A pair of lawsuits related to Michael Lotief’s firing from Louisiana-Lafayette have been dismissed by a federal judge following settlement. Per a report from KATC in Lafayette, the court was notified on June 4th that a resolution had been reached in two separate cases that both related to Lotief’s controversial departure from the Ragin’ Cajuns program. Lotief was fired from the program in November of 2017 just weeks after he had been suspended from his role as head coach. Information about the nature and terms of the settlements was not immediately available. In the first case, initially filed in September…
Author: jmcleod
The news of Adam Amin’s departure from ESPN to join Fox Sports had a significant effect on both networks, including ESPN’s softball coverage. For the past several years, Amin has partnered with Amanda Scarborough as the “B” team at the Women’s College World Series, calling all of the tournament’s day games and early sessions. Amin and Scarborough have also called a number of games together during the regular season and the early rounds of the NCAA tournament, though Amin’s commitment to other sports has limited his non-WCWS softball schedule in recent years. The pairing earned rave reviews, but now Scarborough…
Briana Carrera, a 2006 graduate of James Madison, passed away on June 9th. On Twitter, JMU Softball remembered Carrera on Friday morning, posting, “The thoughts of JMU Softball are with the loved ones of Briana Carrera (’06), who passed away earlier this week after a long battle with lupus. Briana was a wonderful representative of JMU, throwing the program’s first-ever no-hitter and setting JMU’s career strikeout record.” During her playing career for the Dukes, Carrera twice led her team in ERA and also twice batted over .300. As a junior in 2005, she led the squad in both categories, collecting…
Belmont is searching for a head coach to replace Megan Rhodes Smith, who accepted the Tennessee pitching coach job earlier in June. Smith spent one season as the Bruins’ head coach, finishing the 2020 season with a 5-14 overall record. The program finished the 2019 campaign with a 31-23 record. A Belmont spokesperson confirmed on Monday that the school intends to conduct a national search for their new head coach, and hope to have one in place by the time the fall semester begins. This marks the school’s third coaching search since the 2016-17 offseason. As the Bruins look for…
Lacey Lister Lord has been hired as the head coach at Salisbury, the school announced on Wednesday. Lord most recently was the head coach at Washington College, spending twelve seasons as that program’s head coach. While at Washington College, she led her team to a septet of conference tournament appearances and earned a trio of conference Coach of the Year awards. During the 2013 season, Lord led the Shorewomen to their first conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance, setting a program record with 27 wins on the year. The Shorewomen also became the first women’s team in school history to…
Don Porter, a former president of the International Softball Federation and key figure in the sport’s Olympic realizations, passed away on June 7th. He was 90 years old. Porter spent twenty-six years as the President of the International Softball Federation, and was also formerly Co-President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, helping to establish that organization in 2013. He played a key role in softball’s inclusion in the 1996 Olympic Games. “The WBSC and the entire softball community mourn the loss of Don Porter, the main architect of the internationalization of softball,” WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said in a statement.…
In the absence of live college softball for much of the year, television has taken up the mantle for softball fans. ESPN now regularly broadcasts a plethora of games from their video archives and recently, one of those games that graced the airwaves was Georgia’s 2016 Super Regional victory over Florida. Significant underdogs from the outset, the Bulldogs went to Gainesville and upset the #1-seeded Gators in two games to earn a berth in the Women’s College World Series. A major weapon in the Bulldogs’ attack that weekend was the right arm of Chelsea Wilkinson. Then the Bulldogs’ senior ace,…
Megan Rhodes Smith has been named the pitching coach at Tennessee, the school announced on Monday evening. Smith spent the 2020 season as the head coach at Belmont; in her first and only season leading the program, she collected a 5-14 overall record. Prior to taking the helm at Belmont, Smith spent six seasons as the pitching coach at Lipscomb and was part of the coaching staff that led the Bisons to the NCAA tournament in 2014 and ’19. She shepherded four pitchers to all-conference honors, and her pitching staff led the ASun Conference in strikeouts in back-to-back seasons of…
Some days, Chris Foye puts on a Fairleigh Dickinson polo and heads out to the softball field. On other days, his uniform is more distinct: It consists of a helmet, air pack, and turnout gear. In addition to being a softball coach, Foye is also a full-time firefighter. The Knights’ head coach just finished his third season at the helm of the program and has spent more than a dozen years coaching at the collegiate level since 1997, continually since 2011. His firefighting career spans more than a decade and a half. “I was teaching when I first started coaching…
Former Humboldt State coach Frank Cheek passed away on Saturday, May 30th. He was 82 years old. Cheek spent twenty-five years leading the Lumberjack softball program, and helmed the squad to Division II national championships in 1999 and 2008. During his tenure leading the softball program, Cheek collected more than 1,100 career wins, and reached the 50-win plateau in thirteen different seasons. Also the department’s wrestling coach for 22 years, Cheek led 50 All-Americans during his time on the diamond and on the mat. He was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009 and the…