Rounding Third Softball

Valerie Arioto a longtime member of the USA Softball Women’s National Team has announced her retirement. Arioto has been a member of the WNT for the last decade, helping the U.S. to four World Cup Gold Medals, three Pan American Games Gold Medals, and two World Championship Golds. One of the top hitters with Team USA, she also helped the squad to the Silver Medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.

Aaron Longenecker has joined the coaching staff at Louisville as volunteer assistant. Longenecker spent the past three seasons as an assistant at Central Baptist College. During his time with the Mustangs he helped lead the program to more than 80 wins and two NAIA National Tournament appearances, while working with the hitters and outfield and serving as recruiting coordinator.

Mike Heard has been named the new head coach at Nebraska-Omaha. Heard takes leadership of the Mavericks after serving the past six seasons guiding the program at Midland University. He compiled a 147-92 record and was a three-time GPAC Coach of the Year. Heard led the Warriors to the regular season championship in 2021 and shared the title in 2019 and 2018. He also guided MU to appearances in the NAIA National Championship Tournament in each of those seasons.

Toledo will play a charity game against the USA Patriots, America’s amputee softball team, on August 28 it has been announced. The Rockets will play the the third game of that day as the USA Patriots will first play the Toledo Police Department before also facing a team of local celebrities, medical personnel and veterans. Admission for the event at Mercy Field will be $5 with all proceeds going to the USA Patriots Charity which benefits wounded veterans.

The Racers Foundation has announced that the City of Akron has elected not to renew their contract to manage Firestone Stadium moving forward. The foundation was the administrative offshoot and established charity for the former Akron Racers professional team. The Racers Foundation had brought many large scale softball events to Akron, Ohio including the NCAA Division II National Championship, the MAC Championship, several USA Softball Tours, and countless club events and championships during their 22 years managing the facility. A new three-year contract was set to commence in 2022, but according to Racers Foundation head Joey Arrietta the city reversed course outing the last remanence of the Akron Racers.

Kathryn Bzdafka has been named the new head coach at Davenport. Bzdafka joins DU after spending the past six seasons at her alma mater Malone. At MU she compiled a 95-114-2 record including a 47-72 mark in G-MAC play.

Arielle Cooper, who served as interim head coach at the Coast Guard Academy last season, has had that tag removed being permanently named to the position. Cooper was an assistant coach for three seasons before serving as interim in the 2021 season. She coached the Bears to a 6-8 record. Cooper took over for longtime coach Donna Koczajowski, who led the USCGA to 505 wins over 23 years.

Maine has promoted assistant coach Jordan Fitzpatrick to head coach. Fitzpatrick was named to the Black Bear coaching staff in the fall of 2015 and has directed the pitching staff since her hiring. The UM alum replaces Mike Coutts who departed the program earlier this month to become the head coach at the Colorado School of Mines.

Daisy Garcia has coached her share of softball games. The diamond won’t be the place she makes history next Friday however, but on the gridiron. Garcia will coach Runge High School against Flatonia High as she becomes the first female head coach in Texas high school football history. She joined the staff at Runge (a small Class 2A school between San Antonio and the Gulf) in 2020 after coaching softball, basketball and volleyball at three area high schools. She is currently tabbed in the interim roll for the Mustangs leading into the 2021 season.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel has now officially approved video review for the 2022 season. Each participating coach will be allowed two challenges per contest. While there will be no requirement to use the video review rule and will be optional for all schools, conferences and tournaments, the highly debated topic had already been experimented with by several conferences including the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Sun Belt.