Jeff Cottrill - Assistant Coach - Staff Directory - University of Houston Athletics

Staff Directory

Jeff Cottrill

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Assistant Coach
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Jeff Cottrill was hired as an assistant coach for Houston Softball in June 2025, the first hire for Head Coach Chrissy Schoonmaker.

Cottrill most recently served as the hitting coach at Mizzou after a stop at Oklahoma State where he spent time as assistant coach and director of operations. Cottrill has been a part of a Power Four staff since beginning his collegiate coaching career in 2017.

At Mizzou, Cottrill helped the Tigers to a pair of NCAA Regional appearances including a Super Regionals berth in 2024. Mizzou recorded its highest home run total and slugging percentage under Cottrill in 2025, crushing 71 homers and slugging .467.

While in Columbia, Mo., Cottrill mentored NFCA All-Americans in Alex Honnold (Second Team, 2023) and Julia Crenshaw (Third Team, 2025) as well as All-SEC selections in Jenna Laird (2023, 2024), Honnold (2023, 2024), Abby Hay (2024) and Crenshaw (2025).

Honnold, a Top 25 Finalist for the 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, reached new heights under Cottrill, raising her average by over 100 points in his first year on staff while nearly doubling her slugging percentage from .418 in 2022 to .779 in 2023.

Prior to joining the Tigers, Cottrill spent seven years with Oklahoma State including five as an assistant coach. The Cowgirls made two trips to the Women’s College World Series with Cottrill on staff and appeared in the postseason every year during his tenure. He served as director of operations from 2016-17 before becoming the team’s pitching coach in 2018-19 and taking oversight of Oklahoma State’s hitting from 2020 onward.

During his time as the Cowgirls’ hitting coach, the team set new single-season record in runs scored, runs per game, home runs, runs batted in, runs batted in per game, total bases, total bases per game and slugging percentage.

While in Stillwater, Okla., Cottrill guided a trio of All-Americans (Alysen Febrey, Sydney Pennington and Haley Busby). In 2021, Febrey, Busby and Kiley Naomi posted three of the team’s Top Five single-season home run totals in program history while Pennington took over the top spot on the team’s career homers list.

In his three years as the team’s hitting coach, the Cowgirls never hit below .290 as a team and hit an average of 81 homers per year in the two complete seasons. The team also posted a combined slugging percentage of .512 with over a third of all hits going for extra bases.

During his two-year stint as the pitching coach, Oklahoma State posted ERAs of 2.64 in 2018, a drop of nearly a run on average, and 2.75 in 2019.

In 2019, Cottrill helped manage and call pitches for Samantha Show, leading Oklahoma State to 11 wins over top-15 teams and a program record for ranked victories while capturing its first Women’s College World Series appearance since 2011 and highest national ranking since 1998.

The year prior, he coached pitchers Samantha Clakley, Logan Simunek and Emmie Robertson. The trio earned a flurry of notables for the Cowgirls as Clakley earned Second-Team All-Big 12 honors, Simunek threw the program’s first no-hitter since 2014 and Robertson led the team in ERA and was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week.

Cottrill earned his first stint as a collegiate coach on Head Coach Kenny Gajewski’s staff during the 2016 campaign after the team’s pitching coach took a leave of absence. He guided the team’s pitching corps to a run that marked the team’s first trip to the NCAA Regionals since 2011.

Prior to his time at Oklahoma State, Cottrill worked closely with the Wichita Mustangs Softball Academy in Wichita, Kansas. He ran the team’s operations in both 2013 and 2014 while also coaching with the club for five years.