Softball: Softball Adds Assistant Coach to Finalize Coaching Staff
Nick Ross, September 4, 2013
Contact: Nick Ross
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LAFAYETTE, La. – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns softball program has hired Lisa Norris as an assistant coach, as announced by head coach Michael Lotief on Wednesday.
The hiring is pending approval by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors.
"I’m very thrilled to be part of this program," Norris said. "I’m very happy that coach Mike let me join this staff. I think that we have a great program and coach Mike has done a wonderful job so I’m thrilled to be a part of it."
She joins associate head coach T.J. Hubbard on Lotief’s staff, along with Robert Verde, Lana Bowers and Sarah Draheim.
"When coach Stef [Lotief] spent a year coaching at North Carolina, she worked with Beverly Smith, who later spent years as pitching coach at UNC and one of her recruits and pitchers was [Norris]," Lotief said. "So there is a connection and familiarity with our system. The lagniappe is that she throws an awesome batting practice too."
Since she graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2010, Norris has coached at Georgia Tech (2012-13), North Carolina State (2011-12) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2010-11), where she helped coach the Islanders to a Southland Conference regular season championship.
She played for the Akron Racers of the National Professional Fastpitch league this past summer and was named Pitcher of the Year in 2010 as well as All-NPF in 2009 and 2010.
"I’m hoping to bring growth of the game with my experience," Norris said. "Still being a part of the game and bringing in someone else’s ideas will help make things better."
While at her previous three schools, she worked mainly with pitchers. She has helped coach the pitching staffs to an 88-80 mark with a 3.55 ERA and 740 strikeouts in 1124.0 innings pitched.
As a student-athlete, Norris spent four seasons at UNC. She earned NCAA All-Southeast Region honors and was named first team All-ACC in 2008 and 2009 after being named to the second team in 2007.
A 2010 graduate from UNC, she holds a degree in interpersonal communications and a coaching minor.
"We have a great staff and I am excited to see how we meet the challenge of this new, young team who are fired up and ready to go in all aspects of the game," Lotief added. "It will be a collaborative effort amongst the staff, building on our past success but also looking for new ideas that challenge us to be better.
Louisiana returns all-Sun Belt pitcher, junior Jordan Wallace (32-9), junior pitcher Christina Hamilton, sophomore pitcher Victoria Brown and three true freshman pitchers in Macey Smith, Lexi Rouse and Alex Stewart.
The Cajuns have six home games on the 2013 fall schedule, starting on Sept. 29 against the USSSA Pride of the National Professional Fastpitch league at 2 p.m. Fans can purchase a premium package for that game by contacting Lana Bowers in the softball office at (337) 262-2283. The premium package includes five tickets, parking pass, and access to all players after the game for just $100.
