The 2023 season marks Ricki Rothbauer-Stubbs' eighth year as the Head Softball Coach at UCCS.
In her seventh season at the head of the Mountain Lions softball program in 2022, Rothbauer-Stubbs led the team to a 27-24 overall record and a 24-16 record within the RMAC. The Mountain Lion's .600 winning percentage in conference play earned them the No. 5 seed in the RMAC Tournament where they made their first appearance since the 2019 season. Rothbauer-Stubbs coached five UCCS student-athletes to the RMAC Honorable Mention team in 2022, including Sawyer Brewster, Braelyne Crenshaw, Courtnie Heller, Bryn Horton, and Paige White. In addition, the team's perennial academic success continued as Brewster was named to the RMAC All-Academic First Team and eight other Mountain Lions earned RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll accolades, including Crenshaw, Heller, Morgan Hernandez-Belew, Solana Martinez, Mia Perez, Lexi Rayburn, Peyton Reisman, and Maddie Unrein.
Rothbauer-Stubbs and the Mountain Lions finished the 2021 season with a 17-25 overall record and the eighth best mark in conference games (16-22). She earned her 200th career win with a 9-7 extra inning win at home on March 8 against Chadron State College. Brianna Santos garnered All-America First Team, All-South Central Region First Team and All-RMAC First Team honors following the season. She was joined on the All-RMAC team by Solana Martinez (Second Team). Santos also received a RMAC All-Academic First Team nod as 13 more were named to the Honor Roll: Sawyer Brewster, Shae Bushey, Braelyne Crenshaw, Cami Duffey, Morgan Hernandez-Belew, Taylor Humphries, Solana Martinez, Saleen Quinonez, Lexi Rayburn, Peyton Reisman, Payton Romines, Meghan Waidler, and Taylor White.
Rothbauer-Stubbs led the Mountain Lions to a 10-13 overall record in 2020, and a 6-6 RMAC mark before the season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mountain Lions earned two historical wins during the season, picking up their first ever win over Lubbock Christian University on Feb. 16, 2020 in Edmond, Okla., and a series split at home against Dixie State University. The two wins over the Trailblazers were the first victories against DSU in 11 meetings. In April 2020, nine Mountain Lions were named to the RMAC All-Academic Team, led by Peyton Reisman's First Team selection (Honor Roll: Sawyer Brewster, Shae Bushey, Alex Cook, Braelyne Crenshaw, Cami Duffey, Saleen Quinonez, Payton Romines, and Kaley Wagner.
The 2019 campaign was one of the most successful in recent UCCS history as it was the first winning season for the Mountain Lions in five years. The team finished the season with an over-all 28-26 record. During the season, the Mountain Lions won five of ten RMAC series or pods, including four complete series sweeps. Additional highlights included a road win against then 12th ranked Colorado Mesa and the program’s first RMAC Tournament victory since 2014. On the squad, Rothbauer-Stubbs coached one All-RMAC Second Team Player and three All-RMAC Honorable Mentions. The team produced eight RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll honorees and earned a 3.52 team GPA for the year.
In 2018, Rothbauer-Stubbs and the Mountain Lions found their way back into the RMAC tournament after capturing twenty-seven wins in the regular season. While the team started out slowly, Rothbauer-Stubbs led a surge in the second half of the year. The Mountain Lions won nineteen of their final twenty-two regular season games. The team finished with three players in All-RMAC honors and five players named to RMAC All-Academic team. Taylor Reidhead was named to the NFCA All-Region team and Whitney Weber was named an academic All-American. In 2017-2018, UCCS climbed to 35th for DII softball programs on the Easton/ NFCA All-Academic Team Award list.
The 2017 season included a five-game win streak and a record of 8-4 in the final twelve games of the season. Rothbauer-Stubbs and the Mountain Lions made a late season push to make the conference tournament but just missed the cut. Academically, nine Mountain Lions were named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and to the RMAC All-Academic team. As a team, UCCS was awarded the Easton/ NFCA All-Academic Team Award, placing 53rd on the DII list.
The 2016 season was Rothbauer-Stubbs’ first with the Mountain Lions. When she arrived on campus in the Fall of 2015, she challenged the team to improve in all they do as student-athletes. She asked for a commitment to improve the team GPA, competitive level on the field, and involvement within the campus and Colorado Springs communities. She led the team to the RMAC Conference in that first year. It was the team’s 15th 20-win season. She coached Dani Fonseca to a pair of all-conference awards while Haley Smith and Nikki Hoffman earned honorable mention recognitions.
Rothbauer-Stubbs guided Northwestern Oklahoma State University to 23 victories in 2015, while the program was transitioning from NAIA to NCAA Division II. There she coached the Great American Conference Newcomer of the Year and two GAC All-Conference Honorees. She spent four seasons at Texas A&M-Kingsville, where she won 68 games in a conference that produced one national champion, another national semifinalist and a national quarterfinalist. Rothbauer-Stubbs entered collegiate coaching as an assistant coach at North Alabama for two seasons.
Rothbauer-Stubbs’ coaching career began in the travel ball circuit where she worked with teams from Ohio and Kentucky. She coached several seasons in multiple age groups for the program in which she played, the Louisville Lady Sluggers. In 2006, she was recognized as part of the NFCA Travel Ball Coaching Staff of the Year along with former Sluggers teammate, Becky Bishop, and the late coach, president, and founder of the Louisville Lady Sluggers organization, Don Dobina.
After transferring from Ohio University, Rothbauer-Stubbs was a two-time All-American at Northern Kentucky University and was a part of two teams to reach the Division II World Series. She Co-Captained a 2005 team which won 55 consecutive games before falling to 55-2 in the National Finals. Rothbauer-Stubbs was honored as an NFCA All-American Scholar athletes in all four years of her career. She holds NKU program records with a career .372 batting average and 18 triples, and holds single-season records with 82 hits and 48 runs scored. She was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Hall of Fame in February of 2016.
Rothbauer-Stubbs is dedicated to furthering her coaching education and encouraging young women to consider the coaching profession. She is a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and was honored at their 2016 convention for her 100th career win. She is also an active member of the WeCoach organization. She participated in the organization’s first peer-mentoring program, graduated from the NCAA Women Coaches Academy in 2016, and completed the graduated version of the course in 2019.
Rothbauer-Stubbs grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Northern Kentucky University and her master’s degree, also in English from Ohio State University.
