Judi Garman

Judith Fay Garman (born March 27, 1944) is an American former college softball coach. She was the head softball coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1980 to 1999 and led Fullerton to the 1986 Women's College World Series championship. Before coaching at Fullerton, she was the head coach at Golden West College from 1972 to 1979 and led that school's softball team to four consecutive national junior college softball championships from 1976 to 1979. When Garman retired in 1999, she was the most successful coach in college softball history.

Early years Garman was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Mennonite minister. As a child, she moved with her family to Kindersley, Saskatchewan, when her father was assigned as the pastor of a small town on the Canadian prairie. Garman played softball and ran track as a girl. She later recalled, "I didn't know it at the time, but growing up where I did was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It wasn't until later that I found out that in most places girls weren't encouraged to play sports. But where I grew up, and in the family I grew up in, there wasn't much else to do. If I'd grown up in the United States, I might not have become an athlete or a coach." and won four consecutive national junior college championships from 1975 to 1978. She also led the Titans to four earlier trips to the College World Series, resulting in two second-place and two third-place finishes. She was only 55 years old at the time of her retirement and told the Orange County Register that the breast cancer death of her close friend Vicky Larson, a former coach and girls athletic director at Loara High School, was a major factor in her decision. Garman noted, "There's a lot I still want to do in my life while I'm healthy. This job has become seven days a week, 15 hours a day. I can't keep up that pace anymore."

International coaching Garman returned to coaching in 2001 as the head coach of the Italian national softball team. She led Italy to the European Championship and a fifth-place finish at the 2002 ISF Women's World Championship.

With 1,1249 wins in 28 years (913 at the Division I level), Garman was the winningest coach in college softball history at the time of her retirement. Other coaches later surpassed that record, including Margie Wright and Mike Candrea.

Garman was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1993.

Garman has also written a book, Softball Skills & Drills .