Rutgers:
Kristen Butler, who was hired at Rutgers after coming over from Toledo in June, will be assisted by some familiar faces, as she brought her Rockets coaching staff with her. Assistant coaches Rod Radcliffe and Brandon Duncan will join the Scarlet Knights and occupy similar roles to what they had at Toledo. The group was named the Mid-American Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in 2018.
Radcliffe was previously the head coach at Bethel University in Minnesota and is the program’s hitting and outfield coach. Duncan coached with Butler when both were assistants at Charleston Southern; also a former head coach, at Lander University for five years, Duncan’s coaching resume also includes assistant coaching stints at Samford; Virginia; and Georgia Tech. His coaching specialties are pitching and slapping.
Campbell:
Sharonda McDonald’s first order of business at Campbell was apparently to build her own coaching staff, and she brought aboard a familiar face in swift fashion, hiring Matt Stewart as the Camels’ hitting and outfield coach. Stewart spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons as a volunteer assistant at South Carolina, and was a part of the Gamecocks’ coaching staff that led the squad to their first Super Regional appearance in more than a decade. Stewart spent three seasons as a manager for the Florida Gators softball team, including on each of the program’s back-to-back National Championship squads. McDonald and Stewart were both part of the Gators’ staff in 2016 for the second National Championship run.
Boise State
Andrew Rich and Mattie Snow have been hired to complete Maggie Livreri’s inaugural coaching staff at Boise State. According to a school release, Rich will be the team’s recruiting coordinator and Snow will serve as the Broncos’ pitching coach.
Rich spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Sonoma State and helped the program to an NCAA tournament appearance during his tenure. A 2015 graduate of Fresno State, he spent a single season on the staff at Fresno State in 2016 and coached at the high school and club levels.
Snow spent the 2018 season at Weber State as the full-time pitching coach, after spending 2014-17 as a graduate assistant at Utah, where she was a part of the same staff as Livreri. A former Division II star, Snow played in the NCAA tournament in each of her four years at Dixie State.
Clemson
The Clemson Tigers are still two years away from the program’s first-ever softball game, but John Rittman has already completed his coaching staff, as he hired Courtney Breault to be the Tigers’ second assistant coach. Breault last spent several seasons as an assistant coach at Furman, including serving under current Clemson associate head coach Kyle Jamieson from 2014-17. Breault began her playing career with the Arkansas Razorbacks before joining Nebraska, where she helped lead the Cornhuskers to a berth in the 2013 Women’s College World Series.
Southeastern Louisiana
Following the departure of Brooke Boening to her alma mater of Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana head coach Rick Fremin filled the spot in his coaching staff that will be familiar to many softball fans across the state of Louisiana. Former Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajun Lana Bowers is the Lions’ new pitching coach. Bowers played for Louisiana-Lafayette from 2007-2010, earning a trio of all-Sun Belt honors at the catcher’s position, and helped lead the Cajuns to the 2008 Women’s College World Series. Her coaching resume includes an assistant’s stint at her alma mater that included a Women’s College World Series appearance in 2014; a single season-stint at LSU-Eunice during the team’s 2016 junior college national championship run; and a two-year stint as the head coach at Baton Rouge Community College.
North Texas
After taking Austin Peay to the top of the Ohio Valley Conference in his sole season as the Governors’ head coach, new North Texas coach Rodney DeLong elected not to fix what wasn’t broken and has hired Dillon Bryant and Jamie Allred as his new assistant coaches in Denton. Both Bryant and Allred were part of DeLong’s coaching staff at Austin Peay during the 2018 season.
Bryant is a former pupil of DeLong’s, having played under his now-boss as a high school baseball player. Bryant’s coaching career includes a stint on the staff at Cameron University from 2013-17, as both as a student and graduate assistant coach. Allred holds the all-time wins record at McNeese State with sixty-eight career victories, and was the 2014 Southland Conference’s Pitcher of the Year. She spent two years playing internationally, in Switzerland and New Zealand, before joining Austin Peay in ‘18 to begin her coaching career.
Jacksonville
Tommy Santiago has been hired as an assistant coach on Erica Ayers’ staff at Jacksonville. The brother of Florida State Director of Operations Antonio Santiago and Nicholls State head coach Angel Santiago, Tommy Santiago spent the last two years as a private instructor. His coaching resume includes stints as an assistant coach at South Florida; Maryland; St. John’s; and Florida State. He also coached at the high school and junior college levels.
Ball State
Just weeks after signing head coach Megan Bartlett to a context extension, Ball State made another move with the softball staff, promoting Josh Johnson to associate head coach. Three seasons into his tenure as the Cardinals’ pitching coach, Johnson led his pitching staff to a conference-best 2.48 ERA in the 2018 season, overcoming a preseason injury to the team’s would-be ace.
