Mark Roberts will be the next softball coach at Ponderosa, athletic director Tim Ottmann announced on Wednesday night.
Roberts had been the baseball coach at Douglas County since the 2009 season, but retired this spring.
Mark Roberts, new softball coach at Ponderosa. (Courtesy of Ponderosa HS)
He has a long — and rich — softball history, which includes stints as the head coach at Douglas County (14 seasons), and in college at the Colorado School of Mines (eight seasons). (He was also Douglas County’s baseball coach from 1994-96, and spent three seasons as an assistant at the University of Denver, back when it had baseball.)
As the softball coach at Douglas County from 1991-2004, Roberts won six league titles and the 1994 Class 4A championship.
At Mines, Roberts took the program to its first-ever postseason appearance in 2002.
Over the past seven seasons as the baseball coach at Douglas County, Roberts’ teams went 74-62. That includes a 13-7 mark this spring in which the Huskies reached the district round but lost to eventual champion Rock Canyon.
“Coach Roberts is a legend among softball coaches in Colorado and across the country,” Ottmann said on Wednesday. “He is excited to take over the Mustangs’ softball program, and looks really good in Cardinal and Gold!”
Roberts replaces Tony Tabola at Ponderosa, who was the softball coach for nine seasons. Since 2009, the Mustangs are 97-36. The program has one state title, when Ponderosa won 5A in 1992. The Mustangs also went to the 5A championship game in 1996.
The Mustangs, who advanced to the Class 4A quarterfinals last season, lose first-team all-state pick Ally Power next season. They do return two studs in Peyton Matejka and Kendal Boyum, who will both be juniors.
Matejka hit .397 with three home runs and 10 RBIs last season, while Boyum hit .394 with one home run and a team-high 19 RBIs as a sophomore.