COLLEGE SOFTBALL: Connie Miner named Oakland’s softball coach
BY DAN GLIOT
CORRESPONDENT
ROCHESTER HILLS — Connie Miner has been named the new head softball coach at Oakland, announced Director of Athletics Tracy Huth on Wednesday.
Miner brings 22 years of head coaching experience at UC Riverside, San Jose State and Eastern Michigan while amassing over 500 wins in her career.
“We welcome Connie Miner to the Oakland family and are excited about the amount of experience she brings to our softball program,” said Huth. “She has a proven track record at several different universities and we look forward to her mentoring our young team and developing graduates and champions.”
Miner comes to Oakland after heading the softball program at UC Riverside, where she has been the head coach for the last nine seasons and was also the associate head coach from 2000-2002. She also spent one season at North Carolina where she helped the Tar Heels achieve a 40-22-1 overall record, and a berth in the 2003 NCAA Regional Championships.
Mires was in charge of the pitching staff at UNC and guided them to a 1.61 team ERA, 28th in the NCAA. She also coached the ACC Rookie of the Year, Crystal Cox, who finished in the top three in every pitching statistic in the conference.
At SJSU, Mires coached seven All-WAC selections, nine All-WAC Academic selections, and in her final season she had four All-WAC selections including the WAC Freshman of the Year.
Miner began her head coaching career at EMU, where she is the school’s winningest softball coach, recording a 269-254-2 record over nine seasons. She led the team to two second-place conference finishes, and was named the Mideast Regional Coach of the Year in 1988. Her teams earned regional rankings in 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1994. In addition, her 1988 and 1991 squads were nationally ranked. In 1988, Miner was nominated for National Coach of the Year. She also coached the 1996 MAC player of the year Melissa Druillard, along with one All-American, nine Mid-East regional selections, 18 Mid-American Conference selections and 22 academic All-Conference selections.
A native of Long Island, Kansas, Miner grew up in Red Cloud, Nebraska. While at Red Cloud High School, she played volleyball, basketball, ran track and earned player of the year honors in each of these sports. In ASA softball she earned All-State pitcher and utility honors.
She will inherit a young team that includes Erika Polidori, named to the All-Summit League first team last season, and Erin Galloway, a two-time All-Summit League second team selection.
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