Camp Staff

    Kyla Holas - Head Coach

Head coach Kyla Holas embarks on her tenth season at the helm of the Cougar softball program she began constructing from scratch in 2001. In the program's eight seasons, Houston has proven to be a mainstay at the top of the Conference USA standings on the way to national recognition with seven consecutive winning seasons, three NCAA Regional appearances in 2004, 2007 and 2008 and one NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2008. She also appeared in back-to-back Conference USA championship games in 2007 and 2008.

Under the direction of Holas, Houston has become a successful program that has registered 35 or more wins in five of the last seven seasons and is coming off its third consecutive 40+ win with 54 in 2008. The Cougars have reached at least 30 victories seven consecutive times and emerged as one of the top programs in Conference USA, reaching the final day of the C-USA Championship in each of the last four seasons and clenching the tournament title in 2007. In fact, the only season in which Houston failed to reach the 30-win plateau was 2001, the program's inaugural season.

Holas has taken Houston from a 22-win season during that inaugural year to an NCAA Regional caliber team, proven by three Top-25 wins over No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 11 Michigan and No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette in 2007 and eight wins in 2008, beating each team twice (No. 14 DePaul, No. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 21/18 Fresno State and No. 25 Washington).

Holas has committed herself to building a winning tradition at Houston. Her staff and players have all bought into this philosophy and bring all of the necessary key ingredients to producing a winning program.

The philosophy towards winning is one that Holas learned as a three-time NCAA All-America pitcher at Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) after leading the Ragin' Cajuns to a third-place finish at the 1993 NCAA Women's College World Series. She received WCWS All-Tournament Team honors and was a two-time finalist (1993-94) for the prestigious Honda Broderick Cup, a national award given to the top female student-athlete at the NCAA level.

Holas racked up a career 104-20 record, in addition to compiling a .301 career batting average, en route to setting seven school records. Her .839 winning percentage is still in the Top 15 in NCAA record books. In 1999, Holas was inducted into the Louisiana-Lafayette Athletics Hall of Fame.

In eight seasons at Houston, Holas has produced 10 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-South Region awards, including three-time selection Kristen Glowacz to go along with 67 Conference USA honors, including her second-consecutive Coach of the Year award. Glowacz was also named to the C-USA All-Decade team in 2005. In 2008, Jessica Valis, Wagner and Shamblin were the first in program history to be named NFCA All-Americans.

Holas came to the Cougar program from the University of Florida, where she was responsible for developing the pitchers and catchers for three seasons. She guided the Gators through its inaugural season and through a tough Southeastern Conference schedule.

While at Florida, Holas was instrumental in the development of Chelsey Sakizzie, who was named the 1998 SEC Player of the Year in addition to Louisville Slugger All-America Third-Team honors. She coached five other players to SEC accolades.

Before going to Florida, Holas spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Illinois. While working in DeKalb, Ill., Holas tutored the Husky pitchers and coordinated the academics for the team. She coached the 1996 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year, pitcher Angie Zuspann, as the Huskies reached the NCAA Regionals for only the second time since 1988.

A native of Pasadena, Texas, Holas now lives in Pearland, Texas, with her husband, John, and their sons, Payton (11) and Jase (2) and daughter Brenan (7).

---

  Kim Nesloney - Assistant Coach

Kim Nesloney begins her third season as the number-one assistant to UH head coach Kyla Holas. In that role, she is the recruiting and equipment coordinator. She also assists with hitting and is primarily the outfield coach.

In 2006-07, Nesloney was a volunteer assistant after patrolling center field for four seasons in the Cougar outfield (2002-05).

Last season, under the guidance of Nesloney, two outfielders, Laurie Wagner and Katie Bush were named to the All-Conference USA First Team and All-Conference USA Second Team, respectively.

In addition to All-C-USA First Team, Wagner was also named to the 2008 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American list. She was also named on the C-USA All-Tournament team. Nesloney also guided Wagner to All-South Region First Team honors.

Wagner also broke the University of Houston single-season home run record, hitting 19 home runs, erasing the pervious record of 17 held by Kristen Glowacz in 2005.

