Making Waves in the Transfer Portal, Set For Exciting Indoor Season

BY AL PICKETT

The Texas Tech men’s and women’s track teams are in an unusual position as they begin preparation for the upcoming indoor season.

“We have a great veteran group and a lot of newcomers,” said Tech coach Wes Kittley.

That seems like an unlikely combination, but that is exactly the situation that Kittley finds himself.

“In my 39 years of coaching, I have never had this many transfers,” he said.

Kittley has brought in 10 transfers for the men’s team, half of whom are graduate transfers with one year of eligibility remaining.

“I was shocked to see their names when I got on the (NCAA transfer) portal,” he continued. “We asked them why they wanted to transfer. Most of them said they loved where they were, but with their COVID (additional year of eligibility) year, they wanted to be on a good team. I told them we didn’t have that much (scholarship) money to give them, but they said that didn’t matter. They just wanted to be a great team. Some of them have placed as high as fourth or fifth at the national meet. What a great honor for our program at Texas Tech. The transfer portal has changed recruiting.”

With basically the entire roster returning from a year ago when the both men’s and women’s teams placed second in the Big 12 meet and the women took 11th and the men 17th at the NCAA Indoor Championships – as well as the addition of the talented group of transfers –this could be an exciting indoor track season for the Red Raiders.

“On paper, this could be our best team,” Kittley acknowledged. “If they come together, they could be a podium team (a top-four team finish) at the NCAA meet.”

Another thing that makes Texas Tech attractive to track and field recruits, according to Kittley, is Tech’s Sports Performance Center.

“It is the best indoor facility in the country,” he enthused. “It is incredible the support Texas Tech and our boosters have for their commitment to the track program. And we get to host the Big 12 Indoor (Championship) every other year.”

The Big 12 meet this year will be in Lubbock on Feb. 27-28, the last of seven indoor meets that Tech is hosting this season. The NCAA meet follows two weeks later in Albuquerque, N.M.

The transfers on the men’s team include 19-foot pole vaulter Zach Bradford from Kansas, sprinter Caleb Dean from Maryland, triple jumper Keyshawn King from Stanford, pole vaulter Warren Miller from Texas, shot putter/discus/weight thrower Devon Roberson from TCU and sprinter Don’Dre Swint from Florida State. Kittley said Swint, a grad transfer, is the brother of Red Raider football player Muddy Waters.

The men’s team has also added freshmen sprinter Shaemar Uter and hurdler Antoine Andrews, who was the World under-20 Champion in the 110-meter hurdles.

The men’ team will be especially strong in the sprints, according to Kittley. The newcomers join Terrence Jones, who set an NCAA record in the 60-meter dash at 6.45 last year, along with de- fending Big 12 indoor 60-meter champion Jacolby Shelton and Courtney Lindsey.

The veteran Red Raider roster also includes triple jumper Chris Welch, high jumper Caleb Wilborn and 800-meter runner Marco Vilca. Wilburn was third and Vilca fifth in their specialties at the Big 12 meet last year.

Kittley said the strength of the women’s team is the jumps with returnees Brya Brewer, Anna-Susana Foster-Katta, and Ruta Lasmane. Sprinter/ hurdler Demisha Roswell, twin sprinters Nayanna Dubarry-Gay and Kiah Dubarry-Gay, sprinter Lexye Price, pole vaulter Ryleigh Redding, shot putter/weight thrower Malin Smith and 6-2 high jumper Sidney Sapp are back, too.

“We have about the same women’s team back,” Kittley noted. “It is a solid group with help from the newcomers.”

The Lady Raiders have also added sprinter/ jumper Zhane Smith, a transfer from Texas A&M, along with freshman jumper Ayanna Jones from Belton. Jones was the Class 6A state champion in the long jump last spring.

“Our men’s team has a little more depth,” Kittley stated. “I think we will fight it out with Texas for the top two spots in the Big 12 in both the men’s and women’s divisions. Nationally, we want to be a podium team. Our women were seventh outdoors and the men ninth last year. I expect to do better this year.”

Kittley said he hopes to get as many as 15 men and 8-10 women to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

BY TERRY GREENBERG

The first time the Texas Tech softball team made an NCAA Tournament, Amanda Renfro Simmons pitched a perfect game, beating South Carolina 1-0 in 1999. There are numbers of reasons Simmons is the only softball player in Texas Tech history to have her jersey retired.

Open the softball record book. Those numbers are everywhere.

Top four lowest earned run averages for a season:

Top four lowest earned run averages for a season: of your identity. To know I’m the last one to wear number 15 in a Tech uniform is unbelievable. I think others are deserving of the same honor though, Sandy Butler and Kim Martinez come to mind,” said Simmons.

She’s quick to point out it’s harder for college softball pitchers to have the dominance she had for four years at Tech.

“Technology has gotten so advanced, pitchers kind of have a disadvantage. Hitters have gotten smarter. There’s so many metrics, it’s insane – the things they look at to prepare them for a weekend. Plus, bats are so much hotter, now,” she said.

Also, teams don’t rely on one pitcher, like Tech did with Simmons, who would throw most – if not all – a series. When she was playing, a Big 12 Conference series was two games, now they’re three.

“You now have multiple people who can throw,” she said. One might be seen as the staff ace but is willing to share the workload.

