Named the seventh head coach of the UC Davis softball program prior to the 2015 campaign. Erin Thorpe enters her 11th season at the helm of the Aggies in 2025.
With nearly two decades of experience as both a successful student-athlete and head coach, Thorpe has compiled 147 victories in her previous six seasons at UC Davis, helping lead the Aggies to their first-ever winning season and the highest win total at the Division I level in 2018, guiding her squad to a 27-24 overall record and a 9-12 mark in Big West Conference play.
Thorpe guided Anna Dethlefson to Big West Player of the Year honors in 2023, marking the first time an Aggie has ever received the award. That season, Dethlefson native paced the conference in slugging percentage (.627), doubles (15), and stolen bases (40). She ranks second in batting average (.407), OPS (1.104), runs (43), and hits (61). She also became just the second Aggie in the Division I era to ever hit above the .400 mark.
In 2018, Thorpe picked up her 300th career win — and her 250th victory at the Division I level — in a 1-0 victory at Cal Poly on April 14. Her win totals include her time at Whittier College (50) and Boise State (173). Thrope grabbed win number 400 in 2022, and her 200th career UC Davis win in 2023.
In her tenure with the Aggies, Thorpe has seen 43 All-Big West selections — including first-team honorees Brianna Warner (2017), Brooke Yanez (2018, 2019), Alyse Rojas (2018, 2019), Kenedi Brown (2022, 2023), and Anna Dethlefson (2023, 2024) — while eight more have earned spots on the league’s all-freshman team.
In 2018, Yanez became only the third UC Davis player to earn all-region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association in the program’s Division I history along with former Aggie greats Alex Holmes (2010) and Justine Vela (2012) and was one of 25 players named to the organization’s watch list for National Freshman of the Year. The Valencia, Calif., native was only the second UC Davis student-athlete to be named the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year (Vela in 2012) and was the first freshman since 2015 to pick up three Big West Pitcher of the Week awards, finishing the regular season ranked in the top five in the league in 10 different categories.
Prior to the 2018 campaign, Thorpe also helped direct a complete facelift of the stadium at La Rue Field, giving the Aggies a new-look home for years to come. A new playing surface, drainage system, dugouts, and a new locker room and clubhouse beyond the right field fence, were among the many upgrades.
Off the field, Thorpe has made performance in the classroom as high a priority as success on the field, and her student-athletes have answered the call. Her 2017 and 2018 teams earned back-to-back public recognition awards from the NCAA for finishing among the top 10 percent of the schools in their sport in the multiyear Academic Progress Rates, finishing with a perfect score of 1,000.
In addition, she has had 12 student-athletes pick up a total of 15 NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete awards and had 20 players named to the Big West All-Academic Team — including a high of seven in 2016.
She also wrapped up her second year as the Big West representative to the NFCA Head Coaches Committee and served on the NFCA All-American committee in 2018.
Prior to her arrival at UC Davis, Thorpe completed a highly successful run as the first-ever head coach at Boise State from 2011-14, leading the Broncos to three, 30-win seasons and compiling an overall record of 173-150-1 — including an impressive 53-15 mark at home.
She led the Broncos to a pair of second-place finishes in the Western Athletic Conference and ended the 2012 season with a third-place finish at the league’s postseason tournament before the school made the jump to the Mountain West Conference. Thorpe led Boise State to 33 wins in the program’s debut season, a school-record 34 victories and a No. 57 finish in the final NCAA RPI in 2012, and 30 more in 2014.
The Broncos received several playing and academic awards during Thorpe's tenure. Outfielder Tara Glover became the program's first-ever National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American in 2012. Five others were named NFCA all-region, 18 received all-conference accolades, 23 were selected NFCA All-Academic, and 55 garnered academic all-conference awards. Boise State also received perfect Academic Progress Rate scores in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011.
Before joining Boise State, Thorpe served as the head softball coach and senior woman administrator at Whittier College in California from 2002-07. In 2005, the school also named her as its assistant athletics director for compliance.
Thorpe revitalized the Poets' softball program, turning a team that compiled a 4-33 record prior to her arrival into one that finished 23-17 in her final season at the helm.
During her five-year tenure, Whittier College's student-athletes earned five All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference honors and two NCAA all-region awards. The Poets evolved into a nationally respected Division III program under Thorpe's tutelage, finishing 28th nationally for team batting average during her final season.
A NCAA All-American herself as a member of UC San Diego's softball team, she also received all-region accolades all four years as the Tritons' shortstop. In 1997, the NCAA bestowed all-region tournament honors to Thorpe. Three years later, she was named UCSD's Female Athlete of the Year.
Thorpe received her bachelor's degree in economics and management science from UCSD in 2000 while earning her master's in business administration from Cal Poly Pomona in 2008.
