Rounding Third Softball

Bo and Sam Coolen have been named co-head coaches at Grace College. The Coolens head to Indiana from California after the duo served on the coaching staff at Westcliff University. Both were associate head coaches for the baseball and softball teams respectively. Bo Coolen was a standout baseball player at Pepperdine and later Ohio State, and is the son of Bob Coolen who is the longtime head softball coach at Hawaii. Sam Coolen was a two-time NAIA All-American competing at Vanguard.

RTS has learned that Mike Roberts will join the coaching staff at Virginia. Roberts spent the past three seasons as the pitching coach at Louisiana. He served as head coach at Buffalo in 2018 before arriving in Lafayette. Considered one of the top pitching experts in the game, the New Zealand native also worked on staffs at Washington, Oregon, and Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Bruce Anderson has been hired as the new head coach at Otterbein University. Anderson spent the past eight years as the top assistant coach at fellow Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) school John Carroll University overseeing the pitching staff.

Cat Clifford has been named interim head coach at Manhattan. She takes over for Tom Pardalis who retired Tuesday after leading the Jaspers for 12 years as the winningest coach in program history. Clifford has been on staff at MC for seven seasons. Manhattan won the 2021 MAAC Softball Championship and advanced to the NCAA Postseason.

Justin Lewis has been named head coach at Nicholls State. Lewis comes to the Colonels after spending the 2021 seasons on the coaching staff at Fresno State. He also had short stops at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Kingsville after returning to coaching after a nine year career as a firefighter. Lewis replaces longtime Coach Angel Santiago that had sustained moderate success at Nicholls during his 10 year tenure, but never seemingly gained support from administration as the program lagged behind in numerous areas of Gender Equity and Title IX Compliance.

George Washington has named Chrissy Schoonmaker their new head coach. She takes the reins of the Colonials after an Atlantic 10 Championship season in 2021. The GW program also made their first NCAA Postseason appearance under former head coach Shane Winkler who departed for the head coaching position at East Carolina in May. Schoonmaker is a veteran coach having worked on staffs at Harvard, Connecticut, Houston, Texas Tech, and South Carolina.

Bianka Bell has been hired to the coaching staff at Pittsburgh. Bell, a former USA National Team member, comes to the Panthers after serving as an assistant at Quinnipiac his past season. Before going to Connecticut she worked on the staff at Embry-Riddle in Florida.

Amanda Fefel has been named head coach at Eastern New Mexico. Fefel joins the Greyhounds after spending the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Appalachian State. She has also had coaching stops at Clarendon, Coppin State, and George Mason.

It looks like former Tennessee Lady Vol Ally Shipman has found a new home, and it’s with an SEC rival. Shipman indicated on Social Medal tonight that she will be joining the program at Alabama. She played in 53 games at UT in 2021 where she hit .304 with a .551 slugging percentage. She has two years of eligibility remaining with the Crimson Tide, and that could be extended to three if a redshirt is applied from her injured freshman campaign.

Sources have confirmed to RTS that Kimball Cassady will be named the new head coach at Samford. Cassady has spent the past 11 seasons leading the program at Birmingham-Southern. She now relocates just down the road in the Magic City to coach the Bulldogs. In her time at BSC she compiled an impressive record of 319-126-1 at the DIII school. This years Panther team had possibly their best showing under her leadership finishing ranked 5th in the country and just one game shy of playing for a National Championship.