Rounding Third Softball

Baylor Softball has made some major moves with what has been one of the most consistent coaching staffs in all of softball.

The Bears have named Steve Johnigan to their coaching staff. Johnigan served 20 years on the BU Baseball staff before serving the last five as Associate Director of Athletic Facilities and Operations. He also filled in as the hitting coach during the 2019 season when associate head coach Mark Lumley suffered an injury. Johnigan permanently takes over for longtime BU Softball stalwart Lumley who recently retired.

On the heels of naming a new assistant coach in Steve Johnigan, BU also promoted longtime assistant Britni Newman to associate head coach. Newman is in her 18th season with the Bears as pitching coach.

Plattsburgh State has named Sam Van Dorn head coach. The 2019 graduate and standout player at SUNY Cortland spent the pandemic shortened 2020 season as the pitching and infield coach for the Cardinals.

Harvard has announced the hiring of Chrissy Schoonmaker as an assistant coach. Schoonmaker comes to the Crimson after serving the past year at South Carolina as the Assistant Director of Development. She also had stops on staffs at Connecticut, Houston, and Texas Tech.

USC Salkehatchie has named Siara Shelton head coach. Shelton comes to the Indians after spending the 2020 season as an assistant at Presbyterian and the 2019 season as a graduate assistant at Coker.

La Salle University has announced it will cut seven sports at the end of the 2020-2021 sports season. These cuts will include the La Salle Softball program. Division I members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Explorers finished a pandemic shortened 2020 season 0-10. La Salle cited they “could no longer sustain” 25 athletic teams due to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Baylor has announced that longtime Coach Mark Lumley is retiring. Lumley, which has fought four different cancer diagnosis since 2007, has been with the Bears Staff for 20 years. Lumley was named associate head coach in 2006. He helped the Bear program make it to 13 NCAA Regionals and four trips to the Women’s College World Series while compiling an overall record of 775-377.

Brevard College has named Breanne Shearin head coach. She comes to the Tornados after a three year run as head coach at Columbia College (SC) where she finished with a record of 22-54. Shearin becomes Brevard’s third head coach in less than a year.

UAB has announced the addition of Kendall Veach to their coaching staff. Veach joins the Blazers as volunteer assistant after competing at Auburn from 2016-2019. She earned SEC All-Tournament Team honors in 2017 and was named All-SEC Second Team in 2019.

New Louisiana Tech interim head coach Bianca Duran has added the first piece to her new coaching staff retaining and promoting Brooke Morris to full-time assistant coach. Morris spent the past two seasons at Tech as a graduate then volunteer assistant. She played collegiately at Nicholls State between 2014-2017.

After an internal review “to assess the overall culture and student-athlete well-being within the program”, Texas Tech Head Coach Adrian Gregory has stepped down effective immediately. USA Today first confirmed the now completed review in an open-records request to TTU. Gregory had completed her sixth season with the Red Raiders in 2020. She finished with a record of 157-147 while in Lubbock.