Head Softball Coach Stephanie DeFeo will use all her past experience from a successful playing career and from her assistant coaching positions to lead her team into their first season of competition.
DeFeo excelled at all levels as a player, from high school to professional, and will look to have the same kind of success for her team as a head coach.
DeFeo began her coaching career with three assistant coaching positions at the universities of Southwestern Louisiana, Texas San Antonio, and most recently at the University of Buffalo.
The Lady Bucs will be DeFeo’s first head coaching job and she is enjoying the experience of starting her own program thus far.
“I always knew I wanted to be a head coach, and this was a really good opportunity,” she said. “(I wanted) to try to create something that was completely mine as opposed to going to a program that is already established and have to adapt to somebody else’s system.”
DeFeo learned of the coaching position at ETSU from her brother James DeFeo, who is a softball coach at Louisiana State University.
“My brother spoke with somebody in the area and it (the head coaching position) was advertised through the NCAA and he encouraged me to apply,” she said.
DeFeo began her softball career growing up in New Jersey, where she played softball in high school, earning all-state and all-region honors
However, she received much of her experience and was able to explore her talents in summer travel softball programs, which led her to Southwestern Louisiana University, where she would play her college ball.
At Southwestern Louisiana University, now the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, DeFeo helped lead the Lady Cajuns to two College World Series, four regional tournaments and started at first base on a team that was ranked in the top-five nationally every year.
“My freshman year we were one and two (in the country), alternating one or two the entire year,” DeFeo said.
In college DeFeo received numerous individual honors to go along with the team’s accomplishments.
She was a three-time All-American as well as a three-time Academic All-American.
After her successful college career, DeFeo moved on to play professional softball for three teams, starting with the Orlando Wahoos of the Women’s Professional Softball League.
In her first year she helped the Wahoos win the first ever Women’s Professional Softball League Championship. In her next two years DeFeo played for the Durham Dragons.
With the professional league decreasing in size, down to just four teams, DeFeo moved on to the coaching scene.
“Both teams that I played for are non-existent now,” she said. “The league is down to four franchises.”
DeFeo has received much knowledge from her playing days and hopes to pass on what she has learned to her current players.
“The competition level I was at and the level I trained at, I believe I know what it takes to get to the next level,” she said.
“I work them hard and hope they will see the results come spring,” DeFeo said. “They do work hard.”
DeFeo, who graduated in the top of her criminal justice program at Southwestern Louisiana, hopes to build a solid program for ETSU.
“We want to look at the short term . our goals are we want to be successful,” she said. “We want to have a winning record, finish in the top half of the conference and fare well in the (conference) tournament.
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