University of Arizona Athletics

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Mike Candrea began his tenure as Arizona’s interim athletic director on February 2, 2024 after being appointed to the position by Arizona President Dr. Robert C. Robbins. Candrea spent four decades at the helm of the Arizona Softball program, and his iconic career included eight national championships, 23 appearances at the Women’s College World Series as well as retiring in 2021 as the all-time winningest coach in college softball history.
 
Candrea was also an international fixture in the game of softball as he coached in the Olympics and guided Team USA to the gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. He was also a pioneer in the game as the University of Arizona became the first school to build an on-campus facility dedicated to softball with the construction of the original Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium in 1993. The facility was renovated in 2018 as one of the top softball facilities in the country. After Candrea’s retirement in 2021, the venue officially became Mike Candrea Field at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium.
 
"Every Wildcat knows the history of Mike Candrea and what he means to our university and community, and I am grateful for Mike's willingness to step into the interim role," said President Robbins at the time of Candrea’s appointment. "I am confident Mike will ensure a smooth transition as we immediately begin a national search for a new Director of Athletics. With our transition to the Big XII, success in our high-profile programs, a passionate fan base, and institutional alignment, I am confident that we will be able to attract a tremendous new leader of our athletics program."

 

ALL-TIME RECORD Record at Arizona: 1,674-436-2 (36 seasons1) Record Overall: 1,859-505-2 (40 seasons2) 1 Interim head coach Larry Ray was credited with Arizona's 2004 and 2008 record while Candrea was on a leave of absence to coach the U.S. Olympic team, thus Candrea's record is over 34 seasons as Arizona's head coach. 2 Prior to Arizona, Candrea was the head coach of Central Arizona College, where he won consecutive National Championships and was named NJCAA Coach of the Year in back-to-back years. His teams went 185-68 (.728) in five seasons.

CANDREA AT A GLANCE

• NCAA softball leader in wins (1,674) 
• On April 19, 2019, became the fastest coach in NCAA history, any division, any sport, to accumulate 1,600 wins.
• Fourth-most Division I victories of any coach in any sport.
• Led Arizona to eight national championships, more than any coach in NCAA Softball history.
• Arizona has made 24 trips to the Women's College World Series in his tenure, missing just eight times in the last 33 years.
• Under Candrea, Arizona has a spectacular postseason record of 178-65. The Wildcats have played in an NCAA-record 34 consecutive postseasons.
• Fifty-three All-Americans with a staggering 108 total citations have played in the program since Candrea took over.

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CANDREA IN THE NCAA RECORD BOOK (Updated June 2021) Career Victories (All-Time) Coach School(s) Record Years 1 MIKE CANDREA ARIZONA 1,674-436-2 34 2 Carol Hutchins* Ferris St., Michigan 1,669-533-5 37 3 Margie Wright Fresno State 1,457-542-3 33 Career NCAA Championships (All-Time) Coach School(s) Titles Years 1 MIKE CANDREA ARIZONA 8 34 2 Sharon Backus UCLA 7 22 3 Sue Enquist UCLA 6 18 Career WCWS Appearances (All-Time) Coach School(s) WCWS Years 1 MIKE CANDREA ARIZONA 23 34 2 Sharon Backus UCLA 16 22 3 Patty Gasso* Oklahoma 13 26 Career NCAA Division 1 Victories (All-Time, All Sports) Coach NCAA Sport Wins Years 1 Mike Martin Baseball 2,029 40 2 Augie Garrido Baseball 1,889 45 3 Gene Stephenson Baseball 1,768 36 4 MIKE CANDREA SOFTBALL 1,674 34 * Active Coach

Legendary head coach Mike Candrea announced his retirement following the 2021 season. After 36 seasons at Arizona, Candrea leaves a legacy that will live among the greatest coaches in the history of college athletics. His achievements underscore a record of success almost unparalleled by any program in any sport at any level. 
 
At the time of his retirement, Candrea is the NCAA all-time leader in wins. The iconic coach has enjoyed more than three and a half decades of unparalleled success at the helm of the Arizona softball program. Candrea finishes his career with a 1,674-436-2 (.793) in 35 seasons at Arizona. Under Candrea, the Wildcats won eight national championships and appeared in 24 Women's College World Series. He guided the program to 11 conference championships, most recently the 2017 Pac-12 title, helping Candrea earn his 12th conference coach of the year. In addition to the 12 Pac- West, -10 or -12 Coach of the Year honors, Candrea has also been named the national coach of the year four times and regional coach of the year and has received six regional coach of the year honors.

