( Fred Daniels/SEC Social )
Arkansas softball coach Courtney Deifel reacts while celebrating the Razorbacks' win in the SEC softball tournament championship game on May 14, 2022, in Gainesville, Fla.
She is 41 with the energy, enthusiasm and smile of someone half her age.
When Courtney Deifel was hired by Jeff Long to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks softball team for the 2016 season she was relatively unknown.
Not anymore.
She was the fourth coach of a program that began in 1997 and had been OK, making the NCAA Tournament five times in its first 15 years, never advancing past the regionals.