UT Martin head coach Donley Canary is retiring after eighteen years as the head of the Skyhawks program. Canary posted 581 victories during his career with the Skyhawks, the most in program history and the fourth-most all-time in the Ohio Valley Conference. Under his leadership, the Skyhawks won a pair of conference regular-season titles and a pair of OVC tournament championships. Named the Ohio Valley Conference’s Coach of the Year on two separate occasions, in 2010 and 2012, Canary tutored a pair of players that were named the conference’s Player of the Year and saw ninety-nine of his players named…
Author: jmcleod
One of the most storied athletes in the history of the Tennessee Lady Vols softball program, Madison Shipman anchored the shortstop position for four years in Knoxville, earning a number of honors and awards along the way. The 6’1” California native was named a second-team all-American in 2012 and a first-team all-American in 2013 and 2014, her junior and senior seasons. As a senior, Shipman was named the Honda Sports Award winner for softball and the Senior CLASS Award winner, and was named the SEC Player of the Year that same season. Shipman hit forty-four home runs during her career…
Former Oregon pitcher Maggie Balint announced on Monday that she will transfer to San Diego State for the final two years of her career. Making the announcement via her personal Instagram account, Balint said, “Happy to announce I will be spending the next 2 years at San Diego State finishing up my academic and athletic career!! Thank you to everyone that has supported me through the last couple of months! #newchapter” Balint announced in February her intentions to leave Oregon, the last pitcher from the 2018 squad to depart the Ducks’ program. In 2018, in injury-limited action, Balint posted a…
After twenty-five years at the program’s helm, SUNY Cortland head coach Julie Lenhart is retiring with the end of her team’s 2019 season. The season came to an end for the Red Dragons on Monday with a 9-inning loss in the regional championship. In a tweet following the last game of her coaching career, Lenhart said, “I knew it was coming eventually, and there will always be a hole in my heart left by all the athletes I have coached. I love the game but I love my “flock” the most. Thank You!” Lenhart, a veteran of more than three…
Michelle Meadows was named the Longwood athletic director on Monday, after spending eight months as the interim leader of the department. In addition to her duties at Longwood, Meadows is a member of the softball selection committee, with her term scheduled to end in August of 2022. During her stint as the interim athletic director, Meadows oversaw the Lancers’ athletic program that saw the softball program win their fifth Big South title, while the men’s basketball team played in the postseason College Basketball Invitational and a second-place conference finish by the school’s lacrosse team. Longwood sponsors fourteen sports in their…
Charlotte has parted ways with head coach Aimee DeVos. DeVos spent twenty-five years at the helm of the 49ers, collecting a 630-711-2 mark during her tenure. She shepherded the 49ers on the diamond through a pair of conference realignments, including joining the Atlantic 10 in 2005 and then rejoining previous league home Conference USA in 2014. Under DeVos’ guidance, the 49ers won the Atlantic 10 conference championship in 2006, the first in program history, with a school-record 42 victories that season. During the 2019 season, Charlotte finished the season with an overall record of 15-35, including a 6-17 mark in Conference USA…
The ESPN family of networks will air all sixteen Division I regionals this weekend, and the Worldwide Leader has announced the broadcast teams that will call each respective regional. Beth Mowins and Michele Smith are slated to call the Tucson regional, where #6 Arizona will host. Amanda Scarborough, who, along with Smith, was one of two color commentators that called the SEC tournament last week, is paired with play-by-play commentator Courtney Lyle, considered a rising star in the industry, and the duo will call the Minneapolis regional, where #7 Minnesota will host Georgia, Drake, and North Dakota State. #1 Oklahoma…
When Abby Trahan left Saint Francis last summer, after finishing her sophomore season with the Red Flash, she thought she had found a new home at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Significantly closer to her hometown of Kaplan, Louisiana, Trahan committed to the Golden Eagles with the goal of pitching for a Conference USA title. Trahan was named the C-USA Pitcher of the Year in the league’s postseason awards this season, after posting overall numbers that included a 1.89 ERA, with a 14-11 record and 129 strikeouts, while opponents batted just .234 against her. After the Golden Eagles were eliminated…
After forty years at Central Michigan, Chippewas head coach Margo Jonker announced her retirement Monday morning. Jonker spent four decades at CMU and stands 9th all-time on the Division I coaching wins list, with nearly 1,300 career victories. She boasts a career record of 1,268-808-7, and has led the Chippewas to the NCAA tournament thirteen times. The Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year on ten different occasions, Jonker led Central Michigan to ten MAC tournament championships, as well as an additional ten conference regular-season titles. Both the tournament and regular season titles are conference records. Under Jonker’s guidance, the Chippewas…
Selection Show 2019: All the facts and figures from the NCAA tournament’s field of 64. The NCAA tournament field is set! After Sunday night’s selection show, the regional hosts have been announced, at-large bids have been granted, and teams are set to play, beginning on Thursday. This season is arguably the closest that the selection committee has come to ‘getting it right’ in many years. The top sixteen teams selected to host regionals, while jumbled up and out of place in some ways, are the appropriate top sixteen teams that should host. There was some question around who a couple…