When Sue Enquist was tapped by UCLA School of Education and Information Studies (Ed&IS) leaders to be an instructor for the then-newly formed Transformative Coaching and Leadership (TCL) program, the legendary Bruin softball coach says she felt like she’d been “drafted to the big leagues.”
Over 27 years as head coach at UCLA, she guided the Bruins to 11 NCAA titles, nearly 900 victories, and helped produce 65 All-Americans and 15 Olympians.
But teaching a course — in a classroom — at the nation’s top-ranked public university? Enquist said she felt butterflies in her stomach.
“I had such an admiration for the standard that was so high in the graduate school,” Enquist says. “I was so excited.”
A self-described “firehose,” Enquist’s students in her Effective Principles of Coaching and Leadership course quickly get used to leaving class with notebook pages filled. Weekly case studies dive into timely topics, including those breaking in the news that very day. Students are challenged to address modern issues in athletics — everything from scandals to NIL policies, mental health protocols in sports, and more.
“We look at what’s happening in the world right now because everything impacts us,” Enquist says. “Be it on an individual level, on a team level, or on a community level.”
Enquist, who speaks professionally for corporate clients when she’s not in the classroom, ties every lesson back to “living out your values.” An acolyte of the late, great John Wooden (whom she affectionately refers to as “Papa”), she shares stories from her coaching career — both good and bad — and explains Wooden’s impact on her leadership philosophy.
Alongside her co-instructor, Dr. Annamarie Francois, the School’s Associate Dean of Public Engagement, Enquist invites heavyweight guest speakers to class each quarter. Four-time AP Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year Dawn Staley and League One Volleyball CEO Kaitlyn Gao are two recent guests.
“They’re so vulnerable and so honest,” Enquist says. “And those are special moments for us — when we can have people like that come into class and give a front-row level of access to students.
“And they share principles of leadership that students can learn and use right away.”
No stranger to transformative principles, Enquist actually co-founded UCLA Athletics’ Wooden Academy years ago, alongside now-LMU Senior Associate Athletic Director Ashley Armstrong. The Academy is a comprehensive leadership development program designed to educate and support the standards of leadership for Bruin student-athletes.
“Your values are what make or break it for you,” Enquist explains. “They’re embedded in your personal life and your professional life, and they influence and impact the teams, groups, departments, and communities around you.
“So we’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sure that students are leaving UCLA with a true framework for success in that next chapter we call a career.”
Approaching her sixth year as a Senior Fellow in the TCL program, Enquist adds that her 2–5 p.m. teaching window on Tuesdays is the most fun part of her week.
“The course… it’ll change you,” she says. “It will change the lens from which you look at the world, and it’ll change you in the sense of realizing all the skills you already have in your toolkit — and help you make connections between those skills and how to apply them.”
UCLA Softball’s first All-American, national champion, and Hall of Famer, Enquist concluded her storied 27-year career as head coach of the Bruins with an 887-175-1 (.835) record, making her the winningest softball coach among all active coaches at the time. She is the only person in NCAA softball history to win a championship as both a head coach and a player. She has been inducted into six Halls of Fame, including those of UCLA, the Women’s Sports Foundation, USA Softball, and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. Enquist is also the recipient of multiple National Coach of the Year and Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors. Some of her corporate speaking clients have included Toyota, the NCAA, the Los Angeles Dodgers, ESPN, Stryker Medical, and numerous collegiate athletic teams. She served as a culture consultant for USA Volleyball during its gold (2020) and silver (2024) medal campaigns and is the founder and CEO of ONE Softball — an online resource for softball parents, players, and coaches. Raised in San Clemente, Enquist is also a former professional surfer.
Learn more about UCLA’s Transformative Coaching and Leadership Master of Education program.
Support TCL’s mission to contribute to the creation of a more just, equitable and humane society through enlightened and socially conscious coaching and leadership.