Chelsea Qualls joined the program in the summer of 2021 and works primary with the Coyote pitching staff. Prior to USD, she had been serving as the head softball coach and testing specialist at Sprague High School in Salem, Oregon.
Having Qualls on staff has drawn immediate dividends. The staff ERA went from nearly 6.00 in 2021 to 3.88 in 2022 and 3.39 this past season. Team strikeouts nearly doubled and surpassed 200, and opponents' batting average plummeted from .360 to .275.
Two-time all-Summit pitcher Clara Edwards has thrived under Qualls' tutelage. She won 16 games and ranked fifth in the Summit with 120 strikeouts as a freshman. She added 15 more wins in 2023 including her first collegiate no-hitter. It was the program's first no-hitter since 2009.
Qualls played collegiately at Chemeketa Community College in Salem where she earned all-conference honors as a pitcher and her associate’s degree in business. She moved on to George Fox University in nearby Newberg where she set the single-season record for strikeouts in the circle while batting .394 in the box. Those numbers netted her all-conference honors as a utility player.
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Qualls began her coaching career as an assistant at West Salem High School in 2016. Later that year, she joined the staff at Willamette University, a Division III program in Salem. She spent two seasons there before accepted the head coaching gig at Sprague.
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Qualls earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Phoenix. She and her husband, Peter, have three boys, Beckett, Mickey and Maris.
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