The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has awarded UAH softball coach Les Stuedeman the first-ever Title IX Trailblazer Award.
Chuck Karr, UAH interim president, participated at the softball game against the Montevallo Falcons and the first pitch was thrown by Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer.
The Title IX Trailblazer Award was designed to recognize someone who has made a significant impact for women on campus. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The passing of Title IX granted women athletes the equal opportunity to participate in sports at educational institutions that receive federal funds. Great strides have been made since then, including on campus with Stuedeman.
“If the law wasn’t enacted, my parents couldn’t have gone to the school board and ask for women’s sports to be implemented,” Stuedeman said.
Coach Stuedeman became the first softball coach at UAH in 1995. Since then, the Chargers have never had a losing season, appearing in 13 Gulf South Conference Championship games – winning eight titles. Stuedeman’s teams hold an all-time GSC tournament record of 71-32 – the best mark in the conference and earned a berth to the NCAA softball tournament 22 times.
Under Stuedeman’s direction, the team has captured four South Region titles (1999, 2001, 2009 and 2011). In 2009 and 2011, she guided the Chargers to the brink of a national championship, finishing as the Division II Softball World Series runner-up both seasons. In 2010, the Chargers were selected as the decade’s top softball program.
Overall, the team boasts 42 All-Americans, 10 GSC Players or Pitchers of the Year and eight Freshmen of the Year.
“Relative to the campus, (success) looks like these girls graduating, these girls finding ways to connect to each other through a game that they love and as a way to help them get through college and learn so many life lessons that are going to be really powerful for them in the workforce and in family life,” Stuedeman said.
Stuedeman was named GSC East Division Coach of the Decade in 2010 and 2020. She has been named the GSU Coach of the Year 10 times.
She was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame at the organization’s annual conference in 2014. She is in the Vestavia Hills High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Huntingdon College Athletic Hall of Fame. Additionally, she was inducted to the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.
Before starting her career at UAH, Stuedeman coached one year at Hewitt-Trussville High School (1994-95) and was named the Jefferson County Coach of the Year. Prior to coaching high school, Stuedeman was an assistant for two seasons at the University of West Alabama, where she also earned a master’s degree in Education. She obtained her bachelor’s in Social Science from Huntingdon College.
“Find a job you love and never work a day. This is team 27 for me and when you get to a place where you love and you don’t feel like you’re working, you know, you stay loyal and you stay there,” Stuedeman said.
For more information about UAH softball, visit https://uahchargers.com/sports/softball.
(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)
The 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament bracket was revealed on Sunday evening, with the University of Alabama earning the No. 3 overall seed. They will be joined by Clemson, Troy and Alabama State this coming weekend at Rhoads Stadium for the Tuscaloosa Regional.
This is the Crimson Tide’s 22nd-straight postseason bid and follows Alabama’s SEC Tournament triumph on Saturday. Sunday’s news also continued the Tide’s streak since 2005 of achieving a top-16 national seed.
NCAA Regional action at Rhoads Stadium begins Friday, May 21, with Clemson (42-6) facing Troy (36-15), followed by Bama (45-7) vs. Alabama State (19-27). (more…)
The University of Alabama shut out top-seeded Florida on Saturday night to win the 2021 SEC Softball Tournament Championship at Rhoads Stadium.
The 4-0 victory secured the sixth tournament title in program history and its first since 2012. The Crimson Tide remain the only program to win an SEC Tournament on its home field, now having done so this year and its previous title.
The latest win was the Bama softball’s 44th victory in an SEC Tournament, tying LSU for the most of any team all-time. Alabama achieved its shut-out behind another masterful performance from pitcher Montana Fouts (22-3), who went the distance with 11 strikeouts. The complete-game shutout is the first since Tennessee’s Monica Abbott in 2006. Fouts was named the SEC Tournament MVP, striking out a tournament-record 39 batters over her three appearances. (more…)
A traveling softball tournament that will make everyone in attendance want to stand up and cheer is returning to the Rocket City. The tournament, hosted by the Association of The United States Army is comprised of players who are all Wounded Warriors and combat amputees.
