Garrett Furnal is in his second season as assistant coach with the Blue Hose softball team.
Furnal, who earned a degree in liberal studies from Iowa State University in 2013, played one year of college baseball at Marshalltown Community College his freshman year before becoming pursuing the other end of things and becoming a student-assistant coach under Head Coach Rich Grife. His main responsibilities at MCC included the recruitment of players and assisting with infield defense. He also helped coordinate team travel and practice plans, developed workout regiments, and made sure the team equipment and facilities were ready for game day.
Prior to his arrival at PC, Furnal was an assistant softball coach intern at the University of Louisiana at Monroe for the 2014 season, serving as a hitting coach for the Warhawks. During his time at ULM, Furnal helped coach the team to its highest batting average since 1984 (.275), as well as the highest team totals in runs batted in, home runs, and on-base percentage in the past thirty years. Furnal helped coach two players onto the Sun Belt All-Conference Team for the first time since joining the conference in 2006- Miyuki Navarrete (2nd team honors) and Rochelle Roberts (1st team honors and Sun Belt Freshman of the Year). In addition to the overall coaching, organization, management, and supervision of ULM’s softball program, he also helped with the recruitment of prospective student-athletes, coordinated travel plans, put together scouting reports, and monitored of the team’s academic progress.
Before ULM, Furnal was the student softball manager at Iowa State University (2011-13) and the University of Missouri (2010-11). During these years with both teams, he gained a greater knowledge of the science of pitching and catching. In addition to working in the bullpen with pitchers and catchers, he assisted with video and camera work, offensive and defensive drills, and overall field maintenance. While at Mizzou, the team won the Big XII Conference and made it to the Women’s College World Series in 2011.