‘It Just Kind of Took Off’

Young Amanda Renfro started playing T-ball in a league by her Houston home and found her sport.

“I was always tall as a kid. So I always made AllStars. I really enjoyed it,” she said.

Simmons didn’t start focusing on pitching and taking lessons until she was 12 or 13.

“It just kind of took off. I loved it and made a career out of it,” she said.

That career took her to Texas Tech – one of ten schools she visited.

“My parents were not there. They went to everything. But my mom was battling cancer at the time, so they didn’t get to make the trip. It was kind of bittersweet because it was an amazing game,” she said. He mom beat cancer. “She’s been in remission and fine ever since.”

The Renfros also had family from South Carolina, making the game even more special.

The next season, 2000, Simmons pitched the school’s third no-hitter, a 2-0 win over 22ndranked Illinois-Chicago, with 11 strikeouts. She tossed Tech’s second perfect game her senior year, a 2-0 win over Penn State.

One other Tech pitcher has thrown a perfect game but that was not until 2020.

Once batters see a pitcher a few times, they have a better chance of being successful.

“You have to constantly evolve and change things” to stay ahead of hitters, Simmons said. “You have to be very smart when it comes to pitching and you have to know the game. I feel like I did.”

Her arsenal consisted of five pitches – drop, rise, curve, backdoor curve and a knuckleball.

“The knuckleball was my changeup,” she said.

Her go-to pitch was the riseball.

“That was usually my strikeout pitch – I probably used it 60 percent of the time.

She worked the ladder.

“You start a little lower, then you go a little higher and then go a little higher,” she said.

Raising Three Softball Players

Top four strikeouts for a season:

1. Amanda Renfro (2001) 421

2. Amanda Renfro (2000) 283

3. Amanda Renfro (1999) 273

4. Amanda Renfro (1998) 249

Top four shutouts for a season:

1. Amanda Renfro (2001) 16

2. Amanda Renfro (1998) 13

3. Amanda Renfro (1999) 8

4. Amanda Renfro (2000) 8

Her name appears 28 more times on top ten lists for single-season individual records. It also dots the Big 12 and NCAA record books. She followed teammate Sandy Butler as the second All-American in school history.

“It’s so special to have my number retired. Being an athlete, your number is so important and part

“I went on five official visits and five unofficial visits,” she said. “I really liked the coaches. Bobby Reeves was the one who recruited me. It just really felt like home. It was far from home – but not too far from home.”

The program Simmons joined was just starting over. Texas Tech began competing in softball in 1981, but stopped after the 1985 season, beginning again in 1996.

When she arrived on campus, the team was still playing games on public fields.

“We didn’t even have a locker room,” she said.

Rocky Johnson Field opened her senior year.

“I think I threw out the first pitch,” she said.

The perfect game against South Carolina in California was a special game for Simmons, but not a perfect situation.

After Simmons finished playing, she spent another year as a grad assistant with the softball team.

Simmons’ roommate was dating a guy. He had a cousin who moved to Lubbock. One night all four went to dinner.

She hit it off with Harold Simmons. They moved to Houston, got married and now have three daughters – 17-year-old twins Emily and Kasey and 15-year-old McKenna.

They all play softball and the twins have committed to play at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Simmons works as a contracts administrator manager for Supreme Integrated Technology, a hydraulic equipment supplier, which has mostly worked with the oil and gas industry but is diversifying, she said.

“We handle a lot of military work. We do some stuff for Space X,” she said.

Her Tech degree in Human Development and Family Studies helps.

“I read people very well because of that,” she said.

Simmons is pleased to see so many college softball games on television – something her teams never enjoyed.

“It’s kind of cool to see all these kids on TV now – that could have been us,” she said.

Emily, Kasey and McKenna tease their mom about watching softball.

“I still love the game. If it’s on TV I’m watching it no matter who’s playing, it’s come so far,” she said.

She never played after Tech.

“I put softball behind me for a little while until my girls started playing. I never lost my love of the game, I just didn’t have the desire to play anymore,” she said.

Simmons is still in touch with former teammate Sandy Butler and both are in Tech’s Hall of Fame. She’s also still connected with Shauna Briggs, Jana Baker and team manager Briana Sperry.

She stays in touch with many others through social media.

Simmons has been to Lubbock a few times in the past four years, her daughters have attended Tech softball camps.

“I’d like to get back more but it’s kind of hard,” she said. “It’s changed so much from when I was there.”

She’s also excited with new coach Craig Snider.

“I’ve heard great things about him. Hopefully he can get the program back on track,” she said. This year was more of the same. Texas Tech added four key transfers to the roster, all who are expected to play major roles in 2023.

Western Kentucky center Rusty Staats will play his last year of college football as a Red Raider. Staats, of course, was coached by Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley and offensive line coach Stephen Hamby at WKU in 2021.

“Rusty is one of the top centers in the country who really understands this offense well,” McGuire said. “We really like the depth we’ve added in our offensive line in the last two days. We can’t wait to get Rusty on campus here in a few weeks.”

Austin Peay wide receiver Drae McCray committed to Texas Tech after being an All-American at the FCS level. McCray is another relationship addition, as Texas Tech tight ends coach Josh Cochran and offensive analyst Kirk Bryant were at Austin Peay for McCray’s freshman season.