As reported by WHNT News, the inspirational tournament has visited the Yellowhammer state before. Retired United States Force Staff Sergeant Nick Bradley is a traveling member of the team. Touching on what it’s like to play in Huntsville he said, “You know it’s an unspoken bond really, and it’s amazing to get to come to a town that loves its military so much, that does have such a big military presence.”
While the conclusion of the game will be determined by the scoreboard, the real purpose of the tournament transcends balls and strikes. “While at the end of the game somebody will have more points than the other, everybody will win just because of the experience,” said Command Sergeant Major Billy Counts.
The tournament is set to place October 28th. The first game will start at 10:30 a.m. at the Metro Kiwanis Sports Complex. The public is invited to enjoy the day and admission is free.
Auburn University has named Mickey Dean the new head coach of Auburn Tigers Softball. Auburn Director of Athletics Jay Jacobs announced on Thursday that the former James Madison coach will be making his way to coach on the plains.
According to Auburn Athletics, Dean is highly regarded across the nation for his unprecedented knack for success and ability to develop strong student-athletes. Jacobs assured the Tiger fan base that Dean is a “great fit for Auburn.”
“Coach Dean’s accomplishments at JMU are remarkable. He’s won consistently at every level throughout his career. He’s done it the right way, winning with class and integrity while graduating his student-athletes at a high level. Auburn already has a winning program and we’re going to get even better.”
RELATED: Recapping Auburn’s Softball Allegations
Dean’s hiring comes after head coach Clint Myers retired on August 24 following Title IX complaints brought forth by several former players. Fans hope that Dean will bring a breath of fresh air to Auburn’s already successful softball program.
In his 11 years coaching at the collegiate level, Dean led seven teams to the NCAA tournament and won nine conference championships. His programs have produced 76 all-conference players, 40 all-region honorees and seven all-Americans. During his five years at James Madison, Dean led the Dukes to five 40-win seasons, including a respective 52 and 50 victories in his final two seasons. Such astounding accomplishments earned Dean the title of conference coach of the year eight times.
“It is an honor to be named the leader of the Auburn softball program,” Dean said. “I want to thank President Leath, Director of Athletics Jay Jacobs, and the Board of Trustees for the exciting opportunity to lead this program. The future is bright for Auburn softball. We want the fans to be as excited as we are to come out and watch the program represent them in the highest standing.”
A native of Elkton, Virginia, Dean was previously the head coach at Radford and an assistant at Akron (2001-2002), Indiana (2002-2004) and Longwood (2005-2006). He has also coached at the professional and international level with the Chicago Bandits and the Venezuelan National Team.
Dean graduated from Elon University in 1987, where he was a four-year letter winning baseball pitcher. He and his wife, Liz, have a son named Isaac and a daughter named Caroline.
According to ESPN, Auburn University President Steven Leath confirmed that the school has launched a “comprehensive review” of its softball program following allegations of inappropriate conduct under former coach Clint Myers and his son, former assistant coach Corey Myers.
Corey Myers resigned March 30, following allegations from five players who provided administrators with text messages from a teammate’s phone that they believed to be in an inappropriate relationship with the assistant coach. All of the five players who brought the allegations have since left the team.
Perhaps most troubling in these events is that the five players told ESPN that “Auburn officials responded to the presence of the texts by imposing a three-hour ‘quarantine,’ in which members of the team were kept in a room and told to delete the messages.”
This “quarantine” was prompted by the team’s refusal to board a bus with the player who they felt was engaged in “intimate” text messages with Corey Myers. One of the players told ESPN, “We said that if she gets on, we’re staying off…It was a team decision.”
