Appalachian State and head coach Shelly Hoerner have agreed to a contract extension through 2023, the school announced on Friday. Hoerner will enter 2020 in her third season leading the Mountaineers’ program, and has collected an overall record of 48-60, with a 17-33 conference mark. The Mountaineers finished the 2019 campaign with a 31-25 record, tying a program record for wins in a single season. The squad finished the year with a 13-13 mark against Sun Belt Conference opponents; that number also set a program single-season record. During the postseason, Hoerner again led her team to a history-making moment, earning…
Author: jmcleod
There are few coaching tandems in the game of softball that are as well-known or as successful as Ralph and Karen Weekly have been at Tennessee. Co-head coaches of the Lady Vols since 2002, this husband-and-wife pair have a reputation as excellent individual coaches and a dynamite tandem. Seven-time Women’s College World Series qualifiers, the Weeklys’ squad earned the distinction of being the first SEC team to appear in the WCWS championship series, riding the arm of Monica Abbott to the season’s final games in 2007. The Lady Vols also became the first-ever SEC program to record a win in…
Two people have been arrested in the shooting death of KaBria Arnold earlier in November, according to a report by the Detroit News.Arnold was 21 years old when she was fatally shot on November 10th. A former Morgan State softball player, she pitched for the Bears during the 2017 season, collecting twenty-three innings of work in ten appearances for the team. She was also a member of the NAIA Michigan-Dearborn squad in the fall of 2018. “The UM-Dearborn Department of Athletics and the softball team are deeply saddened by the passing of Kabria and send their sympathy and thoughts to the…
The Baltimore Orioles have hired Eve Rosenbaum to a newly-created position in the team’s front office. Rosenbaum was a four-year softball player at Harvard from 2009-12, appearing primarily as a pinch runner. She appeared in nineteen games as a freshman in 2009, scoring five runs. She also scored four runs in fifteen appearances in her senior year of 2012. She was a part of the 2011 and ’12 Crimson teams that won back-to-back Ivy League championships and played in the NCAA tournament in both seasons. In joining the Orioles’ front office, Rosenbaum will assume the role of Director of Baseball…
Softball Canada has named its 21-member National Team Athlete Pool for the 2020 campaign. The Canadian national team – which earned one of two available spots from the Americas Olympic Qualifier earlier in the summer – also won the gold medal at the Canada Cup and the silver at the Pan American Games during the most recent summer season. According to a Softball Canada press release, “As per the Women’s National Team Selection Criteria, athletes named to the Women’s National Team Athlete Pool are eligible to be invited to Women’s National Team training, development and selection camps and international events. Athletes…
Daniel Nicolaisen, currently an assistant coach on staff at Seton Hall, has accepted a new position with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, he announced via social media late last week. Nicolaisen spent two years on staff at Seton Hall, serving as the volunteer assistant during the 2018 season and as a full-time assistant in 2019. A native of Denmark, he previously worked as an instructor with the Danish Softball Federation and in travel ball in New Jersey. “It definitely was a difficult decision to leave Seton Hall and softball as a sport,” Nicolaisen told JWOS. “I grew…
UPDATE 11/18 22:57: In a brief statement to JWOS on Monday night, Ole Miss interim athletic director Keith Carter said, “We are conducting an external audit of our softball program, and Coach Smith has been placed on paid administrative leave until its conclusion. We hope to conclude the audit by the end of the fall semester.” Sources have additionally confirmed to JWOS that associate head coach Ruben Felix is helming the team during Smith’s absence. ORIGINAL STORY: Ole Miss head coach Mike Smith has been suspended indefinitely, sources told JWOS on Monday. Smith has been the Rebels’ head coach…
Western Illinois administrator and former coach Holly Van Vlymen is returning to the dugout, set to lead the Leathernecks’ softball team on an interim basis for the 2020 season. Van Vlymen served as WIU’s head coach for eleven years, prior to being promoted to a senior administrative role in the athletic department in 2017. During her tenure at the helm of the program, Van Vlymen led the Leathernecks to a trio of regular-season conference titles and one Summit League tournament championship. Named the conference Coach of the Year in 2007, 2009, and 2010, Van Vlymen led the Leathernecks to their…
The Tarleton State Texans are officially moving up; in an announcement last week, the school officially accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference and Division I. Currently a member school of the Lone Star Conference, Tarleton State will officially join the WAC on July 1, 2020, competing in Division I athletic for the first time beginning with the 2020-21 season. A four-year reclassification process will prohibit the school from D1 postseason play until the 2024-25 season. During the reclassification process, however, the Texans will be immediately eligible to win regular season championships in all sports, including softball. Non-NCAA…
The National Pro Fastpitch league announced on Wednesday the addition of a new franchise. The team is set to be based in California. Dubbed the California Softball “Commotion”, the franchise will be the first west coast offering from the NPF league since 2005, when the California Sunbirds competed in their second and final season of existence. A news release from National Pro Fastpitch included a notation that the Commotion franchise would be ‘prioritizing players that are familiar to the west coast market.’ The team is owned by Damon Zumwalt, founder and CEO of Contemporary Services Corporation – notably abbreviated as…