at how i got to morris so i went to a really small high school i mean i was like one of one hundred kids there everyone knew their brother their sister what they for dinner that's how close and how small you are so whenever i was looking for scott like for schools universities i was like i want to go someplace big i went out to a camp you know as a player went to camp so a really big university and i was just kind of blown away i felt like such a big fish every especially such a small fish in such a one school again to frame a backyard is about forty five minutes away from my house went on to campus and i fell in love with it there so the small world had no idea i was there so i went there you know it was hard for me to actually leave  robert morris university you and the graduating how did you go from there to becoming the head coach right university in new jersey yeah so it was really funny whenever i was in my undergrad i was not if you have asked me if i was in the softball coach i would have probably laugh to hear us and there's no way that i could do that as a job so my last game that i ever played as a softball wearing the right more seen oversee uniform was a fourteen in the game it was a game that we lost such a heartbreak it was on our home field it was part of the any c conference championship game so i walked out that's when i was like there's no way that could ever be my last moment playing softball and my head coach coleman he goes and he goes hey you know i'm looking for a graduate assistant would you like to who's my now husband got a job out new jersey so i packed up came out here to new jersey i started my first head coaching job a d three school called new jersey city university and then it was kind of like a weird thing i was just going on the been a very successful couple of years for us so right now it's kind of just about rebuilding the culture rebuilding the team and kind of making a new name for right or softball which we had a really successful fall you know kind of gearing towards that where you know the  swing for the springs are really excited about that it's that so now let's go into high schools how do you go about finding high school softball players you know what the recruiting game right now is so tough and i do i feel for these kids you know i do a lot of these recruiting talks at these camps and showcases and i tell them i said you know i was in your shoes not too long ago about six years ago and i said there's no way that i would want to switch places with you this has become a full time job not only expected to you know go to high school and be a good student here then are expected to you know have a social life do all your extracurricular activities you know those sports those practices and then find time do your homework and sleep not only help with that then look for universities and stuff like that to start the next  well if it's madness and so i tell them you know keep keep at it you know find find those schools that you absolutely love and you know reach out to me so in that way i know hey you know this person's like really really interest so i'm going to go to every opportunity i possibly can so high school games travel ball games practices all these tools that i use you know even even a high school now that helps me kind of narrow down my list so now what are some of the difference again it whenever you come here i play the best nine so the ones that want to be there that do the hard work at that that get good grades you know those are the type of athletes that i'm looking for the ones that want to go out there not just  sound from the sidelines they just want go out there and they sort of play give one hundred percent so now what is what is a good grades for high school good grades you know a's and b s you know are good grades you know that kind of gives us a good kind of sign of how you would do in in college in academics because i always say this too is that you do all this work trying to get good grades to get into university it doesn't stop there you know every university has a p r xin and things that we get graded on based on their performance are only on the on the field but also in the classroom so my program is a little bit strict just because whenever i was a player of our morris university we had the highest g p a in all division one so that's something that i'm very proud of so that's something that i kind of liked to gear towards my thousands to so you know making sure that we have a city hall if you fall below a three point zero in in but in the year i then put you in a softball study hall so you know just to keep an eye on you  give me a sense of the twelve months a student athlete goes through well what did they get to the school and what happens throughout the year all the way until the fall when you have no problem so specially when you come into the fall so fall usually for a start since september i give you that kind of that first week to kind of just sit here classes because it's very overwhelming a lot of times i'll sit down especially with the freshman just talk to him just a little bit hey higher class is going are you able to find your building what's going on with your roommates just kind of get to know them a little bit just because you know i've been watching them all summer play now it's time that we can talk face to face so that's what i do the first week being usually with team meeting and then from there you know we do get a  know with the practice we practice five days a week and again we have double headers on the weekends so come into october i then give them another kind of week off and then go right heavy into our workouts so this year we did have six am workouts so they weren't really thrilled about that but they were kind of happy whenever they were over just because you know they got done quick out of the way in the morning so we'd worked out two days a week and then again we did individual work so we just as individual work it was one on one me my system coach would kind of work with them in small groups them that one on one attention that they needed and you know just kind of caught up on life a little bit and that's with us all the way up until december which was you know finals and then christmas break so it goes by really fast the first semester in a lot of them cannot realize it  as much as that first semester goes by fast second semester just it goes like that so we don't come back until january end of january so january twenty second this year from there we kind of hit the ground running we have one day where we'll do team meeting the rest we practice so again we practice six days out of the week and then come february we start traveling for our tournament's so february march we have out of conference tournaments and then come april april all the way into the first week of may we're playing double headers so it's fifty six games in total which is a lot to kind of manage but you