Northeastern State University Athletics

Rachel Rhode enters her second season as the head softball coach at Northeastern State University.

Rhode joined the program midway through the offseason, prior to the 2024 season. The RiverHawks would start and finish the campaign strong, with wins in three of their first four contests and a Senior Day sweep of MIAA opponent Nebraska-Kearney. Maddie Messenger highlighted NSU's individual achievers, becoming the program's first true freshman to earn an All-MIAA selection since 2021, when she was named an Honorable Mention recipient.

Rhode came to Tahlequah after spending the previous two seasons and the fall of 2023 at Truman State where she was the program’s assistant coach.  

Prior to her arrival at Truman State, the Stillwater, Minn. native coached in her home state for two seasons at Bemidji State as an assistant coach.  Rhode and Bemidji State were off to a successful start to the 2020 season before the remainder of the campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  At the time of the season shutdown, Bemidji State had players ranked second in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in RBI and runs scored. 

Rhode started her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Union College (Tenn.).   She helped the Bulldogs finish the 2019 season with a 31-20 record overall, just the third time in program history the team eclipsed the 30-win mark. With a focus on pitchers, Rhode helped Union rank fourth in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) in team strikeouts. Union’s pitchers garnered one All-AAC Second Team honor along with one AAC Champions of Character Team and two AAC Player of the Week recognitions during the 2019 season.

As a member of the Bulldogs roster, Rhode led the team with a 2.08 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 2017. She was named the 2017 AAC Pitcher of the Year after being selected to the All-AAC First Team. Rhode earned AAC Pitcher of the Week once and finished the season ranked 30th in the NAIA for total innings pitched with 181.1.

Before joining Union in 2017, Rhode pitched one season at NCAA Division I program University of Tennessee-Martin in 2016 and threw two seasons at NJCAA Division I program Lake Land Junior College from 2014-15.

Rhode earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with minors in sociology and psychology in 2018 from Union.

Coaching History
2024-Present: Northeastern State, head softball coach
2022-23: Truman State, assistant softball coach
2020-21: Bemidji State, assistant softball coach
2018-19: Union College, graduate assistant

Four-Year Head Coaching Year-By-Year
 

Season	Team	Overall	Postseason
2024	Northeastern State	10-35