For nearly three decades, Paula U’Ren’s name was synonymous with softball at St. Cloud State University and in Central Minnesota, and a generation of women found success both on and off the field thanks to her leadership.

U’Ren, who came to SCSU as a graduate assistant softball coach in 1995 and retired from coaching at the end of the 2021 season, is the winningest coach in St. Cloud State softball history with 768 wins in 26 seasons. She guided the Huskies to seven NCAA tournament appearances, including a third-place finish in 2004 and an at-large bid to the NCAA Regional in 2019.

Under U’Ren’s guidance, the Huskies won North Central Conference titles in 1998, 2003, and 2004, and appeared in 16 conference tournaments. She coached seven All-Americans, 22 All-Region honorees and five SCSU Female Athlete of the Year honorees. Off the field, six of U’Ren’s athletes earned Academic All-American accolades, and more than 100 athletes were named to academic all-conference teams in her more than a quarter century of coaching.

While she was busy coaching her athletes and preparing her teams for long seasons and postseason play, U’Ren was also busy training and coaching her graduate assistants. Throughout her career at St. Cloud State, U’Ren never had a full-time assistant coach - just graduate assistants who had to be re-hired and re-trained every two years.

Coaching at SCSU didn’t come without complications. In 2016-17, she appeared in federal court to testify against the school in a Title IX trial following cuts to athletic programs in 2016. Thanks in part to her testimony, in 2019 a judge ruled that the university did indeed violate Title IX when the cuts impacted female athletes more than male athletes, and the school was ordered to take action to make reparations. 

During her time at St. Cloud State, U’Ren - a three-time Division II All-American catcher and the 1995 conference player of the year at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D. - earned her terminal degree and became a professor of Kinesiology at the university. Her dissertation topic, “The Division II Female Student-Athlete: self-identification, identity foreclosure, and career maturity,” strove to help others understand how to best serve female athletes at the university and at Division II schools around the country. U’Ren is currently the chairperson of the Kinesiology Department department, and teaches Sport Management and Clinical Exercise Physiology graduate students and Recreation and Sports Management and Exercise Science undergraduate students.

U’Ren spent her coaching career sharing her passion for softball with her athletes, and teaching them how to play the game the right way. Her athletes continue to carry on her coaching philosophy and passion for the game as U’Ren has a coaching tree of former players currently coaching NCAA Division I and II and amateur-level teams around the country. She made it clear that success off the field was important as stats and playing accolades, and used her voice to ensure that the next generation of female athletes at St. Cloud State will have equal opportunities to compete in the sport that they love as their male counterparts.