During the 2020 season, which was cut short due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Candrea overtook Michigan's Carol Hutchins as the winningest coach in NCAA history. At the time of his retirement, Candrea led Hutchins by five wins. Candrea accumulated his 1,674 wins over 34 seasons at Arizona -- his totals do not count the 2004 and 2008 win totals while he was coaching Team USA in the Olympics.

In each of his last two complete seasons, Candrea guided the Wildcats to the Women's College World Series, the 23rd and 24th WCWS trips during Candrea's tenure. Candrea is not credited with Arizona's 2008 WCWS appearance, but his 23 WCWS appearanaces are more than any other coach in NCAA Softball history.

In 2021, the Wildcats went 41-15 and Candrea finished his career in the sport's promised land at the Women's College World Series after winning a road super regional at Arkansas. In 2019, Candrea led the Wildcats back to the Women's College Series for the 23rd time in school history and first time since 2010. Also in 2019, Candrea won his 1,600th career game, becoming the fastest coach in NCAA history, any sport, any level, to win 1,600 games. Only three coaches in any sport have more Division I victories than Candrea.
 
In addition to his dominance at the collegiate level, Candrea also spent time internationally with USA Softball. Candrea served as the head coach of Team USA's medal-winning teams in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. The team earned gold in Athens in 2004 and silver in Beijing in 2008.
 
Candrea is one of the most respected coaches in the nation, with the accomplishments to supplement: eight national titles, 24 trips to the Women’s College World Series in the last 32 seasons, 1,674 career victories, a mind-boggling career winning percentage of 79%, 53 All-Americans with a staggering 108 citations, four national players of the year and stewardship of Team USA to an Olympic gold medal, to name a few.

The aforementioned gold medal came with his stint as the head coach of Team USA in 2004. His second Olympic squad took home the silver in 2008. Softball was then put on a hiatus from the Olympics, but Candrea’s work in the sport’s final two Olympic years prior to being reinstated for 2020 will not soon be forgotten. Under his tutelage in 2004, the team posted a perfect 9-0 record, outscoring its opponents 51-1 on its way to a gold medal in one of the most dominant team performances in any sport in Olympic history. In 2008, the team came just short of winning its fourth consecutive gold medal. 
 
In 2017, Candrea was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame, adding it to a long list of hall of fames for the legendary coach that includes the NFCA Hall of Fame (1996), Pima County Hall of Fame (1996) and the Central Arizona College Hall of Fame (2009) and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame (2019).
 
Since 1988, UA has won fewer than five postseason games just eight times and has eclipsed the 50-win mark 18 times and won at least 33 games in the other years.  No one talks about losing around Arizona Ssoftball, but even in lean times the Wildcats did not lose 25 games in any of the 36 seasons under Candrea’s watch. Avoiding a “down” year was a trademark of Candrea’s program, and one not universally shared even among the game’s elite.
 
Candrea is not one to back down from a challenge. On a daily basis, he challenged his players, and when it comes to drawing up the schedule of opponents, his philosophy was no different. He built his schedules as tough as any in the country. A recent sampling shows years where Arizona won 30 games against NCAA Tournament-bound squads.
 
His teams’ victory totals of 67 in 1998, 66 wins in 1995, 65 victories in 2001, 64 victories in 1994 and 61 in 1997 are among the top 10 in the NCAA record books. Including a five-season stint as a junior college coach at Central Arizona (185-69), Candrea has a career record of 1,858-505-2. That computes to a phenomenal winning percent of .787.

Candrea has never in his coaching career had a losing record.
 
That proficiency started at Arizona with the hiring of Candrea prior to the 1986 season, the school’s transition in Pacific West Conference play before the start of Pac-10 ball in 1987. UA finished 27-13-1 that first year, his second “worst” record to date. The following season, the Cats were 42-18 and qualified for their first of a now-NCAA-record 32-straight NCAA postseason appearances.
 
