Heading into season eight at the reins of the AWC Softball program, Nikki Bethurum is building on yet another successful season at Arizona Western College. She led the team to 40 wins for the third straight season while also coaching two-time ACCAC Player of the Year Jessica Flores on the way to the Region I Playoffs. In 2014, she took the program to the NJCAA National Tournament for the first time since 2001, and the top-seeded Matadors wound up finishing 8th overall with a 49-9 overall record (39-5 in ACCAC play). Bethurum got out of the gates very quickly as a head coach, taking advantage of her first opportunity to run her own program by leading the Lady Matadors to wins in the first round of the Region I Playoffs in both 2010 & 2011-the first time the Matadors had seen the postseason since 2006. AWC Athletic Director Jerry Smith gave Bethurum the opportunity to be a head coach after seeing how focused Bethurum was, and after talking to longtime University of Arkansas at Monticello Head Softball Coach Alvy Early about what she did for him as his lead assistant. Early gave Bethurum a lot of extra coaching duties along with her duties as Recruiting Coordinator and pitching coach during her three-year stint at UAM. Bethurum’s tutelage helped lead the Lady Cotton Blossoms to the Gulf South Conference West Championship and a berth in the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament in her first season on the staff, and in 2009, she helped lead the Blossoms to a 38-16 overall mark, a 2nd-place finish in the GSC’s West Division, and her pitching staff featured the conference’s Pitcher of the Year. Bethurum made the transition from player to coach very quickly. A 19-win pitcher as a senior for Downey High School and a member of four different traveling softball teams that all qualified for nationals, Bethurum was the first signee of the 2001 recruiting class for University of California-Riverside in the inland empire. After spending her freshman campaign as UCR’s top pitcher, the native of Downey, California, made the decision to head out of the Golden State for the first time by transferring to the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Despite nagging shoulder problems that stayed with her throughout the season, Bethurum was ULM’s top pitcher and hitter. Those same injuries forced Bethurum to move from pitcher/first baseman to shortstop for her final two years as a player, but she started every game and she was an All-Southland Conference Honorable Mention selection as a junior. Nikki also made the honor roll at ULM all three years she was there, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from ULM and graduating with honors in 2006. Bethurum earned her Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in 2009, and besides her coaching duties, is a Professor of Mathematics at AWC.
