Kendra Cullum Joins TU Softball Staff

TULSA, Okla. – The University of Tulsa softball head coach John Bargfeldt announced today the hiring of Kendra Cullum as assistant coach.

A former Houston softball standout, Cullum comes to Tulsa after a year as assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin. She also coached at Southeastern Louisiana following her playing career. Cullum replaces Kirin Kumar, who took a similar position at North Carolina State.

"We're excited to welcome Kendra to Tulsa," Bargfeldt said. "She is a young, exciting coach that had some pretty influential coaches and schools that highly recommended her. She is somebody that fulfilled all of our expectations of what we were looking to bring to our program. She has grown up in a coach's family, so it's almost as though she has been groomed that this is probably going to be her calling in life. She coached even while she was a player in college, coaching in travel organizations, so she has that experience of looking at the game the way coaches do."

At Stephen F. Austin, Cullum served as infield and hitting coach. SFA finished third in the Southland Conference in 2016, its highest finish in seven years, and set four new school offensive records. She coached three players who earned all-conference honors, and six players who earned conference Hitter of the Week awards.

In 2015 at Southeastern Louisiana, she helped the team move from 10^th to fourth place in the league standings, primarily serving as outfield coach and recruiting coordinator. The Lions posted their best Southland Conference record in program history, and broke single season school records for hits, runs, triples, batting average and walks.

Cullum completed her playing career at Houston with the second-highest on-base percentage in school history (.444), and set the NCAA single season record for hit by pitch (38) in 2013. She also set the school record for runs (52) and led the nation in sacrifice bunts (0.36 per game) in 2013. She was a two-time NFCA Scholar Athlete, member of the American Athletic Conference Academic Team, and was a two-time selection on the Conference USA Softball Academic Team.

In three years at Houston, Cullum appeared in 169 games, making 166 starts, while compiling a career .244 batting average. She started at shortstop as a sophomore and junior, before moving to left field as a senior. She began her college career at Kansas, where she played in 43 games with 30 starts as a freshman, before transferring to Houston.

A native of Conroe, Texas, Cullum graduated from Houston in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in sports administration and a minor in health.

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Kendra Cullum Joins TU Softball Staff

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