Those early years marked the upswing in Candrea’s recruiting skill at the Division I level and by 1988, the team turned in a 54-18 record, made it to the Women’s College World Series for the first time and recorded two WCWS victories. That year, pitcher Teresa Cherry became Candrea’s first UA All-American.
 
The ensuing years provided more of the same – UA finished 48-19 in 1989 and 49-17 in 1990, placed third and second, respectively, in the tough Pac-10, but still came up short in WCWS play.
 
The bigger picture jelled in 1991 when things looked somewhat bleak as the Cats finished 11-9 and fourth in conference play – tied for his worst finish. Once in the postseason, a gutty and defensive-oriented UA team swept Arizona State in NCAA Regional play in Tempe and went on to play five games pivotal to the history of Arizona softball, at Oklahoma City in the College World Series. Candrea and the Cats earned their first national championship, beating UCLA 5-1 in the title game.
 
The program was off and running and Tucson became a destination for many of the best young players in the game, finishing the decade of the 1990s with 523 victories against 75 losses. Other national championships followed - 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2007. Following each of the titles in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2007, Candrea was named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year.
 
Candrea knows you don’t win games without players. A succession of top-level players – sluggers, hitters, dominant pitchers, Olympians – has kept Arizona at the top. For 22-consecutive years, from 1990 to 2011, at least two of Candrea’s players earned All-America honors in voting by the coaches’ association, a trend that picked back up in 2014. Four times it was six players – the only time that many players from one team were chosen. In 1994, 1995 and 1998, the six selections were all first-team All-Americans. In 1997, all five Arizona honorees were first-team players, as were the four selected in 2004.
 
Candrea has stressed academic success, as well, with Jessie Harper (2020) Tamara Statman (2019), K’Lee Arredondo (2010), Autumn Champion (2006), Wendy Allen (2004), Leah O’Brien (1994, 1995 and 1997), Jenny Dalton (1995 and 1996) and Nancy Evans (1998) earning Academic All-America honors. 
 
Candrea is sought out by softball and baseball coaches around the country and has delivered instructional clinics throughout the nation. He is particularly known for hitting techniques, team fielding drills and squad motivational preparation. In recent years, he has consulted with Major League Baseball stars and other learned technicians to conduct national hitting clinics, and he participates in dozens of such sessions to help improve the way softball is taught and played. He has written several books and produced a number of videotapes on various softball subjects and has designed specific practice aids and equipment that are widely used at various levels of play.
 
Still, just watching him work with a hitter, some balls and a batting tee show the true value of his coaching and his love of teaching. He enjoys the work, is able to communicate and uses an encouraging but firm style. His pre-game infield drill is an example. It’s a smooth, fast-paced warm up that’s done exactly the same each time.
 
Candrea’s style of play, public comportment and the consistent winning puts Wildcat fans in the stands at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium. The Wildcats set the NCAA record for attendance in 2011, attracting 77,129 fans over 30 home dates. The Wildcat faithful have led the country in home attendance per game in five of the last 13 years and have earned the distinction nine times since the stadium’s opening in 1993.
 
In 2017, Hillenbrand Stadium's total attendance surpassed 1,000,000 fans.
 
Candrea began his softball coaching career at Central Arizona College (CAC) from 1981-85. His team won consecutive NJCAA World Series in his final two seasons, earning him national coach the year honors each time. Prior to coaching softball, he was an assistant baseball coach at Central from 1976-80. On January 18, 2009, Candrea was inducted into the inaugural CAC Hall of Fame Class.
 
Also a baseball player at CAC, Candrea’s playing career was cut short by an elbow injury. He earned an associate’s degree at CAC in 1975, a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State in 1978 and a master’s degree from ASU in 1980.
 
Candrea was married to the former Sue Ellen Hudson for 28 years until her tragic death in July 2004, just 10 days prior to the Olympic Games. 
 
On Dec. 30, 2006, he wed the former Tina Tilton at The Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa in Tucson. Candrea has a son Mikel and daughter Michelle in addition to stepsons Ryan and Sean Tilton. Mikel, a 2004 Arizona graduate, worked with the baseball team and strength and conditioning programs prior to his graduation. He is currently a private hitting instructor in Sacramento, California. Michelle celebrated the birth of her son, Jaylen Mikel, on Oct. 27, 2005. Jaylen is Candrea’s first grandchild.