Author: jmcleod

UPDATE 14:00 – In an emailed press release on Monday afternoon, USA Softball officially announced Tarr’s appointment. ORIGINAL STORY: Heather Tarr will be named the next head coach of USA Softball, JWOS has learned. Tarr’s appointment is expected to be officially announced this week and possibly as early as Monday afternoon; the USA Softball Annual Council Meeting is taking place this week in Oklahoma City. Currently the head coach at Washington, Tarr was part of Team USA’s coaching staff during the Tokyo Olympics and served as first-base coach for the US squad. She previously was head coach of the U19…

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Louisville head coach Holly Aprile has signed a contract extension through the 2026 season. Entering her fourth season as the Cardinals’ head coach, Aprile owns an overall record of 66-64-1 and a 27-33-1 showing against ACC opponents. The program finished the 2021 season with a 21-28-1 overall record and a 15-21-1 conference result. “Holly has made a quick impact on our softball program,” Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra said in a school statement. “Her recent recruiting shows great promise for the future. Continuity goes a long way toward developing championship programs and this contract extensions will help solidify that continuity.”…

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TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER What do you have when a record-setting hitter graduates but your top pitcher returns for her final season? For BYU softball, that’s the conundrum that awaits them in 2022 and it may not be too much of a conundrum after all. Rylee Jensen never got her proper due as one of the most sensational hitters in the western part of the country, but that’s the label she fit during her time as a Cougar. She ended her career with the program record in career runs scored, doubles, and games played.

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Never doubt a coach’s commitment to their team, especially a coach who’s willing to take two dozen pies to the face to help her team raise money. That’s the commitment that George Washington first-year head coach Chrissy Schoonmaker made in late September when her team fundraised as part of GW’s Buff & Blue Fund Challenge. The deal was simple: If GW softball reached their fundraising goal, then every member of the team got to take a turn at “pieing” Schoonmaker in the face. https://twitter.com/GW_Softball/status/1442621422044651522 Schoonmaker’s players reached their target and on Thursday, their coach made good on her promise. “This…

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Grambling State assistant softball coach Chelsea Holliday was one of the victims wounded in a shooting on the school’s campus last weekend. The shooting occurred early Sunday morning on the campus quad at Grambling, injuring seven people and killing one. The deceased victim has been publicly identified by investigators, but the names of the wounded victims, including Holliday, are only known through social media posts by others. On Sunday evening, Tigers head coach Nakeya Hall posted a message on her public Facebook page about Holliday’s injury. “Man, it’s been a rough few hours. Please say a prayer for my assistant…

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TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER Conference realignment continues! Mere weeks after losing a trio of schools to the Big 12, the American Athletic Conference (AAC) has reloaded and is set to add six new members, according to media reports this week. The conference and schools have not yet confirmed the new realignment, but the move appears to be missing only the official paperwork. Each school must formally submit an application to join the AAC, with those membership applications then being voted upon by the pre-existing AAC members. Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, UAB, UTSA, and Rice are the schools…

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TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER Houston head coach Kristin Vesely has signed a contract extension, JWOS has learned. Vesely’s new deal, which took effect on August 1st, is a three-year pact that will run through the 2024 season. During the 2021 season, Houston finished the year with a 17-33 overall record and an 8-16 showing in conference play. In the abbreviated 2020 campaign, the Cougars were 16-7 overall and collected a 39-19 record with twelve conference wins in 2019. Also during the 2019 season, the Cougars reached the regional final of the Austin Regional and advanced undefeated into championship…

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TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER Don Justus has been named the new head coach at Division II New Haven. Justus most recently was on staff at Division I Hartford, spending the summer as the program’s interim head coach. He spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the Hawks. “We are excited to welcome Don and his family to the Charger Family,” New Haven athletic director Sheahon Zenger said in a school statement. “He has a proven track record of team success and has shown a unique ability to develop student-athletes as leaders both on and off…

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TRENDING NOW: NCAA TRANSFER TRACKER / COLLEGE COACHING TRACKER Softball fans in Fayetteville have had quite a ride over the last seven years. When Courtney Deifel was hired in 2015 to rebuild the Arkansas softball program, the Hogs were coming off a season where they won sixteen games overall and a single conference game. In her first year at the helm, Deifel’s club improved their overall win-loss record by one victory, were outscored 54-0 in a three-game series against Auburn, and posted an identical 1-23 record against SEC opponents. Just five years later, the Razorbacks finished the 2021 season with a share of…

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Nip Anderson, who spent the 2021 season as interim head coach at West Virginia State, has passed away. Anderson spent nearly two decades as part of the WVSU program, initially joining the staff in 2004. He served as an assistant coach through the majority of his tenure before assuming the interim head coach role for the 2021 campaign. Part of coaching staffs that helped lead the Yellow Jackets to two WVIAC tournament championships and a single Mountain East tournament championships, Anderson led the program to a 29-14 overall record during his stint as interim head coach. The Yellow Jackets went…

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