know besides with classes in practice and the games kind of goes by i love that so and then what happens in the summertime do they have to go and play on some believe some really good so i don't i don't make that mean a story some of the girls actually to play on like a twenty three in under team or just something just a pickup team a little bit a lot of the girls that i do i encourage them to go out and coach volatility their youth team or travel ball team or you know get back somehow just because it really kind of helps you as a player take a step back and if you're teaching the same things that you're supposed to be doing it makes you think about a different light then this soon athlete's responsibility to make sure that they talk to a professor and whether or not if an assignments due when they do they will be most of the fosters are actually really understanding of athletes on when they work with the athletes you know i always say that again your academics comes first so it doesn't matter how well you are as a player if you're knocking the good grades then you're not going to be able to play in the field or you know kind of give one hundred percent of everything that you have so that being said we do have some quiet time on the bus where we do our studying in our homework i expect on those long trips but for the most part you know it's kind of light heavy on the soon athletes to give their professors that note saying outside summer leaves and things like that where do you do most of your recruiting is it just in the new jersey pennsylvania area or is it all over the whole country yeah so i'm a little bit different than most people whereas a lot of  know they look for the kids from california and florida and all over the place i mean when i was at robert morris when i was in pittsburgh i was driving out to new jersey i think every other weekend to come out recruiting so this is such the tri state area is such an awesome spot for softball  so i love it it's a lot easier for me to travel because again it's a little more local and i'm able to go to more torn ment's that way because again there are some big tournament that i know a lot of college coaches travel especially in the summer out this way for so it's a me i love it are here just because the talent is is huge and what what are you looking for in the in the students again i just i'm looking for that passion that that effort i understand that you're going to make mistakes i'm not looking for you to go there and be perfect that's number one thing my stress everyone has said please don't please don't family just kind of get all poker face and lose your personality because again i think you play softball the best when you're having fun you're enjoying what you're doing you know no one's like forcing you to be out there to do it ok you want to be out there you want to you want to get better each one wins those are the type of things i'm looking for how do you balance back if you mess up ok did you strike out was it a good strikeout was a quality at bat again like i'm not looking for the home run hitters i'm looking for the ones i go out there and i can tell that they want to be there and what kind of opportunities are right a university for softball players is there is there scholarships is there money  how does it work at the get to know so i'm so it's so there are three divisions right division one division two division three division three there is no scholarship money for us classics now there is scholarship money for academics division two individual one have scholarship for for athletics and academics so expression it right or what we like to do is we give you a package so again based on your good academic grades you'll get some money from right or from your academics and then i'll throw in a softball sum get a full right from that some of the smaller sports like softball soccer suffer like that fortunately they're not that are really available so now that you do a lot of recruiting is that what you were saying before so we so it's not technically a  recruiting night we do it like a recruiting camp so like this weekend i'm sorry the fourteenth cherry fourteenth we were actually hosting a winter clinic at our indoor facility so again that's a great time for soon athletes to come on campus you know they get to work with me my staff and so my team see if they don't like our style it's you know some of our drills and again i kind of get a little spiel on recruiting talk there so interesting so new what do you say about parents that say it's all about the ford not about academics but what do you what do you tell parents about that you know i always say it's amazing that you know they do put a lot of pressure on the sport itself whenever you know the war will last forever right they've got to do this because they absolutely love it and that pressure that you're putting on them just makes sure they go on play well kind of hurt them in the end because then they're going to fall out of love of that sport so one of the things that specially whenever they get to college is you know i always say why do you play right because if it's mom and dad they're making you play then you're not you're not going to enjoy it because again most of the time you get four years after this unless you know they did as awful back to the olympics so already you know in the pro league is kind of growing big but the majority of us you know after those four years here lace up the clues for last time when the only star into the real world i do think that sports give you a lot of good core values such like that that can translate into the workforce they can at the end of the day you play because you love it and it's  fun so i do i feel for those i feel for those students that parents are like no it's you know all or nothing go out there and you know it's it ride or die in your sport but you know at the end the day i think that there needs to be a balance a little bit so new is there any type of benefits that a student athlete gets at the college level compared to other academics you know what it's the one thing that would say it kind of makes you love it more rounded i think that you get to learn your time management a lot faster than than an average student i also do think that you get a different experience so again whenever you're saying down with an employer you can actually say hey i've been a part of a team for the past four years i know how to work in a different setting i know how to work on a pressure so those are type of things that  although you know i think every i ever seen is just kind of like well you know i'm tired i'm exhausted i'm going to do the things that the average soon gets to do and the other day kind of gives them a little bit more of an of it in which you know what's the what's the difference is that you see between an academic student that i do think that time is one of those things times of the essence at least for soon after