UNLV SOFTBALL ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Melissa Inouye (2000-02), Fordham Softball Head Coach

Former Rebel Melissa Inouye had an atypical path on her journey with UNLV softball. Instead of the traditional route of signing to play here out of high school, Inouye attended a tryout for the team when she was already a student at UNLV and impressed the coaches enough to earn a spot on the roster. From there in what Inouye calls her "blue collar" path, the Hawai'i native went from redshirting her first year to a two-year starting scholarship player, spending time at both first base and catcher, and team captain by her senior campaign. By career's end, she was a three-time Academic All-Mountain West selection, a seven-time Dean's List honoree, and earned the Coaches' Award during her senior season. 

Inouye graduated with her bachelor's degree in recreation and leisure studies and fitness management, but her UNLV story didn't end there. When her playing career was over, she stayed on as a volunteer assistant to begin her path to coaching. She landed her first assistant coaching job at Northwestern State in Louisiana, followed by a stop as an assistant coach at Kentucky, where she earned her master's degree in sports leadership. From there, she went on to spend four seasons as an assistant at Southern Mississippi. After a one-year stint as an assistant at Fordham in 2012, Inouye nabbed her first head coaching job at Iona, where she led the softball program for six years. While in charge of the Gaels, Inouye was named MAAC Coach of the Year on two occasions and led Iona to a pair of conference championships and a trip to a NCAA regional in 2014.

She returned to Fordham in 2019, this time as the head coach, and in her first season led the Rams to the A-10 title and a NCAA regional appearance en route to earning the league's Coach of the Year honor. 

While Inouye says that she always wanted to be a coach, it was her student-athlete experience at UNLV that she credits for propelling her to where she is now and the success she's been able to have on her coaching journey. 

Recently, UNLVRebels.com sat down with the Fordham head coach to talk about why she chose to attend UNLV, what makes this place special, how it shaped her coaching path and some of her favorite Rebel memories.

Why did you choose to come to UNLV?
I'm originally from Hawaii and Las Vegas is considered the Ninth Island. I don't know if there are any kids on the roster right now from Hawaii, but traditionally, there are always 1-2 most years. I think the last one might have been Jade Yadao-Valdez and we actually come from the same high school. But it's a direct flight from Hawaii, so it was easy to get home. Family loved to visit, I usually had a cousin or two there, and there was always something to do. It has a little bit of everything.

When you look back on your experience at UNLV how would you sum it up?
I think my student-athlete experience is why I'm still in coaching now and still in college athletics - I really enjoyed it back then. UNLV has grown so much from when I graduated in 2002, and then from my volunteer year in 2003. Our senior class was the first to play in Eller Media Stadium, so that was a pretty cool deal. Overall I had a great student-athlete experience and I just really enjoyed it. And that's what I really strive to do as a coach is to make sure that my student-athletes enjoy their college experience, because those were the best four or five years of my life and I'm still very good friends with a lot of teammates till this day. I had a tremendous experience and it's why I wanted to continue to stay in college athletics.

Did you always want to be a coach? Was there someone who inspired you?
I would say my father inspired me the most. I grew up being like a nine or 10 year old learning how to score a game. So I think I always had that in me and growing up as a catcher you like to be in a leadership kind of role, and that's what coaching is. So I very much think I always knew I wanted to be a coach. And I was very fortunate to be able to kind of dabble with it there my last year as a volunteer assistant and have never looked back now.

Was there anything you learned or skills you gained during your time here that has helped you be successful in getting to where you are today?
Definitely. Time management and the ability to be flexible, teamwork, communication. All the standard stuff that student-athletes deal with now, but for sure, I would say the top three is communication, flexibility, and then work ethic - I think those are huge.

What made UNLV so special for you?
When I was a student-athlete there, there were a lot of coaches, faculty, athletic department members that were there for quite a while, and I think they all had previous athletic experience. So that was really relatable as a student-athlete. Everyone in academic advising and the professors, they just made a big school seem relatable and we had a lot of one-on-one support. You felt that from the athletic department. I even interned with Tausha (Smith) in equipment back then. We brought our team out there in 2019 but didn't get to play at the stadium because it got rained out, but it was great to see Tausha and some other familiar faces. But it really was a close knit community when I was there.

Coach Fox has really elevated the program since she took over in 2018, as an alum does that make you excited to see the level they've been playing at the last few years?
Yeah even through the bumps and bruises over the years, there has always been a strong mid-major program and I think the facilities are still one of the better ones in the Mountain West. Kristie has done a great job, she's got West Coast ties and she's played at the highest levels you can be in college softball and internationally with the Olympics. She's got close connections which always helps in recruiting and she can really speak to the championship quality and championship level. She's done a great job, she was a great player herself and she's bringing that mentality back to UNLV softball, which is great. Funny side note, I actually remember recruiting Emily (Vincent, assistant coach) when I was an assistant at Southern Miss, so it's crazy to see her on staff at UNLV now. Softball is a small world. It's been fun to follow the team from afar and see them competing at the top of a very strong Mountain West Conference.

Favorite memory/memories from your time here?
I think just all the bus trips, the time with your teammates, even having to get up at 6am. But I think probably my all-time favorite memory was catching Lori Harrigan when she was training for the Olympics. I was the senior student-athlete and Coach McDonald at the time asked me if I wanted to be a catcher for her. At 21 years old, I didn't really know the notoriety behind that. And then catching her first pitch [in the new Eller Media Stadium]. I think Lori was in like a nice blouse, tank top and dress pants throwing out the first pitch to our stadium and thankfully, I'd caught her before, so I didn't mess it up. I just hope people really know the history of the program because there is an All-American in just about every position and three different countries represented in the Olympics. But, time with teammates, catching Lori for the Olympics and the opening of the stadium are definitely at the top.

The current Rebels are off this weekend before hosting their final home non-conference tournament, the Boyd Gaming Classic, March 5-7, at Eller Media Stadium.