Krista Wood - Head Coach - Softball Coaches - South Dakota State University Athletics

Krista Wood vs. Stanford (2021 NCAA Tournament Game 1)

Photo by: Walt Beazley

Krista Wood

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
Krista.Wood@sdstate.edu

Krista Wood enters her eighth season as head coach at South Dakota State in 2022.

Already the program’s winningest coach with a 197-151 record since being hired to lead the program in August of 2014, Wood boasts a 467-305 overall career record that includes eight successful seasons at Wayne State College. She has been named Summit League Coach of the Year twice, first in 2018 and most recently in 2021.

SDSU is coming off the most successful season in school history — one in which the Jackrabbits amassed a 43-8 record, won the 2021 Summit League regular season and tournament titles and advanced to their first-ever NCAA regional appearance at the Division I level. Wood’s 2021 squad tied the school single-season record for wins with 43, including a victory over Stanford in its NCAA tournament opener. Wood and her staff were one of 10 programs in the nation to be recognized by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association as a 2021 Division I Regional Coaching Staff of the Year.

Wood has coached 11 NFCA All-Midwest Region selections (six of which came in 2021) and 27 All-Summit League selections in her time at SDSU (nine in 2021).

The Jackrabbits dominated the all-Summit awards in 2021, sweeping the individual awards and placing nine on the all-conference teams. Wood was named Coach of the Year while Cylie Halvorson (Player of the Year), Tori Kniesche (Pitcher of the Year) and Grace Glanzer (Freshman of the Year) took the individual player honors.

Other notable player honors in Wood's tenure include the 2016 Summit League Freshman of the Year (Ali Herdliska) and 2018 Player of the Year (Brittney Morse). Herdliska is the first-ever Jackrabbit to earn All-Summit League honors four times in her career, and twice picked up an NFCA All-Midwest Region nod.

The Jackrabbits have won 20 or more games five times under coach Wood, and prior to the cancellation of the 2020 Summit League Championships had reached the league’s year-end tournament in each of her first five seasons, including a championship series run in 2018.

SDSU won 37 games in back-to-back 2018 and 2019 seasons, reaching the National Invitational Softball Championship both seasons. Wood was named the Summit League’s Coach of the Year in 2018 while guiding her team to a program-record .673 winning percentage, breaking the 35-win mark for the second time in history.

2020’s squad won 15 games and posted a .652 winning percentage before COVID-19 precautions ended the NCAA’s Division I softball season nationwide.

Wood put together a 270-154 mark at Wayne State, turning the Wildcat program into a winner after inheriting a 10-win squad when she was hired before the 2007 season. She brought WSC to three-consecutive NCAA Division I National Tournaments between 2009-11, including a 2010 NCAA Central Region crown. The Wildcats won a school-record 43 games during that season and claimed the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament championship.

Wood coached internationally during the summer of 2009, leading a United States team (sponsored by USA Athletes International) at the Oldenzaal Invitational in Holland.

A native of Missouri Valley, Iowa, Wood spent two seasons as an assistant coach at St. Cloud State University after a stellar career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha from 1999-2003. She helped the Mavericks to the NCAA Division II national championship in 2001 as a sophomore and finished her career as the all-time winningest pitcher in Maverick softball history with 106 wins and 530 career strikeouts. She was named to the school’s athletic hall of fame in 2020.

In the 2001 national championship game, Wood tossed a two-hit shutout with five strikeouts in a 4-0 win over Lewis University. She also ranks second in career shutouts at UNO with 43, and earned numerous honors as a player at UNO, earning First Team All-NCC honors three times, while also collecting three All-NCC Academic Team awards. She earned NFCA All-Region First Team honors in 2002 and a Second Team All-Region selection in 2001. Wood also earned North Central Conference Freshman of the Year in 2000.

Wood also brings coaching experience at the high school level, serving as the pitching coach at Omaha Gross High School in the fall of 2003 and at state-qualifying Omaha Westside High School in 2004.

Wood earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education K-12 with an endorsement in coaching from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2004 and received a master's degree in sport management in 2006 from St. Cloud State University.

Krista and her husband Alex reside in Brookings with their sons, Braxton and Myles.