Nesloney helps coach the outfielders and hitting along side Holas, helping lead Wagner to two C-USA Hitter of the Week awards last season (March 31, May 5). For her first honor, Wagner went 5-for-7 with seven RBI's, and three home runs, two of which came during the Memphis game. She also hit two doubles that week. For Wagner's second Hitter of the Week award, she hit 8-for-14, with one double, one triple and 4 RBI's.

As a student-athlete, Nesloney was showered with numerous awards and accolades during her Houston career, including 2005 All Conference USA First-Team honors in addition to the University of Houston Softball MVP. Nesloney was also a standout in the classroom as a four-time member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.

Nesloney's presence can be felt all over the Cougar records book. She ranks fourth in career-leaders in on-base percentage (.410), walks (113), and triples (11). The Beaumont native is also in the Top Five in seven other categories, including career hits (178), RBIs (67), runs scored (143), stolen bases (38) and fielding percentage (.979).

Nesloney was a member of the Rockford Thunder softball team in the National Pro Fastpitch League in 2005 and 2006 and was a NPFL All-Star outfielder in her first season. She graduated from Houston in December 2005 with a degree in finance.

  Abbie Sims - Assistant Coach

Abbie Sims enters her third season as an assistant coach for head coach Kyla Holas, taking charge of the pitching and catching for the University of Houston and overseeing the recruiting database management. She also serves as the camp director for the Cougar Softball Camp.

Last season, under Sims, Angel Shamblin broke single-season records including the lowest ERA (0.94), most strikeouts in a game (16), and most wins in a season (36).

Sims also helped guide Shamblin to C-USA All-Tournament team honors at the 2008 C-USA Championship, and she was named the 2008 C-USA Pitcher of the Year.

With Shamblin's 36 wins and lowest ERA in a single-season, she was also named to the All-C-USA First Team, as well as NFCA All-South Region First Team. As a senior, Shamblin finished out the season with the second highest in C-USA career victories with 94 total wins. She also was second in C-USA career strikeouts with 877. Under Sims, Shamblin was honored with six C-USA Pitcher of the Week awards (Feb. 18, March 10, March 17, March 31, April 14, May 5). Shamblin also pitched a perfect game against Memphis on March 29.

With Sims guidance, Barbie Love finished with the lowest opposing batting average in C-USA with .162.

As a student-athlete, Sims became the first-ever NC State softball player to be named ACC Player of the Year in 2007. She had an impressive senior campaign as she tossed four no-hitters, including a perfect game. She owned the second-best pitching record (27-7) in the conference as well as one of the top marks in the nation.

In addition, Sims is one of five pitchers in ACC history to have collected 1,000 or more career strikeouts (1,091). A native of Artesia, N.M., she also saw action as an outfielder for the Wolfpack, compiling a .292 batting average with 45 hits, 25 runs scored, 11 home runs and 27 RBIs her senior year.

One of two ACC student-athletes to receive National Player of the Week recognition in 2007, Sims was tabbed by USA Softball (March 20) and Louisville Slugger/NFCA (April 22). She was also the only student-athlete named ACC Player of the Week four times in a season. In 2007, Sims made her third appearance as an All-ACC First-Team member, garnishing accolades in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Sims finished her career at NC State as the active leader in career victories among all league hurlers and fourth all-time in wins by ACC pitchers with 90. With 1,091 strikeouts, Sims placed fourth all-time among ACC pitchers. Additionally, Sims' 102 complete games ranks fifth all-time and was tops among active pitchers in 2007.

Her pitching prowess was never more obvious than when she tossed a no-hitter over No. 6 Oklahoma at the Judi Garman Classic on March 16 in Fullerton, Calif. The Sooners entered the game as the nation's top offensive unit overall, leading the country in scoring and batting average, and ranked near the top of nearly every hitting statistic. None of that mattered to Sims, however, who allowed just four base runners while striking out 10 batters.

As Sims departed the Wolfpack she owned many of the program's all-time pitching records, including lowest career ERA (1.69), lowest opponent batting average (.179), wins (90), saves (5), appearances (146), starts (121), complete games (102), games finished (25), shutouts (36), innings pitched (836.2), strikeouts (1,091) and batters faced (3,491).

Since graduating with a bachelor's degree in business management, Sims played one season with the Rockford Thunder of the National Pro Fastpitch league in Rockford, Ill.