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Janae Shirley
Head Coach
Janae Shirley enters her 17th season at East Texas Baptist University and has led the program to national heights winning the NCAA Division III National Championship in 2010 and claiming the #1 final ranking in the shortened 2020 season. She has guided ETBU to 12 NCAA Division III Tournaments and two national championship tournaments, winning five American Southwest Conference championships, and claiming their first-ever Super Regional Championship in 2014. In December 2016, she took her team on an international mission trip to Costa Rica in the inaugural Tiger Athletic Mission Experience. ETBU served and witnessed to the people of Costa Rica and played the Costa Rican national team twice.
NCAA Tournaments (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021)
ETBU has made 11 NCAA Tournaments under Shirley and played in the last eight tournaments winning the 2010 NCAA Division III national championship, 2014 Marshall Super Regional Championship, 2014 Tyler Regional Championship, the 2017 Marshall Regional Championship, and the 2010 Regional Championship. She has won 29 games in the NCAA Tournament and been to the NCAA World Series, twice.
2017 Marshall Regional Championship
ETBU hosted the NCAA Division III Marshall Regional and went 3-1 in the tournament claiming the program's third regional championship under Shirley. ETBU defeated #17 Whitworth, 6-3 to start the tournament and then the next day upset #6 Texas Dallas, 5-3, to face Whitworth agian. Whitworth took the second meeting, 3-1, to force a final championship game on Sunday as ETBU claimed the championship, 7-5. ETBU scored seven runs in the first three innings with home runs by Lacey Lindsey and Kaitlyn Hollingshead propelling them to the championship win.
2014 Super Regional Championship
Making a post season run in 2014, Shirley guided ETBU to the Tyler Regional and Marshall Super Regional Championships finishing fifth at the World Series. They were ranked in the NFCA Top 25 poll all year and were voted fourth in the final poll. Winning 45 games, that mark set a new program record for most wins in a season along with a 20-game winning streak.
The team’s most exciting games came in the NCAA Tournament as they swept through the Tyler Regional defeating Texas Lutheran twice and #3 Texas Tyler advancing to the Super Regional. Coming back to Taylor Field for the Super Regional, ETBU won two of the three games to take the series on walk-off home runs by freshmen All-Americans Jayme Perez and Lacey Lindsey.
2010 National Champions
Shirley’s finest season came in 2010 with an unbelievable run through the NCAA Tournament to win ETBU’s first-ever NCAA Division III national championship. Playing out of the loser’s bracket of the regional tournament, ETBU went on an eight-game winning streak to take the national championship. ETBU won four straight in the regional tournament, defeating host Louisiana College two games straight, and then tore through the championship tournament going 4-0. In the 5-4 win over Linfield for the national championship, they came from behind to pull off what became a Cinderella season with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning.
ASC Tournament Championships (2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021)
2021
Making a statement as the top team in the ASC Tournament and playing on the road in Jackson, Miss., ETBU swept through the bracket going 4-0 as the #2 seed. ETBU tied for the ASC East Division championship but lost the tiebreaker. Scoring 27 runs, ETBU won the ASC Championship game, 13-4, over the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. ETBU opened the tournament with an 8-inning victory over Sul Ross State, 4-3, on a late Thursday night game in the first round. They then shut out UMHB, 2-0, and defeated Hardin-Simmons University, 8-4, advancing to the championship game.
2019
Sweeping through the ASC Tournament bracket as the host, ETBU went 3-0 with two wins over the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 2-1. ETBU started the tournament with a no-hit win over Hardin-Simmons, 5-0, and then won their semi-final game, 2-1, over UMHB. UMHB battled back to the championship only to have ETBU claim the win, 2-1, when Dani Solis hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning.
2016
In 2016, Shirley coached ETBU to their eighth ASC Tournament championship and third in her tenure. ETBU went 3-0 in the tournament defeating #1 Texas Tyler twice, 6-1, and 2-0. McLendon pitched the best games of her career allowing just one run against Texas Tyler and six overall in three games and nine strikeouts.
2013
Winning the program’s seventh ASC Championship in 2013, ETBU swept through the bracket going 4-0 with two wins over then #1 Texas Tyler. The final victory of the tournament to take the championship was Shirley's 200th career win. Shelby Parker threw a perfect game for the first win over Howard Payne, 8-0, and then came from behind for a 3-1 win over #20 Texas Lutheran. ETBU then defeated #1 Texas-Tyler, 10-9, and 6-2, for the championship.
2011
ETBU won the ASC East Division Championship in 2011 and then went 4-1 in the ASC Tournament playing through the loser’s bracket for the championship. After falling to Texas Tyler, ETBU defeated Mississippi College, 6-1, and then won two straight games over Texas Tyler, 8-0, and 4-3.