The five players told ESPN that the school’s Executive Associate Athletic Director, Meredith Jenkins, told them they could be arrested for taking the text messages from the other player’s phone and they and ordered them to delete the messages.
The investigation has been ongoing for close to a year but it has received renewed attention following a Title IX complaint by former player Alexa Nemeth that read, in part: “Coach Clint Myers knowingly let his son Corey Myers have relations and pursue relations with multiple members of the team.” In July, Nemeth’s attorney also said in a letter to Auburn and Governor Ivey that Auburn’s softball program was “toxic” and “lacked any kind of institutional control.”
At the beginning of the week, Governor Kay Ivey issued a statement to ESPN and to Auburn’s general counsel that read: “Governor Ivey fully supports President Leath, and is sure that Auburn University will fully protect all its student-athletes.”
Following his son’s departure last spring, head coach Clint Myers retired on Aug. 24, saying he did so in hopes of “spending quality time with my wife, my children and my grandchildren.” A previous article by AL.com noted that Myers had been offered a contract extension but Leath said that was “totally false.”
This week, AL.com reported that it received a statement from Auburn University that read, in part:
“ESPN has written an important story about our softball team. It’s a serious matter. As a university that cares deeply about our student-athletes, we have taken this seriously since the first concerns were raised. An investigation was promptly launched when allegations were made. While we don’t by policy or law comment on personnel issues or issues related to students, any suggestion that Auburn Athletics or university administration didn’t take it seriously or didn’t act in the best interest of student-athletes is simply false.
“While the law requires us to protect the privacy of our students, tying our hands about what can be said publicly, there is a reason changes took place with the coaching staff. As much as we may want to give more details, we have been approached by some of the student-athletes involved, directly asking us to protect them because they don’t want their names made public. Once the facts were established, changes to the staff quickly followed. Honoring the student-athletes requests for privacy while taking necessary disciplinary action is not an easy line to walk when the media asks legitimate questions, but we did the right things at the right time for the right reasons.
“At all times, Auburn University will protect its students, obey privacy laws, and deal with anyone on staff who violates our high standards.”
Alabama wrapped up regional play on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Minnesota. That was after the Tide had beaten the Gophers the day before by the same score. They now prepare to face number one overall seed Florida in the Super Regional round of the NCAA Softball Tournament. This will be the first matchup between the Gators and Tide this season.
Auburn is the seventh overall seed in the tournament. The Tigers went 3-0 in their region to get to Super Regional action. After opening with an 11-0 thumping of East Tennessee State on Friday, Auburn beat California on Saturday (4-3) and again on Sunday (8-2) to claim their regional. Because they are one of the top eight seeds in the tournament, the Tigers will have the opportunity to host their Super Regional series. Their opponent will be Oklahoma, and it will be a rematch of last year’s Women’s College World Series finals in which the Sooners came away victorious. Auburn beat Oklahoma 3-2 in this year’s season-opener on February 9th.
The Tide and Tigers weren’t the only SEC teams to make the Super Regional round. Altogether, eight teams from the league made it, which is half of the Super Regional field. This is the second time the SEC has sent eight teams, and it is the only conference in history to accomplish that. Texas A&M travels to Tennessee; Ole Miss heads to UCLA; LSU is playing Florida State; and Kentucky will face Oregon.
The Super Regional round consists of eight separate best-of-three series. These will take place Thursday through Sunday. Then, the eight winners of the NCAA Super Regionals will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla.
During Monday’s softball matchup between Alabama and Ole Miss, Tide player Bailey Hemphill hit one over the fence. As she rounded the bases, she began to celebrate. The problem for her was that she never actually touched home plate. Watch it:
Ole Miss appealed the ruling after noticing that Hemphill did not touch the plate. Hemphill subsequently attempted to tag the plate, and Ole Miss tagged her. She was ruled out, and as you can see, Alabama coach Pat Murphy had some words with the umpire after the ruling.
