Kasey Griffith was named the seventh head coach of Missouri State softball on June 5, 2024.
Griffith joined the Missouri State softball staff in July 2022 and was promoted to associate head coach in July 2023. She serves as the third base coach while working closely with the Bears’ hitters and infielders. She also serves as the team’s recruiting coordinator, oversees the student-athletes’ academic progress and is responsible for all equipment and uniform needs among other duties.
Griffith arrived in Springfield after spending the previous 10 years at Drake University. She started out as a volunteer assistant for the Bulldogs in 2013, before being promoted to assistant coach beginning with the 2015 season.
She worked with the Bulldogs’ hitters and infielders, and assisted with team travel and game day logistics, directed fundraising efforts and alumni relations and events, and partnered with support staff to ensure team success and cohesion among other duties.
Prior to her coaching career, the former Kasey Schlafke, played softball at SIUE. She spent three years playing shortstop before moving to third base in her final season. When she graduated, she ranked fifth all-time in career home runs at SIUE with 18, and she started 182 games in four seasons for the Cougars (2008-11).
An excellent student, Griffith was named to the Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll twice and to the Great Lakes Valley Conference All-Academic team once. She graduated from SIUE with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science in 2011.
Griffith was a multi-sport athlete in basketball, softball, track and field and volleyball at Dallas Center Grimes High School (Iowa), where she earned all-conference, all-district and all-state honors in softball. Her head coach for softball was her dad, Steve Schlafke, a longtime and highly-successful high school head coach who has won more than 1,300 games and three state titles leading DCG.
Griffith and her husband, Calvin, have two sons, Beckett and Maddox, and one daughter, Nolan.
