SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Drury University has named Jerry Breaux as their next head softball coach. Breaux brings 24 years of experience as a collegiate head coach, more than 700 career wins, and 12 conference championships to the job at Drury.
 
For the last two years, Breaux has been at Louisiana State University at Alexandria where he has gone 99-22, won a pair of conference titles going 50-5 in the Red River Athletic Conference and advanced to the NAIA national tournament both years. This season, his team went 52-10, 27-1 in league play, and advanced to the NAIA World Series where the Generals finished third nationally.
 
Breaux spent 22 years as the head softball coach at Evangel University where he took over a program in its sixth year of existence in 1993 and produced 10 Heart of America Athletic Conference championships, nine appearances in NAIA regional tournaments and the 2006 NAIA Softball World Series during two decades. He coached the Crusaders to 640 of its 661 all-time wins in the program's first 28 years going 640-382-2. Breaux was named the NAIA Region V Coach of the Year twice as well as the Heart of America conference Coach of the Year six times. His teams at Evangel won a league-record six straight conference titles from 2004 to 2009 and Breaux was inducted into the Evangel University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
 
"Jerry Breaux has a wealth of experience," said Drury University Vice President and Director of Athletics, Mark Fisher. "He has built a winning program, recruited talent on a national level, and has had tremendous success in the last two years at LSU-A. I'm excited about the opportunity to bring coach Breaux to Drury and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do for our program and our student-athletes."
 
In addition to his team success, Breaux's players earned conference and national honors as well. He coached six players to Heart of America conference Player of the Year awards, had five named conference Pitcher of the Year, four were named league Newcomer of the Year and two players won Freshman of the Year awards. He had two NAIA Region V Players of the Year in addition to 12 NAIA All-Americans, 141 all-conference award winners with 62 of them being named to the First Team. At LSU-A, Breaux coached seven NAIA All-Americans and had 13 named All-Red River Athletic Conference performers in two years.
 
His teams have also been successful academically. His 2008 Evangel team featured a 3.68 grade point average, the highest mark nationally in the NAIA and the second highest GPA at any level of the sport that year. Two of his Evangel teams won NAIA Team Scholar Awards and 45 players earned national academic honors from the NAIA.
 
Breaux is one of only 45 active head collegiate softball coaches outside of the NCAA-I level to have 700 career wins as he has an overall record of 739-408-2. He exits the NAIA tied for fifth in all-time wins among active coaches. Within conference play, his teams have gone 328-117-1 during his 24-year career. Breaux was honored by the National Fast-Pitch Coaches Association for his 500^th career win in 2011, his 600^th win in 2014 and his 700^th career victory in 2017.
 
"I want to thank Mark Fisher and his staff for reaching out to me regarding this great opportunity," said Breaux. "I feel honored and privileged. Drury is a terrific university that represents all the outstanding reasons we recruit student-athletes to the next level. It is a serious academic school with a supportive administration and a successful athletic department. I look forward to the challenge and a chance to contribute to the young Panther softball program. It's also great to return to the Ozarks where my wife and I have strong family ties and many friends."
 
During his time in Springfield, Breaux served on the coaching staff of an area collegiate all-star team in 2008 that competed against the USA Olympic team and he has coordinated instructional camps that featured former US Olympic players Crystl Bustos and Caitlin Lowe.
 
In addition to his duties as a head softball coach, Breaux served LSU-A as an assistant athletic director and was the recruiting coordinator for Evangel Athletics assisting in the recruiting and admissions process for each of the university's 12 sports. He is a 1982 graduate of Evangel University with degrees in Psychology and Theology and he earned a Master's degree from Missouri State in Counseling Psychology in 1986.
 
Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Breaux and his wife Mary reside in Ozark, Missouri. Breaux replaces Chantiel Wilson, who resigned after seven seasons as head coach on May 3. He will be the third head coach in the program's 10-year history.
 

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