Windy Thees was officially introduced as the head softball coach in July 10, 2018.
In her first season at the helm she guided the team to the Big South Conference Championship game, the 13th appearance in the title game for the program. The Eagles battled their way to the championship day and forced a second game with top-seeded Longwood with a 4-3. Winthrop fell 3-2 in the second game, finishing the year 30-25. The 30 victories were the most for the Eagles since 2008. The Eagles finished Big South play at 14-10 and were seeded fourth in the conference tournament. It was just the second time in 10 seasons the Eagles earned 14 league wins.
The second season for Thees and the Eagles was cut short due to the COVID-19 Pandemic as the team played 23 games before the season was shutdown. The team was 12-11 over the 23 games against a competitive schedule. Thees enters her third season with Winthrop and 17th overall with a career record of 446-373.
She came to Winthrop after spending the past three seasons at Utah State after joining the staff in August, 2015. She was promoted to associate head coach at the conclusion of the 2016 season. In her role at Utah State she worked directly with the pitchers and catchers.
Thees comes to Rock Hill with nearly 20 years of coaching experience, including 14 years as a head coach. Thees’ road to Winthrop featured stops at Utah State, Ole Miss, Memphis and Georgia College and State.
In her first season at Utah State in 2016, Thees helped the Aggies to a 26-25 record, the best team record seen since 1996. Thees helped improve the Aggies to a 33-18 overall record in 2017, including a 14-9 Mountain West league record. Overseeing the pitching staff, Thees led her group to a 3.09 ERA, the lowest by the Utah State pitchers since 1998. Kellie White led the position with a 2.51 individual ERA over 178.1 innings pitched, throwing her way to first-team all-Mountain West honors. The 2018 Aggies finished 18-34 with senior catcher Brina Buttacavoli named second-team All-Mountain West.
Thees joined the Aggies after three seasons as head coach at Ole Miss where she helped the team improve dramatically in several categories. The Rebels increased their win total in Thees' first two seasons and set numerous program records in 2013, including hits, walks, stolen bases and fielding percentage.
Thees arrived at Ole Miss after starting the Memphis Tigers' program from scratch in 2005 and led her squad to the school's best season in 2011 with a 36-14 record and the program's first berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers finished fourth in Conference USA in 2011 with a 15-7 mark in league play, which was the best conference record in school history. In non-conference play, Memphis knocked off eventual NCAA Tournament teams Kentucky and Stanford and reeled off a school-record 10-game winning streak. In her six seasons as head coach at Memphis, Thees coached her players to nine all-conference awards, eight all-conference freshman team selections and three NFCA All-South Region selections.
Before her move to Memphis, Thees was the head coach and Senior Woman Administrator at Georgia College and State University (Milledgeville, Ga.) for five seasons. She led the Division II school to a runner-up finish in the 2003 Division II National Championship. Her teams set nearly every pitching, defensive and offensive record at GCSU during her years as head coach, and in doing so, helped Thees compile a record of 163-92 (.639).
Thees was a four-year starter at both catcher and second base at Florida State from 1993-97, leading the Seminoles to three ACC Championships. She earned her bachelor's degree in marketing and multinational business from Florida State in 1997 and a master's degree in business administration from GCSU in 2002.
In the summer of 2019, Thees served as the pitching coach on the Under-22 Great Britain Fastpitch National Team that competed in the Women's European Championship held in Slovakia.
