Randie Torgalski

Randie Torgalski enters his sixth season as the head coach of the Elmira College softball program in the 2024-25 academic year. Torgalski also serves as an Assistant Athletics Director for the Soaring Eagles after spending 13 seasons as the head coach of the men's basketball program.

Softball
Torgalski entered his fifth year (4th season) at the helm of the Elmira College softball program in the Spring of 2024. During the season, the Soaring Eagles finished 15-19 (5-9 E8), which included four games to begin the season against nationally-ranked Christopher Newport and Pfeiffer University. Finishing just one win shy of the postseason for the second consecutive season, Torgalski helped a trio earn Empire 8 All-Conference accolades, as Jocelyn Jean '27, Brianna Ramstine '25, and Katie Distefano '25 each earned Third Team honors from the conference.

During the 2023 season, Torgalski helped lead EC to one of its best seasons in recent history, after leading the Purple & Gold to its first Empire 8 Playoff appearance since the 2013 season with the exception of the COVID-19 shortened season in 2021. It was a record-breaking season for the Soaring Eagles, earning its highest number of all-conference nods (6) in recent program history as MaryAnn Sobel, Amelia Martin, Madison Brown-Bloom, Kaitlyn Belmont, and Jillian Cortez all earned honors. The Soaring Eagles would defeat Nazareth in come-from-behind fashion in the Empire 8 First Round, scoring five runs in the top of the seventh to defeat the Golden Flyers 7-5 on the road. Additionally, Torgaliski had three earn College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors in Martin, Belmont, and Brown-Bloom.

In the 2022 season, he led the Purple & Gold to a 16-15 overall record, which was the first winning season for the Soaring Eagles since 2014. Torgalski guided junior outfielder Amelia Martin ‘23 to an Empire 8 Second Team all-conference selection for her performance during the 2022 campaign. Martin carried a team-best .377 batting average and .614 slugging percentage, which place her 9th and 5th all-time for a single season in program history, respectively.

A former standout baseball player in his own right, he boasts several years of experience coaching local softball programs around the Southern Tier. In addition to managing the Fast pitch Fury 16U team, Torgalski is Vice President of the Fast pitch Fury program in Horseheads, New York, which fields teams at all levels ranging from 10U-16U for girls in the Greater Elmira and Northern Pennsylvania communities.

During his prep days, Torgalski was a four-year member of the varsity baseball team at Nichols School in Buffalo, New York. As a senior, he collected all-conference accolades. He went on to serve as an assistant baseball coach at Hamilton College during the Continentals' 2001 season.

Experience on the diamond runs deep in the Torgalski family. His brother, Ron, spent 11 seasons as head coach of the University at Buffalo baseball program, while his brother, Rick, was a former baseball team captain and four-year letter-winner at Duke University. Torgalski's father, Robert, enjoyed a 50-year career as a coach and administrator at the high school level.

Basketball
During his 13 seasons at the helm of the Soaring Eagles, Torgalski coached nine Empire 8 All-Conference selections, four 1,000-point scorers, three of the college's top-four all-time leaders in 3-point baskets, and a single-season record breaker for assists.

Torgalski's 2015-16 team was lethal from beyond the arc, and would go on to set a new program single-season record for 3-point field goals made with 230. The Soaring Eagles would rewrite that record by making 242 3-point field goals in 2017-18, a year in which EC led the Empire 8 with a 82.1 points-per-game average. The 2017-18 season also featured a remarkable run by junior point guard Justin Porrett '19, who set a new program record for assists (212) and led all of NCAA I, II, and III with 8.8 assists per game.

Perhaps the most memorable 3-pointer in all of EC history came in 2015-16 off the hands of Justin Henderson '16. In an exciting 62-59 come-from-behind victory over Endicott, Henderson scored the game-winner on a three-quarter court buzzer-beater. The play earned recognition from just about every major media outlet, including ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10, NBC, CNN, Fox, and was dubbed by CNN personality Coy Wire, a former NFL player, as "one of the best comebacks in college basketball history." Henderson's Hail Mary shot was also crowned the 2016 GEICO Play of the Year.

Prior to his arrival at Elmira, Torgalski served as the assistant men’s basketball coach at New York University from 2004-2008. In that time he helped guide the team to an overall record of 72-34 while also making three appearances in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Metro Division III Tournament. In just four seasons with NYU, Torgalski coached four 1,000-point scorers, 12 University Athletic Association (UAA) All-Conference players, one UAA Player of the Year, and one D3Hoops.com East Region Player of the Year.

Before his stint at NYU, Torgalski was the assistant men’s basketball coach at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, from 1999-2004. While there, Torgalski served on a coaching staff that was named Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association Coaching Staff of the Year three times. Throughout his five seasons with the Continentals, Torgalski helped coach three UCAA Conference Championship teams. He also guided the program to three NCAA Tournament appearances, and played a major part in helping five players achieve the 1,000-point career mark, as well as coaching a combined 13 All-Conference recipients, and two conference Players of the Year.

Among his many responsibilities with both programs, Torgalski was involved with the planning and implementing of game strategies, individual player development, practice plans, scouting, and recruiting.

As an undergraduate, Torgalski was a four-year member of the men’s basketball program at the University of Rochester, where in his final season he was named team captain and garnered All-League honors. Torgalski left Rochester in 1999 ranked second in Yellow Jackets history with 519 assists and currently ranks third all-time. He also played on two NCAA Tournament teams and one ECAC Tournament team in his career.

Following his graduation from Rochester in 1999, where he received a bachelor’s of art in Psychology, Torgalski continued his education at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where he earned a master’s degree in Sports Leadership and Management.