Brette Kohring is returning to her old bashing grounds.
The former Angelina College softball standout turned in two solid seasons as a highly productive hitter in the middle of the AC lineup, leading the Lady Roadrunners to the national tournament in 2019, where AC finished as the No. 2 team in the nation. Over her two years,
Kohring batted .381 with 12 homers, 24 doubles and 79 runs batted in.
Along the way, Kohring racked up a number of individual awards, including NFCA Academic All-American, 1st Team Region XIV East All-Conference, 1st Team All-Region XIV, and NFCA 1st Team All Midwest Region.
She’ll now share those experiences with the newest Lady Roadrunners. Recently, Kohring was named Assistant Softball Coach at AC, joining head coach Josh Barnes on the staff.
“I’ve been where these girls are now just two years ago,” Kohring said. “I feel I’m old enough to relate as an adult, but I’m also young enough to relate to them as a player. I think that will help getting players to buy in, and that’s extremely important for any program.
“My coaching emphasis basically will be, ‘Give 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time.’” You can mess up going 50 percent, or you can mess up going 100 percent. I guarantee you a mistake at 100 percent is going to look a lot better.”
As well as she hit during her freshman campaign, Kohring said she still benefited from a positive coaching approach that made her even more productive. Her total bases jumped from 71 as a freshman to 90 as a sophomore, mostly because she learned to use the entire field.
“Before I came to AC, I was a dead pull hitter all the way,” Kohring said. “I could hit outside pitches, but I was going to ground it to short every time. I just struggled in that area.
“Then I learned specific mechanics that helped me a ton. I think I can share things like that with our players and make sense to them just because I had to go through it myself.”
The ability to accept coaching while working harder for results is something Kohring hopes to impart to her new players.
“I was in the middle of learning it between my freshman and sophomore seasons here, and it was hard, but once someone explained it to me the right way, it just clicked,” Kohring said. “I mean, I’ve heard all of it a million and 12 times, but it took a certain way of explaining it before I got it. So now I have a million and 12 ways to teach someone something.”
Following her career as a Lady Roadrunner, Kohring attended Texas A&M University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, graduating in May of 2021.
As the team prepares to compete beginning in the fall of 2021, Kohring said she wants the Lady ‘Runners to buy into the idea of success both in the classroom and on the field.
“Our players know they’re here for school first and then softball, and they’ve got to focus on both,” Kohring said. “If the players buy into what we’re doing here, they’ll understand our overall goals. We have such incredible facilities, and we’re all held to a high standard here. When they walk into this office, they’ll see all our trophies and other awards, and hopefully they’ll understand our ultimate goal is to compete for a national championship.
“We have everything we need to do it. We just have to make sure the girls buy into the same attitude.”
Kohring is the daughter of Amanda and Russell Kohring of Brenham.
