The Missouri Valley Conference Softball tournament opens Thursday at EastSide Centre in East Peoria.
Illinois State coach Melinda Fischer recently reached a career milestone on the way to the post–season.

After 26 years in coaching, 24 of them at I–S–U, Melinda Fischer's still swinging for the fences. The Lady Redbirds coach earned her 800th career win last month. She's only the 24th college softball coach to reach that plateau.

"You know, I don’t really think about that," Fischer said. " I think the personal satisfaction that you get from coaching is what you see after players have gone through your program and you see what they’ve done in the working world and the professional world, with their families, and see the steps and strides that they’ve made, growing as individuals."

Its not an exaggeration to say Melinda Fischer's seen it all at Illinois State. When she was a player back in the late 60s, she was part of a study done by former ISU Women's basketball coach Jill Hutchison. The prevailing thought back then was that women's bodies couldn't handle the rigors of full–court basketball. Hutchison's study proved that theory wrong, and opened up the post–Title IX world that women athletes enjoy today.

"Just to know what everyone before us had gone through to get us into a position where we are today you’re so grateful," Fischer said.
"You understand now more than ever what they were able to do and what impact they had and that’s something we like to carry on to our players and have our players understand as well."

Fischer's career was more than just a case study. She helped the Lady Redbirds to their first NCAA College World Series back in 1969...and the facilities were a far cry from what college players enjoy today.

"We played in Nebraska and ended up because of the rain that came, had to play on a field that had sawdust on it. They had to put sawdust on it to be able to play.
You know, it was just a great experience then. It’s an even greater experience as you see the game progressing and growing, the tournament really getting to the elite level that it is right now."

The memories of her days as a player still very strong for Melinda Fischer...who's still very motivated after more than forty years in the game.

"You have to have a passion for what you’re doing. There are days where you think, boy, I’d rather be doing something else, but when it all comes down to it, I just think that it’s like that personal satisfaction again, that you see in the growing of the players that you’ve had in your program. Just seeing them be successful and really going after something."