Friday, May 16, 2003

SOFTBALL COACH JOHN BYRNE & STAFF NAMED NFCA EAST REGION COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR

COLUMBIA, MO --- Moravian College head softball coach John Byrne and his staff of assistant coaches Scot Dapp, Scott Hoke, Ron Cardinal, Becky Stroup and Erin Kelly have been named the 2003 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III East Region Coaching Staff of the Year announced Thursday evening at the banquet prior to the NCAA Division III Softball National Championship in Salem, Virginia.

The Moravian coaching staff is now eligible for the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year award, which will be announced later this summer.

Byrne and the rest of the staff led Moravian to a 32-10 record this season, the squad’s fourth consecutive Commonwealth Conference Championship and the program’s sixth straight NCAA Division III Tournament berth. The Greyhounds had their best-ever finish at the regional, finishing as the runner-up after winning their first three games of the tournament.

Moravian entered the 2003 season without a senior on the roster and many expected the year to be a rebuilding campaign for Byrne and his staff after graduating seven seniors in 2002.

In his first ten seasons as head coach of Moravian, Byrne has guided the Greyhounds to a 293-111 record, the school’s first six NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament berths, four Middle Atlantic Conference playoff appearances, three Commonwealth Conference playoff berths and five Commonwealth Conference Championships. Byrne was named Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year in 2000 and 2002.

Byrne’s teams have won at least 23 games in each of his ten seasons including a 23-8 mark during his debut season in 1994, and five of those ten teams have topped the 30-win plateau including the 2002 squad, which was 34-8, a school record for victories by any sport. Byrne has also guided the Greyhounds to the postseason in each of the last nine years with MAC playoff berths in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000; Commonwealth Conference tournament appearances in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament berths in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Dapp, Moravian’s head football coach, has been on Byrne’s staff in each of his ten seasons while Cardinal, Moravian’s CHAMPS/Life Skills Coordinator and an assistant football coach, and Hoke have each coached for six years. Stroup, a former NFCA All-Region pitcher for Moravian, is in her third season with the staff while Kelly, a four-year letterwinner at the University of Delaware, is in her first year on the Greyhound staff.