Jessica Allister

Jessica Lynne Allister (born October 7, 1982) is an American softball coach and former catcher who is the current head coach at Stanford. Allister played college softball at Stanford and earned second-team All-American honors in her senior season of 2004. After a two-year professional softball career with the New England Riptide of National Pro Fastpitch, Allister began a coaching career as an assistant coach at Georgia, Stanford, and Oregon.

From 2011 to 2017, Allister was head coach at Minnesota, where she had 290 wins and five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2013 to 2017. The 2017 Minnesota team set new program records, including single season wins with a 56–5 record, for which Allister won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. Allister then returned to Stanford to become head coach at her alma mater. Inheriting a struggling Stanford program, Allister led Stanford to an NCAA Tournament appearance in her second season in 2019 and won Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors as a result.

Early life and education Allister was born in 1982, when her father Derek Allister was a graduate student at the University of Idaho and assistant basketball coach at Moscow High School in Moscow, Idaho. Allister spent her childhood in the Palouse, San Francisco Bay Area, and Reno, Nevada, when her father was an assistant men's college basketball coach at Washington State, California, and Nevada. Allister attended Nacogdoches High School from 1996 to 2000, when Derek was head coach at Stephen F. Austin.

At Stanford University, Allister had a stellar playing career for the Stanford Cardinal softball team. Allister holds the school record for games played with 266. A three-time all-conference selection, she led her team to four appearances in the NCAA tournament and to two trips to the 2001 Women's College World Series. She was the starter for the Cardinal from day one to the end of her playing career. Allister earned second-team NFCA All-American honors and first-team All-Pac-10 honors in 2004, her senior season during which Stanford again made the Women's College World Series. Allister graduated with her name all throughout the program’s record book, including top-three in many offensive categories (including home runs and RBI) and top-ten in several others. Allister graduated in 2004 with a degree in economics. In 87 games, Allister had a .197 batting average, 12 RBI, one home run, and a .987 fielding percentage.

Coaching career

Early coaching career (2005–2010) Allister’s first coaching job was with the University of Georgia under coach Lu Harris-Champer in 2005 and 2006, helping lead the Georgia Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances as well as an SEC championship.

Minnesota (2011–2017) On August 10, 2010, the University of Minnesota hired Allister hired as the head coach of Minnesota Golden Gophers softball.

In seven seasons at Minnesota from 2011 to 2017, Allister had a career win–loss record of 290–107 and led Minnesota to a program record five straight NCAA Tournaments from 2013 to 2017. Inheriting a team that went 19–32 (2–22 in Pac-12 Conference play), Allister led the 2018 Stanford team to a 24–31 (3–21 Pac-12) record.