By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Somewhat lost in the hype and hysteria surrounding Caitlin Clark’s much anticipated return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena is what her alma mater’s softball team accomplished on Sunday.

The Iowa softball team defeated Rutgers 4-0 at Bob Pearl Field to complete a three-game sweep in the final series of the regular season.

Iowa finished the regular season 35-17 overall and 15-7 in Big Ten play and now heads to the Big Ten Tournament where it’ll face Penn State on Wednesday in West Lafayette, Indiana after having failed to make the conference tournament last season when Iowa hosted the event.

To host an event for which your team failed to qualify was the ultimate humiliation for the Iowa players.

But their problems were just beginning.

This past December, Iowa announced that Renee Gillispie would miss the 2025 season as head coach due to a medical concern.

Brian Levin was then promoted to interim head coach. But his tenure didn’t last long as he was let go in early March due to a dispute over some of the Iowa players kneeling for the National Anthem before games. Levin also accused the Iowa softball program of having a toxic culture in an interview with the Daily Iowan.

First-year pitching coach Karl Gollan was promoted to interim head coach following Levin’s departure, and it was easy to assume that Iowa’s season would unravel from all the adversity, and because of what had happened last season on the field.

Instead, though, the players have risen above the adversity and rallied around their interim head coach from New Zealand.

The players have put aside whatever differences they might have about kneeling for the National Anthem, or about any other political or cultural issue, and they have proven the doubters and naysayers wrong.

“It means everything to us, but we’re definitely not done yet,” said senior Hannah Lindsay. “We’ve got to show up in the Big Ten Tournament.

“But I think to prove everybody wrong and prove ourselves right that we’re capable of doing this and we’re capable of doing it together game by game.”

A native of Surprise, Arizona, Lindsay played her first two seasons for New Mexico State before transferring to Iowa in 2024.

Despite all the distractions over the past two years, Lindsay doesn’t seem to have any regrets about being a Hawkeye.

“I think the University of Iowa has an amazing culture and an amazing group of girls that I’ve gotten to play with the last two years,” Lindsay said. “This year has been a winning environment and we do everything we have to do as a team to put that forward.

“And compared to other schools, I just love my teammates even more, especially with all the things we’ve gone through this year.”

Lindsay was asked after Sunday’s win what makes the Iowa softball program unique or special?

“I think our coaches coach us as people and not as just players,” she said. “I think they care about us all around as athletes and as humans more so that you’re not just a player with a number on your back. I think we’re people first.”

That statement says a lot about Karl Gollan as a head coach, and as a leader.

Iowa announced this past week that Gillispie would not return as head coach, and that a national search would begin immediately.

Gollan deserves at the very least to be a candidate, assuming he wants the job.

Should some super candidate emerge with unmatched credentials, then of course, Iowa should hire that person.

But with Gollan, Iowa has somebody who has basically auditioned for the job under highly unusual and difficult circumstances, and in doing so has quietly exceeded everybody’s expectations.

Gollan shared the secret to his success after Sunday’s win, and what he said made a lot of sense.

“It’s softball, though, that’s done it,” Gollan said. “You know what I mean? There may have been some adverse circumstances or something that has gone on around us. But the reality is the way you get wins on the field is you executing softball plays.

“So, we’ve continued to keep our focus on softball. We’ve continued to set goals that are based around softball and executing what we do. And we’ve done that more often than not and that’s what has led to the change in the record or the how positive the record looks.

“It’s no magic unicorn or divine intervention or anything. It’s just we’ve executed the softball plays.”

Gollan makes it sound easy, but what he has accomplished this season has been anything but easy.

This team could have easily splintered into groups and that would have almost certainly ruined the team chemistry.

But it hasn’t, much to the credit of Gollan and to his support staff, which includes assistant coach Sammy Diaz, who played for the Hawkeyes from 2020-24.

They have navigated through rocky waters and have provided the right leadership at the right time.

Gollan came to Iowa after one year at Ole Miss where he served primarily as the pitching coach. He helped the Rebels to a 31-27 record and their eighth straight NCAA Regional appearance. The Ole Miss pitching staff finished with a 2.86 ERA and held hitters to a .249 batting average against. Gollan had four pitchers with sub 3.00 ERA in SEC Conference play with 339 team strikeouts.

Prior to Oxford, Gollan served as the head coach for the Augustana softball program. He helped to turn around a program that was picked to finish last in the conference and guided them to a third-place finish.

Gollan has over 25 years of international playing experience according to his bio on hawkeyesports.com. A former member of New Zealand’s national team from 2004-2017, he helped his country remain at the top spot in the WBSC/ISF and ISC rankings. He is also four-time world champion and 10-time national champion according to his bio.

As a coach, Gollan assisted the NZ Black Sox and still serves as an advisor for the national team. As an advisor, his duties included player evaluations and scouting for the No. 1 ranked men’s fastpitch team in the world.

There have been some outstanding single-season coaching performances from Iowa head coaches, and one that stands out perhaps more than any other is what Tom Davis accomplished with the 1992-93 Iowa men’s basketball team.

The team won 23 games and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament despite dealing with the anguish and devastation caused by the death of star forward Chris Street, who was killed midway through his junior season in an automobile accident on the outskirts of Iowa City.

Tom Davis became much more than a head coach during those emotionally charged days following Street’s death.

The grace and compassion that he showed that season, while also excelling as a head coach on the court was a coaching masterpiece, and will always be in a class by itself.

Other than that, though, it’s hard to think of another Hawkeye head coach who has overcome tougher circumstances than what Gollan has faced this season.

Regardless how you feel about the way in which UI officials handled Levin’s departure, or how you feel about players kneeling during the National Anthem, it doesn’t change what this team has accomplished.

The fact that Iowa has won 35 games overall and 15 in Big Ten play, after finishing 18-28 and 6-17 last season, would be an impressive turn-around under any circumstance.

But to achieve those records under the current circumstances takes it to a whole new level.

Editor’s note: hawkeyesports.com contributed to this article.