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Even before this season — her eighth straight on a year-to-year basis as Utah's head softball coach — Amy Hogue felt secure, she said.

Worst-case, her contract wouldn't be renewed, and she'd have to spend more time with her three children.

That would've been OK. She could afford to be a stay-at-home mom.

"I don't feel a slave to it," Hogue said. "I chose this. I don't have to do this job. I get to."

But in 2014, after her young team looked like a budding Pac-12 contender, she decided for the first time to ask athletic director Chris Hill for a contract extension. Next season, she was told, they'd revisit it.

It was a practical matter, Hogue said: As coaches recruit players at younger ages, it helps if they're confident that those coaches will be there while they're attending school.

Now, after the U. announced Thursday that Hogue signed a multiyear deal that takes her through the 2019 season, "they know that the school wants to keep me around, and that's one less thing they have to worry about," she said.

Last year, Hogue led the Utes to their first winning record in the Pac-12, going 12-11 and winning six of eight conference series.

She was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year and, earlier this week, the Don Reddish Award winner as Utah's most successful coach in a nonrevenue sport.

The Utes lost six players but often fielded teams with one or two seniors last season, when they were ultimately bounced from the NCAA Tournament by World Series-bound Tennessee. Hogue said she's excited about that.

"It's pretty clear we're going to win games the next four years," Hogue said.

Twitter: @matthew_piper