The critical nature of that call can’t be understated. The Tide was trailing 3-2, and the home run would have tied things up. Alabama never recovered, losing the game 5-4. The loss dropped the Tide to 39-13 on the season and 11-9 in SEC play. Alabama is on the bubble to host a regional in the NCAA Tournament, something they have done every year since 2005.
Many times, sports provides opportunities to learn lessons the difficult way. Hemphill and the entire Alabama team will probably not forget to make contact with home plate again.
OXFORD, Ala. — The fight over gender-neutral bathrooms continues to rage on as the Ohio Valley Conference made the decision on Monday to remove its softball tournament from Oxford over the town’s new law.
“The OVC board presidents were concerned about the discriminatory impact on those associated with our championship,” OVC commissioner Beth DeBauche told the Anniston Star. “And so long as this ordinance exists, it will not be possible for the OVC to hold its championship in Oxford.”
The city council has recently considered repealing an ordinance that outlaws individuals from using a restroom that does not correspond with their sex at birth. Violation of the city’s law carries penalties of a $500 fine or six months in jail.
RELATED: Alabama city makes it illegal to use bathroom that doesn’t match birth gender
Oxford’s brand new Choccolocco Park, which cost $34 million, would lose its first big event if the council does not repeal the ordinance on Wednesday. If the law stays on the books, the tournament will move to the campus of Jacksonville State University.
Until this year, the OVC has held the tournament on the campus of the top-seeded team. The deal the conference reached with Oxford would have changed that.
The city first passed the ordinance as a reaction to Target’s new policy allowing for gender-neutral bathrooms. Target has 22 locations in Alabama, including one in Oxford.
RELATED: Target: Transgender Alabamians can use whichever bathroom or dressing room they identify with
Steven Waits, Oxford City Council’s president said his town’s new law was not intended to depict transgender individuals as predators, but said it is “being put in to protect women, children and families from voyeurs, child molesters, exhibitionists, sexual predators and others who might use these policies to their advantage.”
One Alabama woman was recently the victim of such an incident when a cross-dressing man came into a public women’s bathroom she was occupying and attempted to video her sitting on the toilet.
RELATED: Cross-dressing man arrested for filming Alabama woman in public bathroom
States and localities that have passed such laws have been subject to corporate and entertainment protest. Mississippi and North Carolina have seen backlash from major companies and entertainers who have decided to speak out or protest their laws.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When she walked up to the plate in this year’s annual Congressional softball game last week, Alabama Congresswoman Martha Roby wasn’t just enjoying the sultry DC Summer day, she was playing for her friend.
Ronda McCaul Walker, Montgomery County Commissioner, is currently battling stage 3 breast cancer and has been close with Roby for years. The two women worked together for several years before Walker was appointed to the Montgomery County Commission by Governor Robert Bentley, but the two have remained friends ever since.
Roby was greatly effected by the news of her longtime friend’s sickness. “When Ronda told me in December that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, my heart sank,” Roby said, “Ronda is an incredible wife, mother and public servant. Her friendship has always been special and encouraging to me as a wife and mom in public service myself.”
Commissioner Walker was present at the game as Representative Roby’s honored guest. “I’m honored and excited to be a part of this special event,” Walker said. “My diagnosis came as a very tough blow, not just for me, but for my husband and children as well. The first thing we did was set our focus on God; then we clung to our senses of humor, and geared up for the toughest experience of our lives.”
Since its inception, the Softball game has pitted female Members of Congress against the ladies of the Capitol Press Corps to raise money and awareness for the Young Survival Coalition, an group whose mission is to help women diagnosed with breast cancer.
The tradition started in 2009 when female members of Congress rallied around Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz after her diagnosis. The next year, female press corps members, who have adopted the name “Bad News Babes,” joined the game as the Representatives’ opponents. The game has raised funds and awareness for the Young Survival Coalition, becoming a special tradition for players and spectators alike.