Dec. 9, 2008

Wayne State University head softball coach Gary Bryce will be inducted into the NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) Hall of Fame this Friday.

By Kyle Stefan, The South End Managing Editor

It's no secret that Gary Bryce loves to win.

During a coaching career at Wayne State spanning three decades, Bryce has constructed a softball program that has evolved into one of the region's best.

Entering his 28th year at the helm of the Warriors, the numbers are undeniable. Bryce led WSU to a GLIAC championship last season, 25 years after winning his first. In between, he has racked up 12 more league titles.

His 885 total wins ranks seventh all-time among NCAA Division II coaches, while his Warrior squads have made 14 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a 2003 trip to the College World Series.

Bryce's induction into the NFCA Hall of Fame recognizes his coaching career from a holistic approach -- perspective, the 68-year-old Bryce says, that is necessary when examining his life's work.

"Winning is a great moment. Anytime you win a championship, it's a great feeling. It's what you strive for," Bryce said.

"But some of the best moments I've had in softball are not necessarily about winning."

Humble beginnings

Bryce started in athletics when he was eight, playing football, basketball and baseball all the way to the University of Michigan.

At that time, softball was hardly on his radar.

"When I graduated from U of M, there were no women's sports to speak of," Bryce said, "and if you would have told me I would be coaching women down the road, I would have bet a lot of money that wouldn't have been true.

"But I always made a note that athletics had been good to me, and so if I couldn't make it big time as a player, which I didn't, I would want to coach."

After college, Bryce started playing men's fastpitch softball, and as the women's game began to emerge on the prep level across the state, took a job with the girl's varsity team at Royal Oak Dondero High School, where he coached for five seasons.

"When I got into it, I told the ladies that as far as I was concerned, you were an athlete ... and my job was to make you the best I could make you."

"I went on that guideline, whether it was right or not."

That ideology came to define Bryce and helped deliver immediate success at Dondero, including a state championship in 1979.

Pat Kent, who has assisted Bryce for 25 seasons at WSU, said that his emphasis on player development -- making each player the best they can be -- has correlated with the team's gaudy winning percentage (.612) during Bryce's collegiate tenure.

"There are a lot of times that we don't have the best of talent," Kent said, "but he gets the most out of his players. We're able to keep winning. I'd say that's more of his outstanding trait."

Old school approach

There is a method behind Bryce's success and it starts on the field with an attention to detail.

"One of our slogans is to always do the little things right," Bryce said, "because if we can't do the little things right, there's no way we can do the big things. "I can be harsh when people don't do the right things."

While Bryce and Kent both agree that he's softened since his early coaching days, both attribute the program's consistency to his time-tested attitude -- honed through a career that includes over 1,400 games coached.

"If you look at any successful coach, they're very demanding and disciplined," Kent said. "That's why he's so successful. He's a great motivator and gets his kids ready to play."

Bryce said he tells recruits and their parents before they set foot on campus that at times he will be in their face.

"He knows what his players are capable of and he'll get on you until you do things right," said Lisa Seymour, a three-year letterwinner and senior captain. "He's definitely a tough coach but he treats his players really well."

Asked to depict Bryce's coaching style, Seymour picked the near-universal answer: "Old-school."

Bryce quipped: "I'm often told that I'm a throwback.

"We expect the most of our kids. My job is to teach them to do the right things.

"If you have to be a curmudgeon to do it, well, then, I'm a curmudgeon."

The methodology has worked. Bryce has produced 17 All-Americans, including Kent, who played under Bryce during his first two years at WSU.

Full circle

Bryce's influence extends beyond the softball diamond.

And off-the-field, Bryce insists, is where coaching has yielded some of his most rewarding moments.

"I had a former player, now a CEO, attend a conference, and start by saying 'I hated my softball coach. I was an All-American and he moved me, and I never became an All-American again. He was always on me.'

"Someone asked, 'How did you become a CEO?' She said it finally dawned on her when she came back recently, she said that if I hadn't been on her to do the little things, she would have just skated by. She told me, `I used to hate your guts, until I realized at this conference that you got me where I am.'

"Those are the rewarding things. I always tell them to wait until they're 28 or 29. Then they'll realize that maybe we're doing something right."

Bryce noted his hunger for competition leading to a mutual respect for Sandy Montgomery's program at SIU-Edwardsville, as well as the cultivation of friendships throughout the GLIAC and around the country.

"I've got to meet a lot of people and a lot of good coaches. Of the people currently in the Hall-of-Fame, I've been lucky enough to compete against 20 or 25 of them over my career. Just the friendships you make -- and they may only be small friendships -- I think that's a highlight."

Hunger for more

Bryce's biggest coaching thrill to date was winning the 2003 Great Lakes Regional in Allendale and advancing to the College World Series.

There's no question he wants to get back to that level.

"The thing I maybe disappointed in is that we've only made the final eight once," he said. "I try to evaluate whether I could have done more...but hindsight's beautiful."

While Wayne State has produced success on the GLIAC and regional levels, Bryce leaves no doubt that the program's ultimate goal is still within reach.

"I would like to win a national championship before I retire, there's no doubt about it."

Bryce has been well-recognized during his tenure, being named GLIAC Coach of the Year 10 times and becoming the league's first Central Region Coach of the Year honoree in 1993.

His NFCA Hall of Fame induction provides further testament to his longevity as a coach and the sustained success of the Wayne State program.

"Being in the game, hopefully, I helped the game a minuscule amount to be better than it is," Bryce said. "If I did that, I feel I've truly accomplished something."