PRHS welcomes new softball coach Jannane Ruck

Ruck grew up in the countryside of Clover, Clovis California. She had limited access to cable TV and the internet and spent countless hours of her childhood playing sports outside with her next-door neighbors. 

“Softball to me at a young age is equivalent to the fulfillment that kids get now with technology,” Ruck said.  

This is where it all began, her appreciation for being outside and running around with her neighbors brought her to realize that softball was her calling. Ruck started her softball career at seven years old and from there she developed an arm and became a pitcher. But in high school, Ruck struggled to excel in her studies while focusing on sports. 

“Out of high school, I was the number one recruit in the country, I had all kinds of division one offers and I blew it. I didn’t go to finals, my senior year, I didn’t graduate on time, I was given the opportunity locally to go on a full ride to Oklahoma City University. And so I went there”  Ruck said.

At OCU, Ruck majored in Social Work and Psychology and won two National Championships. But, it wasn’t easy for Ruck as she began to fall into a depression and didn’t want to hear the word softball. She went back to Cuesta to rekindle her life and joined their team. Soon enough she was given a chance to return to OCU with a new scholarship and she was able to connect with her coach and teammates for a second time. Her coach, Phil McSpadden described her a a “power player and testament of resilience”. 

“I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to be coached by four great coaches and have played with great teammates and I’ve won a valley championship and two national championships but it’s not the championships, in my opinion, that makes a good coach. It’s the failures that a player experiences” Ruck said. 

JANNENE RUCK

Now, she is a Psychology instructor, and “It allows [her] to be passionate and understand athletes as individuals. Even though it’s a team sport [she] is able to understand that each athlete has different goals, different stories, and backgrounds”. Ruck is social and takes her time to get to know each individual player on the team. She is aware that every player has their own playing style and she is able to tell each player individual suggestions so that it helps their overall performance. 

This is really nice because everyone does things differently. She does a really good job at coaching us based on our strengths and weaknesses to each player.

Andie Dizon, 12

Dizon is a senior this year and is a commit to West Virginia who believes with every practice and every game the new dynamic will sink in and the players will be more relaxed, resulting in more success.

“I felt driven to reach out to the players who are reachable and have the opportunity to teach them all of the tools that come from playing the game. Because it’s not just about winning on the field, it’s about winning in life. Being part of that journey is what drives me to coach. My coaching motto is that coaches don’t win games, they lose games. What I mean by that is; a good coach will provide the players with the tools to succeed and support them. It’s on the coach to be able to put that talent together so that they can go out and win and when games are a loss, it’s not on the girls, it’s on the coach. So, lead by example” Ruck said. 

Before Covid, Ruck was coaching at West Hills College Coalinga but due to the shutdown, they were unable to put together a team for the first time ever in their program. When all of this had taken effect she was at a loss of a coaching job and that’s when she received messages from outsiders who were informing her of a new position available at PRHS to be a softball coach. She took this as a sign from God that since she lost her job, she lived in Paso, and she had coached some of the girls since they were 11 and 12, it would be a perfect position to fill.