarships work, how the money and the budget works, but it was basically built from the ground up. They didn't have a softball there, they didn't have a field, the recruiting was completely different so that was a great challenge.”
In 2007 She left the Orange to take the associate head coach position at Texas A&M, working under eventual NFCA Hall of Fame coach Jo Evans.
“I wanted to try a different opportunity in a warm climate, if an opportunity comes around from a Big 12 school like Texas A&M, for a future hall of fame coach you jump at the opportunity and its an opportunity I could not pass up.”
In her eight seasons in College Station, the Aggies made eight NCAA tournament appearances, including two trips to the Women's College World Series and four NCAA Super Regional appearances.
Firnbach's relationship with Tar Heels Head Coach Donna Papa began while she was at Texas A&M and continued to build over the years leading to her joining the coaching staff at UNC.
“I've always known of Coach Papa of course, Hall of Fame Coach, she's been doing this here for what, 30 years, so if you're in the softball world you're going to know who Coach Papa is” said Firnbach. “ I just have always admired her and the teams that she has had and the success that they have had here.”
What sealed her on that she was making the right decision came from how others spoke about Coach Papa and the program as a whole.
“I've come across UNC alums and how they speak about the program and how it's just a family atmosphere, the university as a whole, it's just the whole package. You have decent weather, smart student athletes that want to come here and get a great degree and have a future.”
Looking back on her career from this point, she notices how the sport and coaching has changed, appreciating the way in which she rose up through the coaching ranks.
“My whole coaching career was kind of working my way up the ladder. That's how things used to work. You become a volunteer coach or graduate assistant and then you work your way up to second assistant and then a first assistant and then you became a head coach if that's what you desired. Nowadays people can come right out of college and get a first assistant job. The sport has exploded which is fantastic and the opportunities are much better now than what they used to be. But I loved it and that was the best way for me to learn.”
