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Ryan Day takes batting practice with Ohio State softball team after winning national championship

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz02/01/25NickSchultz_7
Ryan Day Ohio State head coach
© Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After leading Ohio State to a national championship, Ryan Day made quite the TV tour, with appearances on The Tonight Show and The Kelly Clarkson Show, among others. But he had another stop to make – softball practice.

Day traded his black hat and whistle for a helmet and a bat this week. He showed up at practice with the Ohio State softball team. He held his own, too, as he grounded out to the pitcher.

But as two slo-mo videos showed, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Day swung and missed a couple times before eventually making contact and running to first base.

It was quite the year for Day and the Buckeyes. They entered the season with high expectations, but loses to Oregon and in the rivalry game against Michigan sent them to the first round of the College Football Playoff.

From there, Ohio State went to work. The Buckeyes dominated the first three games en route to the championship against Notre Dame. Despite a second-half scare, Ohio State was able to secure its first national title under Day’s watch as he joined Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel and the great Woody Hayes as coaches to bring a championship home to Columbus.

But Day doesn’t want to focus on just what happened on the field this year. Instead, he looks at how the Buckeyes got better away from the gridiron to find happiness.

“If you define your happiness by the results, then you can find yourself focusing on those things,” Ryan Day said. “I don’t. I’m just as proud of this team no matter what happened. But now the best thing is, again, you get to hear about these guys for the history of college football, and these guys get to go back to the Woody and put their arm around their wife and their kids and say, look what dad did.

“To me, that’s all that matters because that’s why you get into coaching. It isn’t to hoist trophies or make big contracts or anything like that. The reason you get into coaching is to help young men reach their dreams and goals, period. At least that’s what I and our staff are in this thing for.”