Patience will be a virtue for Dr. Charlie Beach as he begins his 24th season as head coach of the Keene State softball program.

Ranked among the top Division III coaches in victories (530-336-5, .611 pct.), Beach hopes to continue his Owls winning way while incorporating 10 new players, including nine freshmen, into the program.

Winning is nothing new for the long-time Keene State coach. Beach has led the Owls to nine Division III post-season appearances, capturing four LEC titles (1999, 2000, 2003, and 2005) and earning five NCAA berths (1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2007). Last season, the Owls advanced to the championship round of the Little East and ECAC tournaments.

A new season has brought new challenges for Coach Beach. Fortunately, he never met a challenge he didn't like. The Rochester, N.H., native took over the KSC softball program in 1986 and, starting almost from scratch, made the Owls contenders in the competitive New England Collegiate Conference and a legitimate regional power. The Owls have had 16 seasons with more than 20 wins in the last 16 years. They captured ECAC championships in 1990 and 1993, and they won their first NECC championship and made their first NCAA regional tournament appearance in 1994.

Since guiding Keene State through the transition into Division III and the Little East Conference in 1998, Beach has kept the Owls on the rise. After leading KSC to a pair of ECAC tournament berths, Beach directed the team to back-to-back LEC titles and NCAA berths in 1999 and 2000 that included a 33-win season in 2000. The Owls made a return trip to the NCAAs in 2003, when they captured the championship as a fifth seed, and again in 2005, when they posted a program-record 34 victories and advanced to the finals of the New England region.

Beach, who is closing in on his 550th career victory this season, has produced 34 All-LEC players, including current assistant Meghan McLoughlin, two-time Pitcher of the Year ('04 and '05), and Jenna Patnode, the 2006 Rookie of the Year. He credits the many fine Owls who have played on his team for his coaching achievements at Keene State.

"I'm very happy to have reached that milestone - but I had nothing do with it. It's because of the players that I've had for years," said Beach. "I just wanted to get it out of the way, because everyone was making more of it than needed. If you stay in this business long enough, you have those bumps in the road: 400, 500, and - eventually - 1,000 wins."

A member of the Keene State physical education faculty, Beach served as the head coach of the KSC ski program, leading the men's and women's teams to NCAA Eastern Division II titles in 1982 and 1984, respectively. He led the Keene city summer softball league team to the Women's Major Modified championship in 1989 and led his "Beach Bunch" to the national tournament in 1996. He is a former physical conditioning consultant for the Chicago White Sox and has coached a variety of sports, including football, baseball, and track and field. Beach, a former standout track and football athlete at Spaulding High School, was inducted into the Rochester (N.H.) Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1967 and earned a Ph.D. in physical education from Michigan State University in 1978.

Working alongside husband Charlie on the Owls' bench, KSC grad Deb Beach begins her 24th season as an assistant coach and handles many aspects of the program, including recruiting and game-day responsibilities. Deb has also joined Charlie in coordinating many of the successful summer teams and camps he has run over the years in the Keene area. Originally from Swanzey, N.H., Deb has been the head softball and field hockey coach at Lebanon High School for the last 22 years. She stepped down as Lebanon High softball coach in 2007, after leading the Raiders to the State Class I softball title in 1995 and the finals in 1996. Beach is a member of the Monadnock Regional High School Hall of Fame.

One of the Owls' all-time top pitchers, Meghan McLoughlin, returns for her fourth season as an assistant coach with the Keene State softball team.

The ace of the Owls pitching staff in her final three seasons (2003-05), McLoughlin was a two-time LEC Pitcher of the Year (2004, 2005), leading KSC to two LEC titles, including 2005, when she was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after throwing three complete game shutouts, recording 28 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched.

McLoughlin, who earned her degree in elementary/special education in 2006 and is currently working on her master's degree at KSC, completed her Owl career by posting a 15-4 mark with a school-record 0.21 ERA. The Brattleboro, Vt., native also holds the KSC career ERA mark (0.39) and is third all-time in wins (39) and strikeouts (422).