Over the summer, Eastern softball’s head coach Tara Archibald left for Texas Tech to coach with her father.  

Eastern found its new head coach fast as a new one was hired in only 13 days. However, there was not just one but instead two hired.  

Kristi and Dan Paulson were hired on July 11, 2024. They previously coached as co-head coaches at Parkland College.   

There are not too many co-head coaches at the collegiate level, but Kristi and Dan Paulson said it’s easier than one might think.  

“I mean, we just like to have fun with it,” Kristi Paulson said. “We’re both super competitive, but also I think we balance each other out as well.”  

The Paulsons have not always been softball coaches. When they first met, Kristi Paulson was working at a golf course, and Dan was running a golf outing at that same course in Mattoon.   

Dan Paulson said after his grandpa died, he started a golf outing giving away scholarships to student athletes from Mattoon High School.    

Dan and Kristi Paulson said the day they met was in June of 2008, and they first met at the golf outing.  

They did not start dating until around three months after seeing each other for the first time. However, Dan Paulson says that his grandpa put Kristi Paulson there for a reason.  

“That he wanted us to be together, obviously,” Dan Paulson said. “That’s why he put her there that day.”   

At the time, Kristi Paulson was at Eastern after she played softball at Lakeland College. After six months of dating, Kristi said they decided to be more serious and fully fell in love.   

For Dan Paulson, what made him fall in love was softball.  

“I played men’s softball at the time,” Dan Paulson said. “I didn’t know a whole lot about softball, this type of softball, fast pitch softball. But [I fell in love] when we started hanging out more, she was already coaching softball and asked me to coach with her, so watching her coach and getting to do that with her probably really helped pull me towards her more.”  

After only a year, they got engaged, then a year later they got married. They also currently have four kids ages 10, 8, 6 and 18 months.   

At times, coaching can be difficult as Dan and Kristi Paulson are away from their kids for long periods of times, but they both said that they make it work as best as they can.   

“It can be tough to balance sometimes,” Kristi Paulson said. “You’re always giving up something, and our kids understand. They know that this is mom and dad’s job, but they also get to be a part of it as often as possible, and they really enjoy being around our players and getting to experience some of those experiences with our team as well.”   

Kristi Paulson said she started coaching during her time at Eastern as she coached her sister’s travel team in Mattoon.   

She then coached at a lot of different places before starting her own travel softball club with Dan Paulson.   

“I coached junior high ball, high school ball, travel ball. And we started our own travel organization together a couple years later,” Kristi Paulson said. “And so, we’ve had that, which we don’t run it anymore, but we’ve had that going for 14, 15 years now.”   

Usually, people like to have a good work-life balance, but for Kristi and Dan Paulson that is not an issue as their lives revolve around softball.   

“We balance a lot of things off each other at home and get to talk about softball nonstop,” Kristi Paulson said. “And so really, it’s just around the clock we’re always thinking, how can we do things better.”   

After coaching at the travel level, the Paulsons were presented with the opportunity to coach at Parkland. Dan Paulson said that at the time, Kristi Paulson was pregnant, so the choice was difficult, but they knew that they had to say yes.   

“Well, yeah, the opportunity presented itself, and we had to think about it a little bit,” Dan said. “She was pregnant at the time, and we were doing our travel program, and I also have some business outside of softball, too, so it was another thing to add to our plate. We also didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to coach at the college level.”  

The choice paid off as Parkland turned into a very successful program. Kristi and Dan Paulson were able to make three National Junior College Athletic Association Division II world series appearances.  

They were able to coach three 50-win teams in their five-year career at Parkland.  

Now at Eastern, Dan and Kristi Paulson hope to do the same.  

“Well, our team goal is to win the conference tournament and play in the regional,” Kristi Paulson said. “We have some other, I guess, sub-goals. We want to win 40 games, but we also want to get back to just the same focus we have is achieving ultimate success.”  

Kristi and Dan Paulson come to Eastern with a lot of talent on the softball team. One is the 2024 OVC freshman of the year, sophomore pitcher McKenzie Oslanzi. Oslanzi said her first impression of Dan and Kristi Paulson was all positive.  

“Yeah, they’re very nice people,” Oslanzi said. “They’re really considerate of us, they make sure we work hard, but at the same time we’re still having fun, but yeah, they’re really nice people and easy to work with, too.”  

Dan and Kristi Paulson were also able to bring in sophomore infielder Alisha Frederick from Parkland with them. Frederick said that the main deciding factor to come to Eastern was the two of them.  

Dan and Kristi Paulson both said that coaching as a married couple can be difficult for people, but for them, it’s a dream come true.  

“I hope that our work relationship is a good role model for our players and obviously for our kids as well but just being able to spend that much time with somebody but actually really enjoy doing what we do together I think is hard to find,” Kristi Paulson said. “It’s not easy to work with your spouse, but like he said, I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.” 

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.