that so everything is kind of program down to the very very minimum where as an average student if you get to choose to be part of activities or clubs or you know you get to spend your free time how come through right university you know one of the things that i think that track students are right or is not only one of the one of our potations of some of our schools so that our business school westminster choir college that those are great things to have on our biology program is one of the tops in the state those are all things i think draw people to the campus and i think whenever they get on campus they realize hey this is a division one university but it's such a small town feel that you kind of again it's intimate so our class sizes are not that big you know your professor knows your name they know that you're soon a see they know what clubs are involved in so i think that to me is a little bit special you don't get really to have that in a lot of new york or you know forty five minutes away from philadelphia so there's a lot to do that is one things that i was always us like or was there to do around here like there's a lot of things to do and use that to you know find what you're interested in or find what you want to do so what it's some of the  is also for their sacred heart yes so these are again all kind of small private division one schools or at that are in our conference and then also we do place in their name school so we do very play princeton we vicinity how does that work yes so i am i pretty much travel with anywhere within p a new jersey delaware in new york so i kind of go out kind of branch myself out again what's really big for me is if they're going to the time  email me and say hey i really want you to come marching play i'm going to find a way to come to the field that you're at the do you do you go to a lot of high school games or that it's real difficult because you're playing the same season it's a little bit hard for me to go out  in during the high school season just because you're correct and you know we are playing our own games but there are some rare occasions where you do have an off day of all go swing by in check out a game visit nearby the you get to the schools farther away or is it pretty much where you have a day all three days when i have a day off or if i can plan it then yeah i mean if there's a school that's probably an hour away from where i'm going to try to make it i'll come rework my schedule ronson i'm able to go but what's the what's the what's the team positive or very encouraging sponsoring practice i want them to push each other at the same time i also want them to empower one another too so again you're walking away from practice feeling can give one hundred percent even if you're not one hundred percent the day you gave me a hundred percent what you did have and then your team with so that it kind of pick you up or feed off each other so one thing that i do about my practice is i keep them short so two hours is the max but i think that you know again with that whole time management thing i think after two hours you kind of lose your luster kind of go through repetitive emotion so i expect that atmosphere to be positive uplifting for those two hours and you know get the best of it and what's the what's the practice like is it just like batting and then fielding in  the little bit or running or still being you know it kind of hands on that day or you know what i think that we need to work on most some days you know we'll spend an hour and a half on hitting other days you know we'll spend a lot an hour and a half on fielding or you know whatever it is i think that we need a little bit more time or energy on you know we kind of craft it granted her needs there and there's a lot there's a lot of uniqueness at the at the college level compared to the high school  like throwing the do you look for more pitchers catchers role yeah i know so they say it's a really build a great program you need your middles to be to be solid so that's a pitcher catcher here shortstop your second they finished on the field or you have a solid core in the middle you can build around it so again you know pitching is huge in softball so again if you have someone that's strong on the mound and i'm not going saying that you need to throw  sixty five or something crazy if you would have that strong presence that you just want to be out there and you want control you're going to do well if you have confidence in yourself out there than you'll succeed and well what's the amount of students that you have to recruit to get a class of people who come in you know why every every program is a little bit different off how they can hold their roster size right now i have twenty girls on my team so i like anywhere between eighteen to twenty on my broster  again i think whenever you can get up in the higher twenty's it's a little bit hard just for playing time purposes you know you want to make sure that everyone's happy in a majority of those eighteen to twenty eight i'm looking to have a good core pictures so like this year i have three senior pi s and then i have two freshman picture so i have a staff of five which is really really nice but whenever those three graduate you know i only have two and then we're bringing in likely you know for the class of two thousand and seventeen is that all the opportunity works at the college level  three pitchers and outfielder in my shortstop so again whenever i'm going out recruiting i'm looking at see the replace those or trying to think of ok able if i move you know such and such from third base over to shortstop now who can play third base so again it's all kind about where you see your team going it's a little bit of a puzzle it's a fun puzzle tellus kind of try to put together it sounds it sounds difficult as well as for the three ball right how about coaching staff is it able to do a lot more we're very hands on a practice so we're not just mess with them bark orders are you we're going to show you hey you know in these be done this way so that's one of the things i really kind of like about my staff is that my sustained she just graduated from that their daughters are interested in going to college to play softball so the biggest thing that i say is i have five schools have five schools that you absolutely love so they have your major they have the community size that you want they have classroom sizes everything about the university you have to absolutely love sop on these to be a bonus and then go attack those five schools email that coach send that coach that schedule on get the cosa phone cause as uncomfortable as it is you be optimistic keep that open mind set and really kind of go after what you want that's the biggest thing and again that passion you know again you're picking the next for hears of your life you get to be selfish you get to pick these next four years so pick something that you absolutely