Hall of Fame
One of the winningest softball coaches in West Virginia Conference history, Herb Minch led his Lady Hilltoppers to nearly 400 victories during his first 17 years at the helm while serving double duty as the school's Head Athletic Trainer for all intercollegiate sports for more than two decades.
Minch helped establish the West Liberty softball program as perennial WVIAC championship contenders with 16 consecutive WVIAC Tournament bids and three 30-win seasons during his first stint in the WLU dugout, highlighted by a school-record 42-16 mark in the 2004 season. Included in that impressive stretch was a 1999 WVIAC Tournament championship. That title run touched off a remarkable stretch that saw his Hilltoppers battle their way to the WVIAC Tournament championship game six times during an eight-year span (1999-2006).
Minch coached 25 first-team All-WVIAC honorees and 21 WVIAC All-Tournament selections before stepping down to focus on his duties with West Liberty's expanding Athletic Training education program. At the time of his induction, Minch was serving on the West Liberty faculty as an Instructor and Clinical Education Coordinator for WLU's Athletic Training Program.
Minch returned to the softball diamond in 2017 and picked up right where he had left off. The Black and Gold reeled off back-to-back MEC championships and NCAA Division II Tournament berths in 2019 and 2021, pushing his career victory total past the 500-win milestone.
