University of Southern Indiana Softball Head Coach Sue Kunkle and Assistant Coaches MacKenzi Dorsam and Cate Simon have been collectively named the Midwest Region Coaching Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association in an announcement Monday afternoon. This is the first such honor for a USI Softball coaching staff.
Led by Kunkle, the Screaming Eagles went 46-14 overall and 19-7 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play during the 2017 season. USI reached the 40-win plateau for the second time in program history before capturing its first-ever NCAA II Midwest Region crown.
Kunkle, in her 16th year at the helm of the USI Softball program, earned her second GLVC Coach of the Year award in 2017 after leading the Eagles to a share of the GLVC regular-season title and the No. 1 overall seed in the GLVC Tournament. She saw her career record at USI surge to 468-336-1 (.582), leaving her just 32 wins shy of becoming the first coach in USI history to reach the 500-win mark.
Under Kunkle, USI has qualified for the last three NCAA II Tournaments and four of the last five.
Dorsam concluded her second year with the Eagles’ coaching staff and first as the Eagles’ top assistant after serving as a graduate assistant in 2016. She was the GLVC Player of the Year in her final season with the Eagles’ in 2015.
Simon finished her first season as a graduate assistant on the Eagles’ coaching staff after stellar four-year playing career at GLVC-member Truman State University.
USI’s staff also consisted of volunteer pitching coach Brooke Harmening, who was an All-GLVC hurler for the Eagles from 2012-15.
