{"id":329086,"date":"2026-07-04T04:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329086\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T04:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:55:50","slug":"echols-thompson-named-director-of-player-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329086\/","title":{"rendered":"Echols Thompson Named Director of Player Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Head Coach Tim Walton announced Thursday afternoon that <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/staff-directory\/charla-echols\/3252\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"3252\" target=\"_blank\">Charla Echols<\/a> Thompson has been named the program&#8217;s Director of Player Development.<\/p>\n<p>Echols, who played for the Gators from 2020-23, earned NFCA first-team All-America honors at third base in 2021. She ranks among the top 10 in program history in career batting average, on-base percentage, home runs, RBIs and sacrifice flies.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8220;Charla had a significant impact on our program as a player and a student coach, and we are confident she will bring the same level of impact as part of our staff,&#8221; Walton said.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8220;She brings extensive knowledge of the game, playing experience and skills from her days as a Gator and her professional career. We&#8217;re thrilled that Charla is back in Orange &amp; Blue.&#8221;<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nEchols served as a student coach at Florida during the 2023-24 season and played professionally for the Atlanta Smoke of Women&#8217;s Professional Fastpitch.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nIn her new role, Echols will assist Assistant Coach Aric Thomas in developing the Gators&#8217; offense and helping with infield defense.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8220;Florida is home for me, and I&#8217;m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to give back to a program that has given me so much,&#8221; Echols said.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to be back with the Gators and look forward to contributing to the Gator Standard in any way I can.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"_Hlk63067436\">FOLLOW THE GATORS<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"FloridaGators.com\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" open=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/$floridagators.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FloridaGators.com<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Florida\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsSB\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsSB\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" softball=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" twitter=\"\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/gatorssb$floridasoftballontwitter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Softball on Twitter<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Head\" coach=\"\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_TimWalton\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_TimWalton\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" tim=\"\" twitter=\"\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_timwalton$headcoachtimwaltonontwitter\" walton=\"\" walt rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Head Coach\u00a0<\/a><a data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Walton<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Florida\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsSB\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" facebook=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsSB\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" softball=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gatorssb$floridasoftballonfacebook\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Softball on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Head Coach Tim Walton announced Thursday afternoon that Charla Echols Thompson has been named the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-329086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}