By CHRIS COOK
LongwoodLancers.com

FARMVILLE, Va. – On April 16, Longwood softball took down the third best team in the ACC. Twice.
 
Hosting in-state rival Virginia Tech, the Lancers dispatched the Hokies 4-1 and 7-4 in yet another showcase from the dominant softball program Longwood head coach Kathy Riley has built over the past two decades.
 
On the surface, it was just another win for a coach who has won plenty in 19 years in Farmville. But between game one and game two, after Longwood freshman Sydney Gay dominated the Hokies in the opener and junior ace Biz McCarthy followed suit in the nightcap, Riley tacked on yet another milestone to her storied tenure in Farmville.
 
"Ladies and gentlemen," boomed Longwood's public address announcer, Skip Spain, to the 500-plus fans in attendance that Wednesday night, "join me in congratulating coach KATHY RILEY, who just won her 600th game at Longwood!"
 
That's how Riley learned about her achievement, too.
 
"I didn't know," she said, before turning her attention back to the field where her Lancers would beat Virginia Tech again just seven innings later.
 
That Riley was unaware she was so close to 600 wins would come as no surprise to anyone who has met her or been lucky enough to be coached by her. Despite being one of the most successful coaches in the history of Longwood athletics, Riley remains humble, grounded, and committed to her process.
 
She does not brag about her .631 career winning percentage, her multiple championships or even her coach of the year awards. She doesn't harp on the magnitude of a 23-year coaching career where her success has been as consistent as All-American Megan Baltzell's swing. No, Riley doesn't need to brag about her accomplishments because they speak for themselves.
 
In her 19 seasons in Farmville, Longwood softball has never finished below .500. She has won 30 games 11 times, and it took her just three years to elevate Longwood to the Big South's premier softball program. She has taken Longwood to two NCAA Regionals in the past three years, the first such NCAA Tournament appearances by any Longwood program in the Division I era. Last year her Lancers beat Virginia Tech in Knoxville, Tenn., for the university's first Division I NCAA postseason win.
 
Now in pursuit of her second straight Big South title and third trip to an NCAA Regional in the past four years, Riley's Lancers are once again on top of the Big South standings with a 12-3 conference record and a 26-15 mark overall.
 
However, for all those eye-popping bullet points on her resume, Riley can probably only name a few herself. She cares not about records and milestones, but about the season-to-season, series-to-series and day-to-day processes that ultimately make her players some of the best in the Big South and her teams some of the best in the region.
 
It's the pursuit of winning, not records, that makes the great ones great. Kobe Bryant didn't win five NBA Championships because he wanted to score 30,000 points. Mike Krzyzewski didn't win five national championships because he wanted to become college basketball's all-time winningest coach. Such is the case for Riley, who even on the eve of her 600th Longwood win, was quick to downplay such a monumental achievement.
 
"I'll be honest," she said, "getting the win over Virginia Tech means more to me than No. 600."
 
Riley's 600th Longwood win is merely a byproduct of her unwavering pursuit of the process, the daily grind she puts herself through and gets her players to buy into as well. She preaches mental toughness and boils her coaching philosophy down to three simple words: Just play hard.
 
Riley's sustained success has allowed her program to develop fruitful recruiting pipelines and, more importantly, a reputation for Longwood that expands outside the borders of the Commonwealth. The culture of her program is one of winning and hard work, and all newcomers are quickly indoctrinated into that. Longwood softball is now a self-sustaining cyclone that has been decades in the making, and Riley is the eye of the storm.
 
Riley's 600th win sparked Longwood's current five-game winning streak, which the Lancers take into this weekend's crucial Big South series at Presbyterian. That latest tear, which included a three-game sweep at Gardner-Webb last weekend, has vaulted the Lancers into sole possession of first place in the Big South with three conference series remaining.
 
While the importance of Saturday's doubleheader against the Blue Hose has displaced Riley's celebration of win No. 600, the gravitas of that achievement bears retelling here. So congratulations, coach. Even if you don't want to acknowledge it, winning 600 games at one school is a big deal. And if you don't want to celebrate, don't worry; there is a lot of other people who can do that for you.

#GoWood