Sport(s) | Softball |
---|---|
Biographical details | |
Born |
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |
March 27, 1944
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1972–1979 | Golden West |
1980–1999 | Cal State Fullerton |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 1,124–414–4 (.730) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
National Junior College Softball Championship, 1976 National Junior College Softball Championship, 1977 National Junior College Softball Championship, 1978 National Junior College Softball Championship, 1979 Women's College World Series Championship, 1986 |
Judi Garman (born March 27, 1944) is a former college softball coach. She was the head softball coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1980 to 1999 and led Fullerton to the 1986 Women's College World Series championship. Before coaching at Fullerton, she was the head coach at Golden West College from 1972 to 1979 and led that school's softball team to four consecutive national junior college softball championships from 1976 to 1979. When Garman retired in 1999, she was the most successful coach in college softball history.
Garman was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Mennonite minister. As a child, she moved with her family to Kindersley, Saskatchewan, when her father was assigned as the pastor of a small town on the Canadian prairie. Garman played softball and ran track as a girl. She later recalled, "I didn't know it at the time, but growing up where I did was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It wasn't until later that I found out that in most places girls weren't encouraged to play sports. But where I grew up, and in the family I grew up in, there wasn't much else to do. If I'd grown up in the United States, I might not have become an athlete or a coach."
Garman graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1966 and played for two years on the Canadian women's national softball team. She later moved to California and received a master's degree from UC Santa Barbara in 1970.
Garman began her head coaching career at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California. While at Golden West, Garman supervised the construction of a softball complex that was considered one of the best in Southern California. From 1972 to 1979, Garman led the Golden West Rustlers to a record of 211 wins and 40 losses, and won four consecutive national junior college championships from 1975 to 1978.