About the Elizabethtown College Softball Program 

The softball program has made great strides since it became an intercollegiate varsity sport in 1979. Softball had been a club sport since the early 1970s.

While the Blue Jays played competitive softball during the team’s early years, it was not until Barb Reuter became coach that the team produced a consistent winner. In her third season, Reuter directed the Blue Jays to the College’s first winning campaign, closing the books with a 11-8-1 record in 1984. It was the first of five consecutive winning seasons for the Blue Jays, including two under Reuter.

The winning tradition continued when Barb "Shot" Shenk took over the coaching reins in 1986. From 1986-88, she piloted the Blue Jays to a three-year record of 68-14, won two Middle Atlantic Conference championships (1987, 1988) and received the College’s first NCAA Division III National Tournament bid (1988). Her 1986 squad was the first in the program’s history to qualify for the Middle Atlantic Conference playoffs.

When Shenk left in 1988, she was replaced by Pam Drazkowski, who guided the Blue Jays to an 80-57 mark from 1989-93. Under Drazkowski, the Etown was nationally ranked in each of her final three seasons and came within one out of winning the MAC title in 1992.

Wendy Snyder took over the program in 1994, and guided the team to a 52-47 record over three seasons, including a 22-10 finish in 1994 and a 19-16 record in 1995.

Shenk returned to coach Etown in 1997, leading the team to a 18-15 finish. She coached at Elizabethtown until her retirement at the end of the 2001 season, compiling a 141-100-1 career record.

Diane Lokey took over as the head coach in the summer of 2001 along with assistant coach Kathy Staib, and they took the program to the next level in 2002, as the Blue Jays went 30-12 overall, breaking program records for most wins (30) and longest winning streak (15 games). Etown finished second in the Commonwealth Conference in the regular season and reached the conference playoffs for the first time since 1994 (The Commonwealth Conference playoffs replaced the old MAC playoffs beginning in the spring 2001 season).

The team took a step further in 2003, again finishing in second place in the conference during a weather-truncated regular season and advancing to the conference playoffs. This time, however, the Blue Jays advanced further in the playoffs and finished as the conference runners-up, coming tantalizingly close to the automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth that goes along with winning the Commonwealth Conference title.

Staib became the team's eighth head coach in November 2003 and, in her fourth season at the helm and sixth season overall in 2007, lead the team into the conference playoffs and was named the Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year. In Staib's four seasons as head coach, two Elizabethtown players have earned NFCA All-East Region Team recognition a total of three times.

Many athletes have achieved individual success as part of the Blue Jay program. In all, Blue Jays have been named to various All-MAC and All-Commonwealth Conference teams 50 times, including, most recently, center fielder Kelli Thon '07 and pitcher Alex Lee '08 in 2007. Thon also earned all-region recognition in both 2006 and 2007.

The Blue Jays have excelled in the classroom as well. Catcher Kimberly Hampson '94 was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 1994, and center fielder Kristin Lezinski '02 was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in 2002. In 2002 and 2003, catcher Tiffany Inch '04 earned the College's award of having the top grade point average among all female spring sport athletes two years in a row.