ETBU History
A part of the ETBU program since 2003, Shirley started out in the program as a player and then became an assistant coach. She was a member of the 2003, 2004 and 2005 teams winning two ASC Championships and playing in two NCAA regional tournaments. She then became an assistant coach for two years in 2006 and 2007 before taking over the program in 2008.
Along with winning, her program has set high academic standards and made team discipleship a priority. The 2016-17 team will travel on their first international sports mission trip to Costa Rica in December 2016. She has had three players voted CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, four ASC Softball Distinguished Scholar-Athletes, and numerous ASC All-Academic team members. Both Lya Swaner and Ashton Brey have earned the ASC’s nomination for NCAA Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and 2013 while Swaner was a Top 9 Finalist.
Shirley has made ETBU softball a Christ-centered program with national prominence. She is married to ETBU alumnus, Guy, who played one season of baseball at ETBU. They have been married since the summer 2007 and have two boys, Carter (10), and Major (5).
Guy Shirley
Assistant Coach
Guy Shirley is the husband of ETBU head coach Janae Shirley and has worked on staff since the 2008 season.
A native of Marshall, Texas, Guy played college baseball as a pitcher at LSU-Shreveport before transferring to ETBU playing one season in 2001.
At Marshall High School, he was an all-district selection and was selected to play in the East Texas All-Star game following a senior season under coach Jackie Lloyd that saw the Mavericks go 30-9 and finish in the Class 5A regional quarterfinals.
Shirley also played in the 2000 Stan Musial World Series as a member of the Ark-La-Tex Indians.
Guy is the son of C.R. Shirley and Laura Harrington. He has one brother and sister-and-law, Chuck and Marti Shirley, and also has two nieces, Madeline and Maci.
He and Janae were married in the summer of 2007, and they welcomed their first child, son Carter, in October of 2009, and second son Major in December 2013.
Bill Galloway
Associate Head Coach
Collegiate softball legend Bill Galloway enters his 19th season at East Texas Baptist University as the associate head coach after a stellar career at the NCAA Division I ranks. The NFCA Hall of Famer recorded over 900 wins coaching at Texas A&M and Louisiana Tech. In 2015, Louisiana Tech inducted him into their athletic hall of fame for his coaching career.
Shortly after retiring following a 20-year run as head coach at Louisiana Tech, Galloway joined the ETBU staff in 2003 as a part-time assistant coach. He continued to work with the program pitchers and in general off and on through the 2007 season. When that season ended, Shirley was named head coach. Her first move was to promote Galloway to a full-time top assistant coach on staff.
“Coach Galloway offers so much to me as a coach and to our program as a whole,” Shirley says. “The experience and knowledge that he brings to our staff is priceless. He has a deep knowledge of pitching and also has a wealth of contacts all over the country that are a tremendous asset in our recruiting efforts. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with and learn from a coach with such experience, and one that I respect so much.”
Coach Galloway was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame in 2001 and spent 20 years as head softball coach at Louisiana Tech. He joined the ETBU staff as a part-time pitching coach in 2003 and 2004 and then rejoined the program on a part-time basis in 2006.
Galloway has a wealth of fast-pitch coaching experience at the Division I level following stints as head coach at Louisiana Tech and Texas A&M. He has a 934-421 record (.689 winning percentage) at D-I, and his Louisiana Tech teams posted at least 30 wins in a season 16 times. That includes a 52-18 mark in his first season in Ruston in 1982. For his efforts at Louisiana Tech, he was inducted into their athletic hall of fame in the fall 2013.
The Lady Techsters made seven straight trips to the NCAA postseason under Galloway from 1983-89, including a fifth-place finish in the 1983 World Series. Overall, Tech finished with eight playoff appearances under Galloway.
In his career, Galloway had 11 players selected as All-American and has 10 former players currently working as head coaches at the collegiate level. He has coached 44 Regional All-Americans, and his players graduation rate ranks in the top 20 percent of NCAA schools.
In just his second season on staff at ETBU as part-time pitching coach in 2004, ETBU went 41-5 and finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation in NCAA Division III. The ETBU staff that season, with Galloway serving as pitching coach, posted a 1.34 ERA and had four players -- Mandie McConnell, Kristen Abernathy, Ashley Stout and Carrie Mills -- finish with at least seven wins. The staff also held opponents to a .213 batting average in 46 games.
A 1978 graduate of Indiana University, Galloway holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Russian-Soviet Studies. He has also served in the United States Army. Coach Galloway and his wife, Liguya, moved to Marshall from Ruston, La., in 2007.