John Rittman isn’t wasting any time in his new gig.

A day after being announced as Clemson’s first-ever softball coach, Rittman will hit the recruiting trail on Saturday to start the search for the Tigers’ first class of players.

“It all starts tomorrow,” Rittman said during his introductory press conference on Friday. “It’s going to be an exciting time for me to wear the Clemson gear and the Clemson Paw, and I can’t tell you enough how I’m appreciative of this opportunity to lead this program moving forward.”

In March, Clemson Athletics announced plans to sponsor intercollegiate softball as a substitute for the women’s diving program, which competed in its final season in 2017. Clemson is shooting for 2020 to be the inaugural season for the softball program.

After receiving Phase 1 Approval for the construction of a new softball stadium from the Clemson University Board of Trustees last month — which allowed the athletic department to begin the designing process — the next step for Clemson athletics director Dan Radakovich was to hire a coach.

“When we did that this fall, we didn’t know exactly what the market would look like,” Radakovich said. “We thought it was a good job. We’re a Power Five school in a talent-rich area. But you really didn’t know until you went out into the marketplace to understand how important or how attractive this job might be.

“But I can tell you without question this was an incredibly deep candidate pool, more so than just about any coaching search that I’ve done since I’ve been here at Clemson. The interest from Power Five coaches and top assistants was remarkable.”

The list of candidates was long, but throughout the hiring process, one name kept popping up.

“Former coaches, players, administrators, influential softball voices all said if you have a chance to get John Rittman, your search is done,” Radakovich said. “So we began to really focus in on that.”

Clemson got its guy in Rittman, who spent the last three years as Kansas softball’s associate head coach. He joined the Jayhawks after eight seasons as the head coach at Stanford and eight years on the United States National Team coaching staff (2001-08).

Under Rittman, the Cardinal recorded 18-consecutive winning seasons, made 16-straight NCAA appearances, notched 13 40-win seasons and produced at least one All-American in 15 of his last 17 seasons. As head coach, Rittman accumulated a 750-351-3 overall mark, coached a national player of the year, 16 All-Americans, earned five Super Regional appearances, two Women’s College World Series appearances and maintained a spot in every regular-season National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 25 poll for more than a decade.

“As impressive as his resume is, what stands out about Coach Rittman is his vision for the program, his desire to build a culture that fits within the Clemson community, his enthusiasm for teaching the game and developing student-athletes on and off the field,” Radakovich said.

Building Clemson’s program and starting from scratch won’t be a new experience for Rittman.

Prior to being named head coach at Stanford, Rittman spent four seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Washington, focusing on hitting and defense. He helped start the program, and within just four seasons, the Huskies had earned a No. 1 national ranking, won the 1996 Pac-10 Championship, made three NCAA Tournament appearances and notched a runner-up finish in their first trip to the Women’s College World Series.

Rittman knows there’s only one way to begin the building process at Clemson and lay the foundation for future success — and it starts tomorrow.

“It starts with recruiting,” he said. “We’re going to recruit locally, regionally and nationally, the best student-athletes to one of the best public institutions in the country. This is a beautiful and vibrant community, obviously a passionate fan base, and I think it’s going to be an easy sell.”

The past two years, Rittman has served on the staff of the USA Softball team, which won gold at both the 2016 Women’s Softball World Championship and the 2017 Pan Am Games. He also worked with Team USA from 2001-08, coaching the 2004 Olympic gold-medal winners in Athens and the 2008 silver medalists in Beijing. Team USA also won gold medals at the Pan Am Games and the U.S. Cup in 2003.

Rittman graduated from New Mexico State with a degree in journalism in 1986. He was a three-year letter-winner in baseball as an outfielder at NMSU after transferring from Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Arizona.

Rittman and his wife, Lorie, a former softball player at the University of Oklahoma, are the parents of Justin, a senior fullback at UCLA, and Jake, a high school senior.