Iowa State softball coaches Courtney Herron-Martinez and Kate Sinnott have both been promoted to associate head coach, as announced by Head Coach Jamie Pinkerton on Wednesday.

Herron-Martinez has coached the Cyclones for four seasons and has played a major factor in the strengthening of the Cyclone offense and infield defense. Under her guidance, the team has broken the school’s single-season home run record three years in a row. This offensive growth played a key factor in the Cyclones’ success during 2021. Defensively, Herron-Martinez came in with a team-fielding percentage of .946 and helped make it one of the top defenses in the Big 12.

Sinnott worked primarily with the pitching staff and improved it immensely. In 2019 and 2020, Sinnott guided the staff to ERAs of 3.25 and 3.18, the two lowest in the last 10 years. Sinnott took a very inexperienced staff in 2021 and led them to the NCAA Regional Final.

Pinkerton expressed how deserving the two are of their new titles.

“In their four years together, they’ve done a great job with their positions,” Pinkerton said. “It was important to me to keep the continuity of our program together. This keeps our program going in the direction we want and keeps our staff together. Both are very deserving of the promotion.”

The Cyclone staff will look to continue to help the program grow and succeed over the coming years.