Pitt sports run in Stottlemyer family

Sometimes senior softball player Rebecca Stottlemyer will be in the weight room, and she’ll… Sometimes senior softball player Rebecca Stottlemyer will be in the weight room, and she’ll see her dad walk by the door.

This is nothing unusual for her. Her dad, Rande Stottlemyer, is the head coach of Pitt’s wrestling team.

“It’s a little weird having him here sometimes,” Rebecca said with a laugh. “But I’d rather have him here than not. I’m just luckier than all the other girls.”

Rande has been Pitt’s wrestling coach for 28 years and boasts the best record of any wrestling coach at Pitt with 234 wins.

Last year he coached four wrestlers to the NCAA championship and two to become All-Americans. Senior Keith Gavin won a national championship this year.

Rande chose Pitt as an undergraduate for both academics and athletics, and he was a three-time All-American wrestler himself.

He met his wife, who was a Pitt gymnast, through the athletic program, and they instilled both the love of Pitt and sports into their four daughters.

“We certainly have a lot of Pitt in our blood,” Rande said. “The girls all grew up with Pitt as their favorite team.”

Rande was working full time at Pitt and didn’t coach any of his daughters’ teams growing up, but every summer Rebecca remembers going out to the ball field with him and her sisters.

Rande said hitting fly balls with his daughters was something that was easy and fun for them all to do together.

Rebecca and her sisters began in gymnastics and have played almost every other sport imaginable over the years – even football.

While playing soccer in high school, Rebecca wanted to earn the gig as the football team’s placekicker. She and her sister tried out Rebecca’s junior year, but the coach didn’t want a girl on the team.

The next year a new coach was in place, and he let Rebecca play.

“We weren’t very good,” Rebecca said. “About halfway through the fourth quarter the coach would put me in any position. But it was fun, the guys got a kick out of it.”

Even though Rebecca was home-schooled, she was still able to play sports at her hometown high school, Charleroi, which is an hour south of Pittsburgh. She also participated in track and swimming in high school before ultimately choosing to play softball in college.

Rebecca says her most cherished softball memory at Pitt is when the team upset No. 2 South Florida her sophomore year. Pitt was a No. 7 seed and won the game in the Big East championships.

“It’s a team sport, and I think you’re more proud of your team achievements,” she said. “The bond that you have with your teammates over four years, it’s not something you can replace with any one single win or loss.”

After graduation, Rebecca plans to go into the Marines, and Rande said he doesn’t expect any of his girls to go into coaching.

“I think they’ll choose different paths,” he said. “They know it’s pretty all-encompassing, that’s for sure, time-wise.”

Despite their busy schedules, the two manage to find time to watch each other’s teams.

“We’ve been going [to my dad’s meets] since I was born, and unfortunately with softball I haven’t been able to go to as many this year as I did in high school,” Rebecca said. “But I still go to the home ones.”

Rande said he also tries to make it with his family to Rebecca’s home games even though his season and recruiting in the offseason make it hard.

In addition to being able to support each other in sports, the father and daughter love being at the same school.

Rebecca likes being able to see her dad whenever she’s having a bad day, so the two make time to meet. Rande said he loves being able to catch a coffee or dinner with his daughter whenever she wants.

“I can be as involved as she wants me to be or not be, which is pretty nice,” he said.