Andy Klaus joined the East Central University athletics staff as an assistant softball coach for the start of the 2013 season.
In his first season with the Lady Tigers, Klaus helped ECU hit a Great American Conference leading .353 as a team, which ranked 3rd in the NCAA, and finish the season with a 42-13 overall record. The .353 team average is the highest in school history, with 10 players hitting .325 or better.
The Lady Tigers led the Great American Conference in runs scored, triples, home runs, slugging percentage and runs batted in. ECU also ranked 11th nationally, with a .523 slugging percentage.
Under his tutelage senior Shelby Simmons was the GAC leader with a .456 batting average and earned Daktronics All-America Honorable Mention and All-Region First Team honors, while also being named the GAC Player of the Year. Gina Mengwasser (.390 AVG, 12 home runs), Leah Tigert (.394 AVG.), Chelsea Patterson (.380 AVG.) and Ali Manship (.340 AVG, 10 home runs) also received post-season honors.
Klaus spent the 2012 season as an assistant coach at Oklahoma Panhandle State where he was instrumental in turning the program around. He was responsible for hitting and coaching the outfielders when the team went from a 3-47 season in 2011 to a 19-30 mark in 2012.
The Aggies also improved their batting average from .242 to .313 in one season, hit 20 more home runs, increased the slugging percentage from .305 to .455 and the on-base percentage from .295 to .379. OPSU ended the season ranked first in the Heartland Conference in triples and second in batting average, runs scores, hits, RBIs, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
Klaus graduated from Oklahoma Panhandle State in 2011, where he was a member of the baseball team and ended his career with a .308 batting average. Klaus was named to the All-Heartland Conference second team in 2010 after hitting .337, with 12 doubles and five home runs. He left the team ranked seventh in the Heartland Conference history in hits by pitch (34).
The Clarkston, Mich., native received a bachelor’s of science degree in education from OPSU in 2011 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sports administration at East Central University.
