Palomar College Athletics Empowered Women Series: Softball Coach Lacey Craft

SAN MARCOS - Lacey Craft grew up on the softball field at Palomar College. Her dad was the head football coach for the Comets in the 90s and he assisted Mark Eldridge, the softball head coach, in the spring.

Craft and Eldridge's daughter would run around the field during practices and go with the team to tournaments.

"So that was probably a big influence for me to play softball and started my interest in softball," Craft said. "When Rebecca and I would go to the ball field, we would be able to practice pitching and hitting and throw while the girls were practicing and our dads were coaching and probably get some of the girls to give us some coaching of their own, which was really a good experience as a young girl."

She didn't just play softball though. Craft also played volleyball and basketball throughout her high school career. She knew she was going to play at Palomar because she grew up there and could see herself playing softball there.

Craft says Augrista Belford, who was an assistant at the time for Palomar, helped motivate her to decide to pursue a career path in coaching.

"It was probably one of the first times that I had a strong female coach because I had grown up with the majority of the coaches I played for being male," Craft said.

Her time at Palomar was the first time in her life she played one sport, so she was able to focus on developing her skills and to be totally immersed in softball. She only played one year for Palomar before transferring to San Diego State University.

During her time at SDSU, she kept in touch with Palomar's program and after graduation, she had the opportunity to come back as an assistant under Eldridge while working on her master's degree.

"I got to shadow Mark and coach for a period of time, which was really special to me because it was very different to go from being a player to a coach and being able to kind of be a peer with people that you had respected as coaches to now be working with them and alongside them was really fun and exciting," Craft said.

Palomar's softball program has been successful throughout its history and Craft remembers celebrating the state championship wins under Eldridge. She also celebrated the football state and national championships in the 90s when her dad was coaching. It was her turn to get one for herself.

In 2013, the Comets were back in the championship tournament and walked away winners. The team was full of blue-collar workers who showed up every day to work and get better and it paid off. Two years later, they were back.

"I've been back to the championship tournament a lot of years since then," Craft said. "And I think it really started a lot of momentum with that 2013 team and some of the traditions that they re-established from long ago. So that's a really great memory for me and like a defining moment I think, for the program, um, and definitely my career."

In addition to their winning success, the softball program has a high transfer rate. Between Craft and Eldridge, over 180 players have gone on to play softball at the four-year level, with a large majority playing at the NCAA Division I level.

"I think that the position as a head coach now is really special to me because it gives me an opportunity to continue to provide a similar experience that I had in my playing time at Palomar," Craft said. "And I feel like it is a great opportunity to play softball at Palomar because it's an opportunity that people take advantage of to grow and develop as a player just like I did and have a chance to continue to play and grow and develop into a softball player or a student at the next level. And that's something that I'm really proud of is continuing that tradition of transfer success with the program."

(Palomar College Athletics)